Requirements For Strength Gains & Fat Loss

1. Generate tension.

The more, the better.

You can also think of this as lifting heavy.

You simply need to coax your muscles to work hard – to tap into and tax your Type 2b/2x fast twitch muscle fibers.

Why?

Because they are the biggest, strongest, most energy using muscle fibers in your body.

And when you train them, you get stronger. Much, much stronger.

It’s pretty much an established fact by now:

If you look at the training logs of the best strength athletes in the world – middleweight powerlifters, olympic lifters, and gymnasts – you’ll see that they all train generating high levels of tension.

Here’s the interesting thing:

These athletes are some of the leanest in the world.

And it’s not because they eat “bodybuilder” type diets either.

Nope, it’s their training.

High tension, low reps, multiple sets.

If you’re looking to get strong or lean, or better yet – BOTH –

You absolutely must stop screwing around with “workouts” and start “training.”

You need to learn how to control your body and generate tension so you can access those energy-hungry Type 2b/2x
muscle fibers.

Your kettlebells are great teachers especially when you know how to “load tension” into your body using them.

We pay this one “lip service” but we don’t really understand it.

You probably know it as the Swing or the Snatch – in another word – Ballistics – but here’s what it really is –

The second requirement or part of the 3 part equation for gaining strength and or losing fat:
Training Explosively.

Sure, sure, you do your 1000 swings a day – but let me ask you this – how EXPLOSIVE are you making them?

Cause for a lot of reps, I’m betting the answer is more like “I’m just trying to get my numbers in man!”

See, when you train explosively – really driving each and every rep with everything you’ve got in you, then you’re using those same Type 2b/2x muscle fibers that you used when you were lifting heavy – creating tension.

So you are burning a ton of energy.

That’s why it works for fat loss.

Oh yeah, and there’s the whole “better glucose utilization” and “increased insulin sensitivity” thing.

That’s right – the more explosive work you do, the better your body can use carbohydrates.

And yes, you are correct, the more of them you can eat.

Now here’s how it makes you stronger:

Dr Fred Hatfield in his book, “Power,” talked about something called CAT – Compensatory Acceleration Training.

Quite simply it was moving a weight – EXPLODING – with it through an entire range of motion.

Why?

Because through any movement your leverage changes and therefore your force production naturally (subconsciously) varies.

For example, in a squat, you generate the most force getting out of the hole and just below 90 degrees at the knee to
get over your sticking points.

Dr Squat, as he’s famously known (first man to squat over 1000 pounds) uses CAT to fully recruit as many of the Type 2b/2x muscle fibers as possible.

Not only that, but it teaches you to explode when the weights get heavy. You may not move very fast at that point, but you will drive through your [former] sticking points.
Think of it this way:

If you wanted to knock down a wall, from where do you have  a better chance of doing it? From standing next to it and pushing on it, or from a running start and hitting it with all your body weight?

The latter of course.

That’s CAT and that’s the power of exploding each and every rep. (Excuse the pun.)

Now getting back to your KB ballistics – they are explosive by  nature but to get the most out of them – and I’m saying this again because it’s that powerful – you should put as much  effort into exploding with each and every rep.

And when you can no longer do so – Stop.

Stop the set.

Obviously this takes practice.

It’d be foolish to start this right away on one of your traditional longer 20+ reps sets of swings.

You have to dial back the reps first.

Here’s another thing:

You need to make sure your set up and your technique is  correct in order to get the most out of this.