Kettlebell Simple & Sinister

by Pavel Tsatsouline

Do not put your spine into flexion during or after training. Forward-bending stretches and slouching after training, harmless as these seem, could injure your back.

Start light, but rapidly progress to the kettlebells you would describe as “medium.” Weights that are too light do not offer enough feedback for quality learning.

Make the get-ups 30–35 seconds each. I believe this is a key to success that many people miss! They rush the get-up and therefore get a lot less time under tension and less quality movement.

Start each S&S practice with three circuits of five reps of each exercise.

Replace “S” with “S+” 20 reps at a time—one set of 10 with the left and one with the right. On two-arm swing days also upgrade two sets of 10 to “S+.”