Kettlebell: Imperial Program Minimum— Chelmsford, UK

INSTRUCTOR

Pavel Macek, StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor

SCHEDULE

Start 1200 PM GMT

[1145 registration ]

Event Organiser

Claire Booth, StrongFirst Certified Senior Instructor

CONTACT

This workshop is organized and licensed by Claire Booth Training Ltd. Email all registration and other questions to Q2xhaXJlIHwgYm9keW9sb2d5ICEgY28gISB1aw==

Registration Cancellation by Participant: Registration fees are non-refundable. No refunds will be granted. Registrants may transfer their registration to another person for no fee.

Kettlebell: Imperial Program Minimum

“To build a superman, slow movements and quick lifts are required… I have a fondness for two particular lifts… For men who practice these lifts are superpowerful, possess great bodily strength and all around athletic ability… I can’t urge you too strongly to include both of these lifts in your training program.”

– Bob Hoffman

Forward to the Past

Before the advent of repetitive weightlifting in kettlebell sport (girevoy sport, GS), old-time strongmen were interested in pure power and strength—lifting the heaviest weight possible from the floor to overhead—with barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells.

Two of the all-time favorite one-arm lifts among the legends of the Iron Game, both in the East and the West, were the one-arm overhead swing-snatch and the bent press.

…But Proper Credit First!

Pavel outlined the (original) kettlebell Program Minimum, consisting of kettlebell snatch and the bent press, in his RKC book. Pavel quotes Iron Game’s legend, Bob Hoffman:

„To build a superman, slow movements and quick lifts are required… I have a fondness for two particular lifts. The two hands snatch and the bent press. The two hands snatch… is the best single exercise in existence when practiced as a repetition movement in various forms [read the one-arm snatch —P.T.]. The bent press brings into play every muscle of your physique and builds superstrength through all the body.

“…if you desire improved strength and better bodily proportions, these two lifts should be part of your training regime. If no other exercises were practiced, just the bent press and exercises that lead up to it, and the two hands snatch and exercises which build proficiency in its performance [such as snatch pulls –P.T.] you would become a superman. For men who practice these lifts are superpowerful, possess great bodily strength and all around athletic ability.

There are many good exercises. Most of them have merit. But a man could build a beautiful body, ideal proportions, and great physical ability if he did nothing in the exercise line except the bent press—and exercises which lead to proficiency in it and the two hands snatch—with the exercises that build ability in that quick lift.

I can’t urge you too strongly to include both of these lifts in your training program.“

Pavel Tsatsouline’s disciple and „stunt double“, Pavel Macek, StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor, having spent enough time snatching and bent pressing heavy kettlebells, has developed Advanced Program Minimum 2.0 and named it (thanks to Pavel T.’s suggestion) the Imperial Program Minimum.

The Tsar: Kettlebell Swing-Snatch

“The one-arm snatch is the Tsar of kettlebell lifts, fluid and vicious.“

– Pavel Tsatsouline, StrongFirst Founder & Chairman

Pavel writes:

“Giryas [i.e., kettlebells] give the ‘working-class’ answer to elitist weightlifting.

Barbell clean and jerk and snatch, as great as they are, require a platform, expert coaching, and excellent ankle, knee, hip, thoracic spine, and shoulder mobility.

The snatch, as taught today, is an excellent power exercise and strength-endurance drill on its own.

Can you use kettlebell ballistic training for low-rep, pure-power training, similar to Olympic weightlifting? That is precisely what old-timers such as Eugene Sandow, Thomas Inch, Władysław Pytlasiński, and Ivan Lebedev did. The latter wrote:”

This is an effective as well as graceful exercise, calling into play the chief muscles of the trunk and limbs, and imparting litheness and elasticity to the movements.

Kettlebell Swing-Snatch Drills & Progressions

• Review of the kettlebell clean & press

• Shortcut to the kettlebell snatch—the elevated clean

• Troubleshooting the flip—progressively higher “one-inch punch” kettlebell snatch

• Split squat/lunge snatch receiving position—overhead split squat

• Modified kettlebell pre-swing—the usual swing, different grip

• Kettlebell swing-snatch proper

• FFF—a simple rule for correct stance recovery

• Progressively lowering the kettlebell to the rack, the hang, and the floor

• Old-time strongman modification for heavy bells—use of the non-lifting hand

• Hang snatch and dead snatch

• BONUS: Mighty Goerner’s original “Kettlebell Chain”

The King: The Bent Press

“All hail to the Bent Press. The King of Lifts!”

– Siegmund Klein, legendary strongman & all-round athlete

The bent press, also known as the King of All Lifts, was the undisputed favorite of old-time strongmen and strength masters. It is where strength, mobility, and skill converge. Unlike the strict military press—limited, ultimately, by bodyweight—the bent press has no ceiling. Sky’s the limit.

Harold Ansorge, in his classic How to Bent Press Correctly, wrote:

Of all the lifts, the bent press is perhaps the most intriguing… Arthur Saxon, the King of the Bent Press, considered it the ultimate test of total-body strength. Anyone who truly cares about lifting heavy will agree.

The bent press is a specialized technique that allows you to get more weight overhead with one arm than any other known method—two to three times more than you could with a military press. It works because you don’t press the weight up. You move your body down under the weight and around it, and only once the arm is locked out do you rise.

In the old days, it was also called the screw press because that’s what it looked and felt like: you spiral downward under the weight before you rise up.

The all-time bent-press record still belongs to the legendary Arthur Saxon, who officially lifted 370 lbs (167.8 kg) and unofficially 385 lbs (174.6 kg)—at a bodyweight of just 209 lbs (95 kg). Kate “Vulcana” Roberts hoisted a proud 145 lbs (65.7 kg) in bent-press fashion.

Old-school strength icons couldn’t praise the lift enough. As Bob Hoffman, founder of York Barbell, wrote:

“The bent press is what makes a weightlifter a real weightlifter. It builds full-body strength and skill better than any other lift with weights.”

“The bent press improves every other lift… It uses every muscle in the body. It demands and develops strength in every part of the body. It teaches balance, timing, coordination, and endurance—because it takes time to perform from start to finish.”

“Every lifter known for symmetry and beautiful form is also a master of the bent press.”

“It’s the simplest way to get a heavy weight overhead. It’s spectacular—and the fastest way to build a strongman reputation.”

“The bent press is the most fascinating and captivating of all the strength lifts.”

No wonder the bent press is a key lift in our curriculum, building upon the get-up, the strict press, the windmill, and the side press. As David “Iron Tamer” Whitley put it:

The bent press finishes what the get-up started.

Bent Press Drills & Progressions

• Bent (press) armbar – an essential drill that opens the thoracic spine, primes the shoulders like no other, and teaches you to create the shelf from which to bent press.

• The bridge between the get-up and bent press

• A bent press stance that takes into account not only the start but also the most difficult part of the full lift

• Explanation of the „Pressing Continuum“ - the base, the ballistic road (push press > jerk), and the grinds (side press > bent press)

• Kettlebell windmill - 2 simple cues that allow you to learn a proper windmill in literally a minute

• The missing link between press and bent press - side press (3 variations!)

• Creating a firm shelf - a correct and strong bent press rack

• „Dog leash drill“ - the best way to learn to get under the bell without pressing it up

• Bottom position of the bent press that suits YOUR body type - „Saxon style“ or „Ansorge style“?

• Key role of the free arm!

• Critical phase of the lift - lockout of the arm and standing up

• Returning the kettlebell to the rack - active negative or „tap the mag“

When you master the Tsar and the King of the Imperial Program Minimum, all other lifts bow.

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