Kettlebell - The Red Zone (Pavel, T. Program) (2024)

Some 15 years ago Pavel was interviewed in the Iron Man Magazine. When asked to give a suggestion for a minimalist program he answered; Presses and Swings in a following fashion.

Here's the routine: 5×5 presses per arm, 5×10 swings per arm, wrap up with another 5×5 presses. It's up to you whether you want to clean the kettlebell once for each set of presses or once before each rep. Don't fail. If you can't make the prescribed reps, do more sets of fewer reps to make up the total; for example 3×5, 1×4, 2×3 for a total of 25. Rest as little as you can between sets. Start with a lot lower numbers and build up slowly. Train three times a week. Stretch. Eat a cow. Every fourth week take it easy'this means do half the reps on all your sets.

A grind, a ballistic done in a minimalistic fashion. 15 years ago.

Hello,

This is true !

Even if it sounds simple, this program is serious business because it prescribed 50 press per arm which is not that far from RoP (75 at the end if I remember well)

Kind regards,

Pet'

Stefan Olsson said:

I read it as 5x5 presses with your left and right (25 each arm) then 5x10 1H swings (a total of 100 swings and then 5x5 presses with your left and right (25 each arm).

Click to expand...

You could probably even do two different press variations, like C&P before and Push Presses after Swings. I think this strategy is also used in ETK Plus, based on some older Russian routines.

Hello,

This routine just lacks a squat pattern, but it sounds wonderful to build massive strength and hypertrophy !

@Stefan Olsson @Bauer
Did you try it ?

Kind regards,

Pet'

I remember this too. Very similar to ETK but not using ladders. Doesn't have a lot of moving parts which I think makes it so useful.

Pavel had some great ones....."fast tens" comes to mind.

• Presses + swings + more presses: sounds like hypertrophy
• Rest as little as possible: sounds like hypertrophy
• Eat a cow: sounds like hypertrophy
• Deload 3:1 to manage overload volume fatigue

Lots of details in there that can get glossed over when we often hear

• 1-5 reps is for strength, 8-12 is for hypertrophy
• Slow and steady park bench programs not mentioning deloads
• Long rest for strength

pet' said:

Hello,

This routine just lacks a squat pattern, but it sounds wonderful to build massive strength and hypertrophy !

Click to expand...

Wondering if you could make the last 5 x 5 presses to be a chain - clean, press, squat instead of just clean and press.........

pet' said:

Hello,

This routine just lacks a squat pattern, but it sounds wonderful to build massive strength and hypertrophy !

See Also

Rugby League Pre-Season Group Training Clinic - Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Ipswich - The Red Zone

@Stefan Olsson @Bauer
Did you try it ?

Kind regards,

Pet'

Click to expand...

I haven´t, but if it delivers massive strength and hypertrophy I guess I should! ?

I was actually searching for something like "do you need to swing when you do double cleans?" and this stuff came up.

Hello,

@Stefan Olsson
I see !

To my understanding, it seems this routine is done with a single bell (press right, rest, press left, etc...). It must be brutal using a double C&P !

This one, from @CMarker can be what you are looking for:

As far as your "double bell" routine is concerned, did you consider something like D. John's armor building (2 cleans, 1 press, 3 squats) ? (But in this case, there is no swings...)

Kind regards,

Pet'

pet' said:

Hello,

@Stefan Olsson
I see !

To my understanding, it seems this routine is done with a single bell (press right, rest, press left, etc...). It must be brutal using a double C&P !

This one, from @CMarker can be what you are looking for:

HIRT for Hypertrophy - Breaking Muscle

While working with Pavel Tsatsouline on endurance protocols (e.g., Hybrid Power Conditioning Program, StrongFirst for Crossfit, HIRT), we discovered some interesting side effects of some of the high-intensity repeat (HIRT) protocols. While working with Pavel Tsatsouline on endurance protocols...

breakingmuscle.com

As far as your "double bell" routine is concerned, did you consider something like D. John's armor building (2 cleans, 1 press, 3 squats) ? (But in this case, there is no swings...)

Kind regards,

Pet'

Click to expand...

I does not intend to do this routine with double belles, it'd just show up. After vacation I'll probably do something like TTC or Moving target Complex to get a feel for the bells!

Stefan Olsson said:

I actually think this program resembles The Plan (another SF program) that has you do a timed block of presses followed by a time block of swings and squats and lastly a timed block of pressing again.

Click to expand...

You mean the one I just found out about? ?

This plan really needs some sort of catchy name, I think!

Anna C said:

You mean the one I just found out about? ?

Kettlebell - Experience with using The Program ?

Hi, I am curious about people's experience with using The program. This program is the program is the one that Strong First is giving to students at the one-day show. (maybe also the certification to SFG 1 too. It is also available for people who has paid for the online courses. They recommend...

www.strongfirst.com

This plan really needs some sort of catchy name, I think!

Click to expand...

Thats The Program I'm talking about ?

pet' said:

This routine just lacks a squat pattern, but it sounds wonderful to build massive strength and hypertrophy !

Click to expand...

I think we must have different definitions of "massive".

On the surface, it's not a lot of tonnage, nor is it really working working some of the bigger hypertrophy muscle groups (quads, traps, chest).

Hello,

watchnerd said:

I think we must have different definitions of "massive".

On the surface, it's not a lot of tonnage, nor is it really working working some of the bigger hypertrophy muscle groups (quads, traps, chest).

Click to expand...

Yes you are right. By "massive", I meant "great"

Of course, there would be programs better tailored to get max hypertrophy or max strength. What I wanted to say, was that we can expect a "decent" amount of both strength and hypertrophy (such as in RoP) assuming we cut off the rest to the bare minimum.

As far as kettlebells are concerned, I reached my "peak" in terms of both strength / GPP and hypertrophy when I did RoP. I guess this was due to the volume. However, as a "drawback", rest was really important. On the last weeks, heavy sessions made me a little bit more tired. Compared to RoP, Red Zone sounds slightly more sustainable and more "flexible" because we can do doubles, triples, etc...as long as we perform the required number of repetitions.

Kind regards,

Pet'