Hardstyle

I’ve been reviewing my old kettlebell textbooks lately. I’ve been reminded of a certain way of training. Rather, it’s a training mindset more so than a methodology or rep sequence. It’s a powerful one, and useful information for anyone who wants to get stronger and stay healthy.

These book are filled with references to the Russian Kettlebell Certification (now called StrongFirst). The creator of these certifications is the author of many of these books, Pavel Tsatsouline. Pavel is credited with bringing kettlebells to America and he created this training idea I’m talking about. He refers to it as Hardstyle.

The concept with his hardstyle method is to use maximum tension and power production, throughout your entire body on all lifts, even the light ones. Make all your reps challenging. Strive for perfect technique, maximum bracing, spot on timing and seek flawlessness. Make your light weights feel heavy and the heavy ones light.

Pavel encourages very small sets, in the 1-5 rep range, even for endurance training protocols. The difficulty of the workout comes from the intensity you create, not only from the external load of the barbell or kettlebell. And keeping the rep ranges small, offers this opportunity for more first reps.

If you’ve ever deadlifted or done a kettlebell swing, you know exactly what I mean when I say the first rep of the set is much more difficult than the subsequent. This ‘more first rep’ principle is what allowed me to train up to my 500 pound deadlift a few years ago.

Adopting this Hardstyle mindset will get your more engaged with your workouts and accumulating serious strength. Focus on small rep sets that focus on maximum tension and power production. EMOMs are the perfect opportunity to practice. Keep in mind, this is the opposite of efficient movement, we’re not trying to conserve power, instead maximizing it. Conserving power often results in sloppy movement and poor technique, hardstyle is excellent technique and form each and every repetition.

When you’re a beginner in the gym, the heavy weights will eventually demand this tension from you, but when you’re experienced, you can demand the tension from the light weight sets as well, and make your light weights feel heavy.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain