Power to the People!: Russian Strength Training Secrets for Every American

Tastsouline's programs. I have lifted weights seriously for over 15 years. I also am a long distance runner. I also practice Hatha Yoga daily for at least 75 minutes but usually 90 minutes-2 hours daily. My free-weight program generally was done five-six days a week for 50-90 minutes. After reading Pavel's tome, I decided that focusing on several exercises or movements, i.e., lifting, pushing, and curling,. would free me up for additional cross-training. He's right: With my Pavel-influenced program, my body, strength, and fitness have improved, and in less time:) Basically, Pavel emphasizes a major lifting movement that is also one of several "full body" exercises. Deadlifts attack not only the entire back, legs, buttocks, but also the traps, bis, and shoulders. It has been empiracally proven that these type of movements ignite a flame in our metabolism. Also, the pushing movement, the flat bench, is a great exercise. I substitute heavy flies and leaning forward dips occasionally. The other movements are basically a rear military press and barbell curls. I do either overhead barbell extension, dips, or close-grips for my tris. I also do standing one leg calf raises (for my one leg down dogs in Yoga). In summation, this is a very informative and entertaining book. Lifters, bodybuilders, and athletes of all shapes and sizes (you too laides:) will benefit from Pavel's recommendations and the extra cross training that you'll have time for. As always, thank you Amazon.com for the outstanding service and value. Also, for the communists complaining about the book price: lighten up! It's not easy to get a book published when you are a former member of the Russian Special Forces. Update 12.18.05: I'm not sure why more readers didn't find my review helpful, but I'll provide some more information today. I took eight months off from free weights because I thought I'd be satisfied doing "iron yoga" and runnning. I was horribly wrong. Now, in about 3-4 months on Pavel's program, I'm in great strength shape and appearance. (I got skinnier during the yoga/running only phase). I had several concerns when I started back with Pavel. I didn't think doing deads alone would be enough to bring back my lats. I was wrong. And, I thought lack of tri work would hurt me. So, I added 10 sets of lying tri-extensions, overhead extensions, etc. to the routine. Plus, I do 10 sets of calf raises and 10 forearm exercises. My back is ripped, my lats, fine, and the rest fantastic. During my chair and warrior poses in yoga, I use heavy dumbbells, so this definitely helps with the great condition of my legs. Make no mistake, this is a great program. Thanks Pavel!

I started this program as a skinny fat 50 year old office worker whose future looked to be either in a wheelchair from back pain or needing a full time nurse because I couldn't open jar. After faithfully following this program for the last 5 months, I am stronger than I have ever been, my back pain is mostly gone, and I can actually carry the groceries in from the car without fear. The biggest physical change in my appearance was to my severely rounded shoulders and poor posture. Both have improved so much that people that didn't know I was exercising commented and said I looked better. I started the program at 160 pounds and probably 30% body fat and I am now 160 pounds and probably 15 - 20% body fat based on some muscle definition. Like many people, I get bored doing the same thing over and over and my plan is to do Simple and Sinister for 2 weeks followed by Power to the People for 6 weeks for the foreseeable future. This Power to the People is simple enough and works well enough that there's no need to switch and if Sinister doesn't work out for me, I'm sticking with Power. I wish I had this program and lifted like this 30 - 35 years ago, but at least I see a healthier future for myself and highly recommend it to anyone.

This book pulls together the various strands I have picked up over the years from various Russian and other Eastern bloc coaches. It has reminded me of methods I had heard about previously, and explained unusual Soviet athlete behaviour I had witnessed. There are many references to old school thinking reiterating comments from a variety of lifters and Russian researchers. I enjoyed the somewhat flippant "Soviet comrade" style writing, helped to get the points across while remaining entertaining. Boring text books are just too hard to wade through. I would have liked a better example training program, but Pavel provides the flexibility for the individual to work it out to meet their own personal demands. Having many, MANY years (~25+) of weight training behind me, I am currently trialling the program and am hopeful of good results (currently in my first week). Of particular note is the lack of equipment required (one of the program's objectives). So, does the training method work? I will know more in 3, 6 and 12 months time, but I'm confident it will.

I began using this program. I already note more stability in lifts and more strength. This program agrees with other Eastern European sources I have and is also based upon old American techniques which have been partially forgotten in their homeland. I had heard of Liederman through Sensei Richie Barathy's obituary in Kung Fu, and spent fruitless years searching for a book which embodied his ideas. Well, here it is. All of the techniques are designed to be economical (you only need an Olympic weight set and a place to use it), safe and effective. You will not need any expensive machines, a spotter, nor even a warmup (Mr. Tsatsouline shows why warmups are a waste of time and are counterproductive). You can do the entire routine in as little as twenty minutes. The book is aimed at non-technical people who want to grow strong. True, there is no bibliography, but there are citations throughout the book. The program is safe enough that you can forge ahead on your own without worry of injury. The size of the book is kept to a minimum by keeping it simple, direct and to the point, a philosophy which runs through the work like a thread. Does Power to the People! mention bodybuilding? Yes, there is mention of this program for that use. Mr. Tsatsouline does mention how to achieve large muscle size, and shows how to modify his program to achieve that goal. Anybody who wants to be strong should have this book.

Five stars for this excellent product from Pavel. I first got this in perhaps 2002. The knowledge and tips increased my lifts gigantically. I have gone from periods of relative inactivity to lifting hard four times, using the techniques in PTTP. Each time, I go up so fast on large-muscle exercises that people don't believe me when I tell them. It's one of those books that seems a little bit thin but there's a huge amount of information in there. There aren't really wordy explanations of why things work well, though there is some of that-- he just drops knowledge of methods. Probably a lot of people don't care about this one way or another, but I also find his delivery very funny indeed. I think he has a natural gift for humor writing. His other books are excellent as well. Also this is one guy I would NOT want to get in a scrap with-- his advice to martial artists, and all the techniques he offers for strength building, come from a fair degree of knowledge about combatives of various sorts. This material goes well with Sonnon's bodyflow material for flexibility. Pavel has a good book of stretching but Sonnon has some very interesting ideas as well.

I read the reviews before buying this book. At first I had some reservations about purchasing the book, but went ahead and bought it. I'm 51 y\o, have been practicing self defense for a few years and done some weight training at home. Finding myself with less time and desire to spend to much time on the weight training, I have found this book to be eye opening as to the basic and important thing I need as I age. That is, stay active with a simple and effective weight training program as I grow older yet, stay working out more years than the average person. This I believe will maintain my muscles strong, useful, functional and stabilizing my bones and joints. As an additional benefit, reduce osteoporosis and other issues that come along with age and tissue loss. The concept of this type of workout is probably not new and the author probably repeats information found in other texts, as stated in other reviews, but this information sound like a simple approach which ties in with something I learned with other types of training I do, and that is, simplicity is genius!

I had seen Pavel's books advertised for years (10+), but was always put off buying them because of the marketing spin they were promoted with, comrades this and super secret that. (Nothing against Russians, just the marketing hype that his books are sold with. Pavel is not Russian, just trained by the Russians) For some reason, I downloaded to my kindle a sample of Power to the People: Professional (I am a powerlifter looking to compete again after a layoff). When I realised that the book was aimed for a higher level of athlete than me I went and ordered the beginners version which is this book here (Power to the People!: Russian Strength Training Secrets for Every American) and was pleasantly surprised. The contents made sense, and were proven with real world examples and an understanding of what's involved in building strong muscles. This was a nice point of view compared to what is commonly taught in the West of training to destroy muscle, be fatigued for a few days, then spend a few more days to repair the muscle (with overcompensation), and finally a week later go back to the gym to do it all again. The book gravitates more towards training for strength than training for power. The training advocated in this book will work for anyone who wants to train for 2-6 days a week in as little as 15-30 minutes per session to gain strength. In the book, Pavel explains how to train daily (great for practising technique), what rep ranges and weights are optimal for strength gains vs muscle gain, and various techniques to lift more with the muscles and strength you have now. I would have given it 5 stars if it had references. Yes I realise most would not be in English, but it would be good to learn to read a little bit of Russian. Well recommend others who are looking to build strength start at this book and Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. I will definitely be buying more of Pavel's products.

And this one did. I always believed in long gym routines: three-four sets of eight-ten repetitions, the more the better, of course to exhaustion and a little more. Doing only couple of sets and not to the point of dying was something new. I tried it and will never go back. After these workouts you recover quickly, and , importantly, you progress really fast. One can argue if two exercises Pavel recommends are enough or not. I think it is the matter of choice. They are probably sufficient to get strong. But they will probably also become very boring after a while. But this principle works well with any number and types of exercises, and one can swap exercises that are similar in principle. There is also fair bit of theory of training which I enjoyed: breathing, periodization, muscle physiology etc. Very good book. Pavel overhypes it with "Russky tovarish" stuf a little, which for me (a Russian guy) is a bit irritating. However, his style reminds me of my (very short) time in the Soviet Army, and makes the book fun to read.

Probablemente, el mejor libro que he leído hasta la fecha sobre entrenamiento de fuerza. La simplicidad y el minimalismo de Pavel, centrándose en los axiomas inamovibles del entrenamiento de fuerza, hacen de este libro un must de entrenadores serios y amantes de levantar hierro.

All potentially interested parties in this book, especially if you are European, should try and ignore the cheesyness of the title. And to be honest the text can be just as cheesy at times, that said however, the information that this book contains is good if you are not already into sports science, otherwise you may have already covered this stuff elsewhere. The concepts posited in the book are not new as they have been around for a long time in the various schools of strength training. Many of the concepts are explained in layman's terms so that you can understand what he means quickly and get to work implementing them in your new routine, or existing routine as a booster. One such example, would be that of "irradiation" or the concept of steadily increasing muscular tension moving across muscle groups as a given weight increases, and therefore makes more demands upon the body as a whole. In this particular case, he uses a bucket analogy - said bucket being held at arms length empty is no feat of strength and can be done by using the muscles of the arm and shoulder, however should one begin to fill the bucket then the increasing weight demands a response from adjoining muscle grops and the smaller muscle groups of the trunk - if the bucket is to remain held in that position. This principle of steadily increasing muscular tension and neuro-muscular learning is basically what is at the heart of strength training, more specifically, the development and improvement of maximal strength. For a more sports scientific explanantion of these techniques, the reader may want to consult the "Supertraining Forum" online or purchase a (ever rarer) copy of the excellent "Supertraining" from Dr Mel Siff. Near maximal lifts for low reps and three to five sets is nothing new in the OL and Powerlifting circles, but to the uninitiated, as I was when I first bought the book 5 years ago now, it truly does show you the proverbial "lost way". The author also reminds us that this knowledge has been around since the last century and was developed by the likes of Arthur Saxon and Eugene Sandow - old time strong men. Men who were strong as strong as you could shake a stick at (why you would want to shake a stick at a strongman is beyond me though!), back when there were no gyms, no supplements and no glossy and boring bodybuilding comics etc. When I first started to use methods such as periodisation and the 5-3 rule I made huge progress and became much stronger, but do not be fooled into thinking you can consistently make such progress. There will come a sticking point and lifting consistently heavy for long periods, even under periodisation. will take its toll on your body. There are no shortcuts however, you still have to work hard, you only get out what you put in. Heavy deadlifting alone can seriously exhaust your nervous system, and I personally, often find myself fit for nothing after a deadlifting sesh. A major annoyance about the book is that the text is very sparse at times - and no there are not loads of pictures or diagrams - a fair few but not overdone, and at the end of the book there is about ten pages of advertisments for his other books and products like exercise machines etc. which is just not cricket really, is it Pavel. For me at least, the information contained in this book was very useful albeit not scientific. Could I recommend it? Yes - but not at the new price, buy second hand then you wont be as dissapointed with what you get for your money. Have I bought other books from him? Yes. Were they similar, with the ads at the back? Unfortunately, yes, but they too still had some good stuff in them. A golden rule of thumb for any books professing the hackneyed "secrets" in the title would be to tell yourself before you buy that there is a catch somewhere, and then, if you absolutely must buy it, do so - if only to satisfy yourself that, yes, you should have listened to your inner voice in the first place as you were right all along. Same goes in this case. There are no secrets, the contents have been around for a long time in many of the better sports science text books and various coaching circles, but the average Joe going to the gym never gets to hear about this. I class myself as a "Joe" too, and for me the book had the effect of revealing "secrets" - it was all new to me at least! Five years of training under my belt since I bought the book, and I am older and wiser and have read more and better texts on the subject, that said, it still is a good first book for those people serious about improving their maximal strength without getting into too much science.

Pavel is a genius. He keeps things simple. I have used many of his training methods over the years. They work at 100% also if you stick to them you will gain massive strength. As man or a women and will dominate 99% of the population by default. Power to the people is a must read. 5 stars for me.

Good book

ケトルベルの認定コースを受講した時の先生が書いた本です。トレーニングや筋肉に関する根本的なことを分かりやすく説明しています。日本語版が出るといいのですが。