KettleBells NZ

Americans are an all or nothing people. Moderation does not appear to be in our vocabulary. We either go all out and eventually burn out or apply no effort and, of course, accomplish nothing. This phenomenon can be seen in the work place, the gym, and just about every other facet of our society. Going to extremes is not always bad and there is a place for both. Sometimes we need to work super hard and other times we are better off doing nothing at all and relaxing. However, when it comes to training, the combination of frequent practice with moderate training loads and infrequent max efforts will serve you very well on your quest to might and power. In this article I am going to go over how to super charge your kettlebell workouts by modifying Mike Mentzer’s controversial “Heavy Duty” program and mix it with two other controversial programs for a perfect mix for strength and size or just strength if that is your goal. What are the other controversial programs? Well, you are just going to have to read this article to find out.

Many years ago, a famous bodybuilder named Mike Mentzer realized that the super high volume, high frequency, and high intensity programs that his peers were following were not the best way to go. Unless you had superior genetics and chemical assistance you did not stand a chance on these programs. After meeting with the innovative and eccentric Arthur Jones, Mike was convinced that brief and frequent high intensity training was the way to go. This entailed doing one set to failure on several exercises three times per week. The program worked very well for Mike and he was back on the road to progress. Some time down the road, Mentzer concluded that high intensity training in which you take an exercise to muscle failure had a tremendous stress on the body and could not be done frequently. He started doing infrequent high intensity workouts and started making progress again.

Mike called this new program "Heavy Duty." Basically, Mike advocated doing one set to failure and then taking several days to over a week off. For example, pick a weight that you can do on the bench press and do as many reps as possible. Do the set one time and then wait several days before doing the bench press again. In theory the "Heavy Duty" Program sounds great. Hit training hard and then rest up before doing another session. However, in practice the program did not work too well for most trainees. Sure, many people had great results the first month that they tried HD, especially trainees that are stimulus freaks and severely over trained. However, after a month or so, the trainee adapts to the stimulus or in the case of HD, lack of stimulus and progress desists.

One of the main reasons why the HD program did not work well for many trainees is not the fact that it called for training to failure (although that can be problematic), but the fact that the workouts were far too infrequent. Mentzer recommended that trainees take 7-14 days off between each exercise to maximize recovery. To illustrate further, if you do the Military Press on November 1, you will wait until up to November 14 before doing it again. Imagine applying this concept to playing the piano or gymnastics. At best you would maintain your skill level and more likely your skill level would decline dramatically. I know what you are thinking. What does playing the piano or doing gymnastics have to do with productive strength training? Far more than you may realize.

Similar to playing the piano, strength training is a skill that requires practice. The more practice that you get without burning out, the more efficient you will become, and the faster you will make progress. The problem with the HD program is that it did not take into account the fact that lifting weights is a skill. Don't agree? Think that doing an exercise such as the Military Press is as simple as pressing a weight from your chest to the lockout position? Then how come you have not been able to press your bodyweight after ten years of training? Back in the day two hundred pound standing Military Presses were common, now they are as extremely rare.

Think about a time when you had to take several months off from training. Remember, that first workout back in the gym. Remember how everything just felt off? In addition to your muscles getting weaker, your CNS lost efficiency, which resulted in strength decreases. Fortunately, it does not take too long to get back into synch. Regardless, the best way to get back into synch is to practice the skill of strength training.

One more time, strength training is a skill. The more you practice the skill of strength training, the more you refine your form and the more efficient you get. Translation? You get stronger. The key is to practice the skill of strength training without burning out. As Vladimir Zatsiorsky states in The Science And Practice Of Strength Training, “Practice as often as possible while staying as fresh as possible.”

One major thing that Mike Mentzer was correct about was the fact that maximum effort sessions should be infrequent. Maximum efforts do take a big toll on your central nervous system and cannot be executed frequently. Only average people are at their strength peak daily. Serious strength athletes only peak a few times a year if even that. What Mentzer was wrong on was that all training should be very infrequent. Training infrequently will make you feel like you have never done the exercise before. Each time you train an exercise you will have trouble getting into the groove. Thus, how can we make HD effective? Simple, practice the skill of strength frequently with moderate training loads and avoidance of training to failure. Then once a month, ramp up training intensity and go all out. By combining the concept of training frequently with the concept of doing maximum efforts infrequently, we have a superior version of HD that will work very well.

One of the strongest proponents of the concept of treating strength training as a practice is top strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline, author of Beyond Bodybuilding. Pavel refers to practicing strength training as GTG (greasing the groove). Here is how it works, take your 70% max on an exercise and do several low rep sets throughout the day. For example, do a few sets of the Military Press in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Avoid training to failure. In fact, do not even come close to training to failure. You should feel fresh and strong after each set. Another way to look at it is to take your six-rep max on an exercise and do sets of three several times a day five to six times per week.

Of course, unless you work in a gym or work at home, it will not be easy to get in several sets through out the day. Not a problem. Just do two to three sets of three to five, five times per week and take two days off. Once a month take a dose of “Heavy Duty” and go all out on each exercise. Then take five days off and adjust your practice sets accordingly. Focus on compound kettlebell exercises that will provide the most bang for you buck. Here are some sample programs that you can follow:

Option 1 (strength focus):

 •  Double Kettlebell Clean and Military Press or Sots Press 2x3
 •  Renegade Row 2x3
 •  Turkish Get-up 2x3 (left and right)
 •  Double Front Squat 2x3
 •  Double Snatch 2x3

Take three-minute breaks between each set and one-minute breaks between each exercise.

Option 2 (Strength and Size Focus):

 •  Double Kettlebell Clean and Military Press 2x6
 •  Double Windmill 2x5 l,r (left and right)
 •  Double Bent Over Row 2x6
 •  Double Front Squat 2x6 (2 second pause at bottom)
 •  Double Swing 2x6

Take one-minute breaks in between each set and exercise.

Next, at the risk of having too many concepts at the table, we are going to apply one more. To avoid training boredom and more importantly training plateaus do to burning out pathways by doing the same exercises over and over again, we are going to apply top powerlifting coach Louie Simmons’ “Conjugate Approach” to the mix. Louie has his athletes rotate exercises every few weeks. They work up to a max on a given exercise and then rotate it with another drill. For example, work up to a max set on the Double Kettlebell Military Press and then switch to Alternating Presses. Work up to a PR on Double Front Squats and then switch to Double Lunges. In addition to being a lot of fun, the conjugate approach is very effective and certainly worth taking advantage of. Thus after one month of applying GTG and HD to the same exercises, rotate then out for a while with some other effective selections.

Enough reading, time to practice the art of strength training often and go all out once a month. Get started today and email me with your results at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it