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Born in Minsk, behind the iron curtain of the Soviet Union in 1969,

Pavel Satzulin started his career in the Soviet Special Forces,

where he learned and developed methods of strength and endurance training that were practical for combat readiness.

Since moving to the United States in the early 1990s, he's become one of the world's most well-known and successful strength coaches.

His thesis, strength is a skill.

His primary tool for training strength, the kettlebell.

Prior to Pavel's explosion and popularity, kettlebells were largely unknown and unused in the U.S. Today, we can find

them in almost every gym in the country. In fact, we have a small collection of them here

in our very own stone cutter strength gym, which we put to good use on a regular basis. Using his signature line,

Grease the Groove, Pavel's methodology, focuses on repeating strong movement patterns like the swing,

the squat, and the press, with the intention of not only building muscle, but developing the body's

nervous system to be better prepared to withstand heavy loads. With so many big box gyms

full of sophisticated machines designed to isolate individual muscle groups,

implements like the kettlebell and the sandbag stand in stark contrast with their demand for full

body coordination and brute strength.

Kettlebells are lopsided, oddly shaped, and hard to control.

Sandbags shift and fight you on every rep.

No machine better simulates wrestling an opponent or hauling a body to safety. Nothing about these implements is balanced. Nothing is easy.

And that's exactly the point.

Kettlebells and sandbags don't just build muscle.

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