Pavel Tsatsouline has written a few books one of which is entitled Power to the People: Russian Strength Training Secrets for Every American. Paevel isn’t fond of HIT or bodybuilding.

Pavel states, “if you look at the training of the strongest people in the world, be it weightlifters, powerlifters, strongmen, whatever, there’s one universal truth. They always lift heavy, in terms of percentage of one rep max, they always keep their repetitions low, and they never, ever train to failure.” His workout promises strength without bulk.

Pavel doesn’t care how much you can bench. The amount you can bench is irrelevant to your wrestling abilities. Pavel states, “Unless you are training purely for looks, you must focus on the strength needed for your sport, job, or lifestyle. When I got the contract from the state of New Mexico to develop new strength tests for their select Special Weapons And Tactics Teams, I did not contemplate the bench press or curls, but enforced ten pull-ups, ten rock bottom one-legged squats, and ten hanging leg raises.” Pavel is about functional strength. Pavel also likes to do “ladders.” For example, you do one push up, rest a second, do two push-ups, rest briefly again, do three push-ups, and so on. You work your way up the ladder until it starts getting difficult. Then you can rest and do another ladder.

The real goal of a “ladders” based workout is to increase your strength!