"Breathing" lifts

Remember "breathing squats". I think this name was coined by Strossen in his Supersquats. I am sure everyone knows what they are, but just in case there is an absolute beginner reading this, let me pretend I am the only one who can convey this secret method to a novice.

You determine your 10 rep max. Next time you train you put a barbell with this weight on your shoulders and squat in the following way. Squat once, take three long breaths, squat again, three more breath and so on, for 20 reps. In other words doing the squats slowly and trying to relax lets you stretch it for double number of reps. Strossen marketed it for gaining mass quickly, and you are supposed to increase the weight by 5 lbs or 2.5 kg every workout.

Besides being able to put some serious muscle, these squats are just tremendous exercise. Not so useful for power- or oly weighlifters, but for the fitness crowd for getting strong and tough, both physically and mentally. I did this routine twice, although without really pushing the envelop. And both times I felt in awe of it: it is so difficult and the results are soo great, you hardly need any other exercises in a workout. I also think that doing high rep squats sets this way is beneficial for GS.

As it turned out, this "breathing" way of working out is not unknown to Russian gireviks either. First time I came across it in Ryabchenko's article describing his famous routine. First set with the heaviest bells is always done in "breathing" manner: a number breaths between reps, increasing from workout to workout. You can check the appropriate post here for details.

Yesterday I came across another application of this method. Discussing how to improve snatch, Fly, the poster on Rybinsk forum, shared his method that apparently helped him to increase his numbers (his best is 140 snatches with 24 kg in sligthly over 9 minutes).

Fly uses 28 kg KB in this method, the essence of which is "breathing ladders". As the sideline, isn't it funny, ladders - something so HS - is used in the authentic Russian GS environment! Never mind. It goes like this. You snatch 28 kg every 5 breaths (fixation overhead, of course) for 3-5-7 reps, swapping hands and non-stop. So, 3 left, then 3 right, 5 left, 5 right, 7 left, 7 right. Fly takes about 6-7 seconds for 5 breaths. Therefore, the 3-5-7 ladder will take just under 3 minutes or so. He also mentioned that he did 8-10-12 ladders in this format, and it rook him over 9 minutes. I think there would be nothing wrong with experimenting and substituting breathing for time, say 10-15 second pause at the top. I also think this method may be useful for jerk training, performing OAJ or OALC this way, resting either at the top or rack.

The method implies using heavier kettlebell, that's why the total number of reps is not that high. Ladders are great way to increase volume of training. In this case the duration of the set is also increased by long pauses between reps. This is the best of both worlds: long set that would please the OTW fraternity, and the ladder format will please RKC. Peace at last!