A band adds an overspeed eccentric component to power pushups.
Make sure to power breathe—Tssaa!—strongly on the top of each swing and pushup rep. This is not only important for maximizing power; this is your ticket to rock-solid abs without adding exercises.
Power Pushup Test
On to testing.
You may do pushups on your palms or fists. Test your pushups after the one-arm swings. Every rep must comply with the SFB standards.
Start the first rep from the bottom, lying prone with your hands on the floor. Brace and explode. Do not cheat with your knees. If your build prevents you from safely going this deep, skip dead starts and do your pushups in the traditional manner starting from the top.
To adjust the pushup resistance, use a rubber band to load or unload, as shown in the next section. Do not elevate your feet or hands.
Option One
Pushup Accelerometer Test
This option is ideal.
The test instructions are identical to those for the swing, only instead of changing kettlebells, change the band tension.
If you need to adjust the load with a band, test yourself with several levels of band tension in sets of five with five minutes of rest. Once you have identified the resistance that yields the highest power, do two more sets of five with it with five minutes of rest between them and record the highest reading.
Option Two
Pushup Long Sprint Test
The goal is to find the resistance that allows you to “sprint” for 20–30 seconds.
Your testing partner will count only perfect and explosive reps and must stop the clock earlier than 30 seconds if you are:
✓ Losing speed—a repetition takes more time than before
✓ Not fully locking out
✓ Cutting the ROM on the bottom
✓ Losing the plank
✓ Resting in the lockout one second or longer
For comparison with future test results, if the timer had to be stopped before 30 seconds, record the time it was stopped.
If you have been unable to sustain high power, high tempo, and impeccable technique for at least 20 seconds, the resistance is too high. Rest for 10 minutes and repeat the test with a band deload.
If, on the other hand, you have completed 30 seconds with high power, rapid-fire cadence, and time to spare, rest for 10 minutes and repeat the test with more resistance.
Loading and Deloading Pushups with Bands
It is tempting to vary the pushup resistance by elevating the feet or hands, but experiments by Fabio Zonin, Master SFG, revealed that this traditional tactic does not work well when pushups are done at max power and high cadence. Without the feedback of a flat ground, people often sag or pike.
Enter the band.
Fabio concluded that looping the band under the pelvis rather than around the chest or armpits is far better for deloading. This point of contact helps the student to fight the tendency to raise the pelvis.
Deloading pushups with a band.
Jody Beasley, SFG Team Leader, explains how to go in the opposite direction and load your pushups:
These are two similar ways to set up the bands. The only difference between them is where the band rubs against your arms causing some irritation while doing pushups, so it is a personal preference which way to do it. There is minimal difference in resistance.
Method One
Wrap the band around the waist and with palms facing down, insert the thumbs into the looped ends, so the band crosses between the thumb and index finger. Slide the band under the armpits and across the upper back as high as possible. The band should hook across the base of the palms. Be sure to press the hands hard into the floor when performing pushups, actively holding the band down instead of letting it pull against the thumbs.
Load pushups on fists in the same manner:
Method Two
Wrap the band around the waist and, with the palms facing up, insert the hands into the looped ends hooking the band between the thumb and index finger with it crossing the palm. Slide the band up high around the upper back, passing the elbows through the band, one side going across the back and around the shoulders, the other side crossing the back and passing under the armpits. Be sure to press the hands hard into the floor when performing pushups, actively holding the band down instead of letting it pull against the thumbs.
Before you start loading or deloading, consider this: When you are doing pushups on the floor, you are lifting around 70 percent of your bodyweight.
As you recall, while max power is displayed at about a third to a half of maximal strength, it can be effectively trained with resistance up to 70 percent 1RM. That means a bodyweight bench press is the strength minimum for doing power pushups without a band assist. If you do not bench, 20 strict and slow pushups are an acceptable proxy for a bodyweight bench press.
On the other side of strength, you do not have to band-load your pushups until your bench 1RM exceeds double bodyweight. At that impressive strength level, you are lifting 35 percent 1RM in pushups and are still gaining power.
The Snatch: Hail Tsar!
Did you know that the origin of the Russian word for emperor, “tsar,” is Latin Caesar?
So, hail Tsar! The kettlebell snatch, that is.
Kettlebell Snatch Technique
Task:
Kettlebell Snatch
Condition:
Snatch a kettlebell for five repetitions with each arm.
Standard:
All of the points that apply to the swing, minus the requirement to keep a straight arm and let the kettlebell float.
Swing the kettlebell sitting on the ground in front of you back between your legs and snatch it overhead in one uninterrupted motion into a straight-arm lockout.
Catch the kettlebell softly without banging your forearm or jarring your elbow or shoulder.
At the lockout, the arm must be level with the head or behind the head, the neck neutral, and the lower back not hyperextended.
Maintain the position briefly, with the arm and legs straight and the feet and body motionless.
Actively lower the kettlebell between your legs in one loose, uninterrupted motion close to the body, without touching the chest or shoulder, and snatch again.
Be explosive and practice the biomechanical breathing match (inhale on the way down and forcefully exhale on the way up).
Regardless of your choice of test, repeat it once every four to six weeks, during a session after a minimal volume day (40 reps). Keep your warm-ups consistent, as well as the time of the day you are testing, the rests between sets, the shoes or lack of thereof, etc.
Every rep must comply with the SFG standards.
You may use overspeed eccentrics to the extent you are accustomed to doing them with the chosen weight.
Option One
Snatch Accelerometer Test
If you have access to an accelerometer or a force plate, test yourself snatching different size kettlebells in sets of five, with five minutes of rest between sets, to identify the ’bell that enables maximal power expression. Repeat the test two more times with the same ’bell and record the highest reading.
Option Two
Snatch Long Sprint Test
Identify the kettlebell you can “sprint” with for 20–30 seconds.
In addition to the SFG standards, there are two other rules.
First, setting the kettlebell down or switching hands is not allowed.
Second, the lockout, while strict and legal, must be less than one second in duration.
Test your non-dominant side first. Record only perfect, explosive reps. If you pause in the lockout for one second or longer, stop the test, as the reps after this pause do not count—this test is a sprint.
If you have been unable to sprint snatch for at least 20 seconds with the selected kettlebell, it is too heavy to use in this program. Rest for 10 minutes and repeat the test with a lighter kettlebell. If, on the other hand, you have e
asily completed 30 seconds with high power, rest for 10 minutes and repeat the test with a heavier kettlebell.
Use chalk generously to make sure grip is not the limiting factor.
After 10 minutes of rest, test your dominant side.
Part IV: Happy Hunting!
Circuit Training, Limited
Your Q&D protocol is a circuit made up of two exercises: swings and power pushups.
After a warm-up of choice, alternate a series of pulls and pushes. There are always 20 reps in a series, made up of either four sets of five reps (5/4) or two sets of 10 reps (10/2).
In one-arm swings, switch arms from set to set: 10L, 10R or 5L, 5R, 5L, 5R.
Rest actively between sets and series. Walk around, do “fast and loose” drills: Swing your limbs like you are shaking water off them.
Within each series, you will be doing a set of five reps every 30 seconds or 10 reps on the minute. The rest between series is the time left until the start of the next minute, plus one minute: around 1:20 with 5/4 and 1:45 with 10/2.
Here is how this works for 10/2.
When the timer starts at 00:00, do a set of 10 pulls with your left arm. Rest actively for the rest of the first minute. At 01:00, do a second set of 10 pulls, this time with your right.
After the set, the clock shows around 01:15. Rest for the remainder of the minute, plus another full minute. When the timer shows 03:00, start a series of pushes.
Note that every pushup rep must start from the ground—exactly as during the test.
Here is how this works for 5/4.
When the timer starts at 00:00, do a set of five pulls with your left arm. Rest actively until 00:30 and do another set of five, this time with your right. Then, do five left at 01:00 and five right at 01:30.
You have just completed a series of 5/4 and the clock shows about 01:40. Rest for the remainder of the minute, plus another full minute. When the timer shows 03:00, start an identical series of pushes.
Thus, a single circuit of one series of each exercise (20 reps), plus the rest intervals between them, takes six minutes. Each session has two to five such circuits: 12, 18, 24, and 30 minutes, minus some change. Your average session is just over 20 minutes long.
Here is how the above template applies to a single exercise, the snatch.
Instead of alternating sets or series of two drills, left-and right-hand snatches are treated as separate events. In one series, you do 20 total reps with the left; in the next one, do them with the right.
The only difference from the swing and pushup template is an extra minute of rest between series. In the single kettlebell snatch, while one side of the lower body works harder than the other, the latter does not exactly chill. Thus, each series—work plus rest—is four minutes long rather than three.
Snatches must be performed with maximal power and a high cadence—but with legal lockouts.
After a warm-up of choice, alternate the series done with your left and right arms. There are always 20 reps in a series, made up of either four sets of five reps (5/4) or two sets of 10 reps (10/2).
Use only one arm in each series:
Series One: 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L
Series Two: 5R, 5R, 5R, 5R
Or:
Series One: 10L, 10L
Series Two: 10R, 10R
Rest actively between sets and series. Walk around, do “fast and loose” drills. Do not insert other exercises into the rest periods.
Within each series, you will be doing a set of five reps every 30 seconds or 10 reps on the minute. The rest between series is the time left until the start of the next minute, plus two more minutes.
Here is how this works for 10/2.
When the timer starts at 00:00, do a set of 10 pulls with your left arm. Rest actively for the rest of the first minute. At 01:00, do a second set of ten, still with your left.
After the set, the clock shows about 01:20. Rest for the remainder of the minute, plus two full minutes. When the timer shows 04:00, start an identical series with your right.
Here is how this works for 5/4.
When the timer starts at 00:00, do a set of five pulls with your left arm. Rest actively until 00:30 and do another set of five with the left. Then, do five left at 01:00 and another five left at 01:30.
You have just completed a series of 5/4 and the clock shows around 01:40. Rest for the remainder of the minute, plus two full minutes. When the timer shows 04:00, start a series with your right.
The above work-to-rest ratio appears unreasonably generous. Do not compress the rest periods under any circumstances! If you think it is too easy, just add power.
A single series with one arm (20 reps) plus the rest interval before the next series takes four minutes. Each session is made up of two to five such series. This is eight to twenty minutes, ladies and gentlemen, minimalism at its extreme.
This tactic of treating left and right as separate exercises can be applied to swings as well once you have been around the 033 block. Mark, one of the special operators I introduced earlier, did 044 with swings half a year after his experience with 033:
I just got back from three weeks of Alpine training. It was a typical situation where some guys came up to me at work on a Thursday and asked if I wanted to go climb a mountain on Sunday. No training or preparation.
The third day I was at the mountain, I did a 10-mile cross-country ski at altitude. I hadn’t done backcountry skiing in eight years and am at a low level of proficiency. I honestly believe the only reason I survived it and those after is because I had been doing the 044 template the four weeks prior. My posterior chain was strong and conditioned to get me up the hills and my core was solid to keep me tight while I was tired as hell and had to go down some rough slopes.
Where Is the Cardio?
Do not compress the rest periods under any circumstances!
You might argue that you have seen people put up impressive power with much less rest. How about the ladies and gents who have completed Sinister, 10/10 in five minutes with 32kg and 48kg, respectively.
Apples and oranges. Their power is impressive by anyone’s standards—except their own. At the five-minute mark, SFG Team Leader Roxanne Myers’ 100th swing might be more powerful than most men’s rep number one—but it pales next to her own number one. S&S is a different program, built according to different specs. It cannot guide the Q&D rests, or vice versa.
Roxanne Myers, SFG Team Leader went beyond Sinister with 10x10 one-arm swings in 5min with 36kg.
“Changing the rest intervals…within a training session enables eliciting totally different biochemical reactions to the identical total load…” warned Prof. Yakovlev.
Given the generous rest periods demanded by the desired adaptations within the working muscles, you might be tempted to sneak in another drill or two that work some muscles relatively untouched by the two main events.
Do not.
Artists have a term, horror vacui, that describes the fear of empty space. This phobia applies to program design every bit as it does to that of a room or a painting composition. Do not be a programming pack rat. A third exercise is a gateway drug that will lead you to abandon minimalism and start doing leg presses, lunges, external shoulder rotations with soup cans while sitting on a foam roller…and possibly Pilates.
Seriously, you have only so much nerve force to put out in one session. Our experiments have shown that 200 total reps of max power exercise (100 pulls plus 100 pushes) are all an experienced athlete can handle with top quality.
Sure, you could do some other stuff right after—strength, aerobic endurance, etc.—but you are done with speed and power for the day.
Since Q&D is a circuit, one might think that one of its goals is “cardio,” VO2 max, oxygen transport, heart and lungs, or whatever else you call it.
Sort of. There is enough work to meet the cardiovascular exercise requirements set by government health bodies—but not more. This is why you will find it strange when you end up doing not too shabby in
an endurance challenge.
Senior SFG instructor Derek Toshner reported after another killer performance in the TSC five-minute snatch with a 32kg kettlebell:
I am definitely keeping the [Q&D] snatch program you sent. I felt like my cardio wasn’t there, yet somehow I still snuck out 137 reps. I felt very strong.
The Quick and the Dead Page 7