Girevoy sport requires high volume training. Indeed some top athletes might accumulate 20 tons per training pass, and train 6 times a week.
Some people have been asking me, then how come gireviks look like normal guys? Aren’t you supposed to get some hypertrophy? Well, actually no, if the bulk of your training is practicing the ballistic lifts.
Ballistic kettlebell exercises (such as snatch, jerk, clean and swing) have a short time under tension because the movement is explosive. Each rep lasts a second or less. About three-quarters of the rep is performed mostly by the initial burst, therefore the actual amount of time where the muscles are producing a forceful contraction is around one-third of a second. Not enough to produce hypertrophy.
Another important component when it comes to stimulating growth is the eccentric, or lowering, portion of the movement. It’s during this phase that most of the muscle damage occurs, and this is one of the main stimulators of hypertrophy. With a ballistic kettlebell exercise, the eccentric portion is de-emphasized by allowing the bell to drop quickly to the rack position or into a swing.
The overhead press was contested in the early days of GS. This is a slow-speed strength movement, and to perform well on that lift, gireviks did a lot of accessory work like the incline bench press, military press, flat bench press, dumbbell press, close-grip bench press, etc.
“In the beginning the competitors pressed strictly. Up to 1973, the record was 42 reps with the 32kg. In 1973 Alexey Vorotyntsev used a new technique that became called the tempo press. He did 123 presses with 32kg!“ ( Source: Andrey Kuzmin)
Using a flexion and extention movement in the spine, the press had almost gone ballistic.
A few years later, almost all gireviks were using this technique.
GS records in 1979 (The 10 minute time limit was imposed in 1989)
One-arm press 32kg – 370 reps
Two-arm jerk 2×32kg – 150 reps
One-arm snatch 32kg – 201 reps
The press was dropped in 1982 as the competitions were taking too much time.
Specialization affected strenght training, athletes started pressing less and increased their numbers in jerk.
While ballistic lifts are great for building power and RFD by enhancing the nervous system, hypertrophy requires more conventional training (eccentric training being the ultimate form).
Graph source: National Strength and Conditioning Association, 2000, Essentials of Strength Training
The following is very important for all athletes who train with kettlebells.
To be fair, this graph was not done after studying Gireviks, I use it to illustrate training concepts and methodology.
Therefore I would imagine the loads used to conduct this study were heavier than 24 or 32kg. Like mentioned before if you are not competing in GS, the kettlebell is a great tool but should not be the only tool for improving your specific sport performance. Remember to mix it up!
What can be said is, as long as you do some heavy resistance training for assistance, the ballistic kettlebell lifts will help develop RFD and power.
“Movement velocity is the next important feature of strength exercises used to enhance power. The typical objective in this case is to increase the velocity of a performed movement against a given resistance. A substantial performance improvement requires exercises in the high-resistance, low-velocity domain as well as in the low-resistance, high-velocity domain. These considerations are confirmed by the training practice of elite athletes.” (Zatsiorsky & Kraemer, 1995, Science and practice of strength training)
I supplement my training with front squats, push presses and deadlifts but this is mainly done at max effort (85-100% of 1RM) for few reps, and is not enough either to stimulate a marquant hypertrophy. At that intensity one gets stronger through neural adaptations, not increased mass. For someone who competes in a certain weight class this is important to keep in mind.
This August I wanted to compete in the 73kg class, and was making slow progress at 71kg. So a couple of months ago,I had to reconsider my plan and decided to compete in the 68kg class instead. For me it is easier and faster to loose a few kilos than to put on solid muscle with the form of training I am doing so close to the competition. I’d rather be in the top end of my weight class to optimize results!
http://kettlebell-fitness.dk
Catherine Imes, Master of Sports with the AKC has great videos to help your competition lifts technique.
I am helping my friend Flemming from fitness4lifeto start an outdoor training project over this summer.
Aalborg Sportshøjskole
to hang next to the others. I know people are curious to meet us and so are we!
