Pavel Tsatsouline

How to relax resisting bodies and minds

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I went to the gym just now, and I tried to do something like the splits.

I sat myself down on the mat. I splayed my legs out. But instead of the necessary 180 degrees, which is what the splits call for, my legs only went about 90 degrees. “The squares, not the splits,” they said to me. “That’s all we’re doing today.”

I tried negotiating with my legs, both together and individually. “No,” they kept saying in unison. “No means no.”

But where persuasion won’t work, force will.

So I put my fists on the insides of my thighs. Instead of trying to spread my legs ever wider, I squished my legs in towards each other, against the resistance of my fists.

I kept this up for about ten seconds. I then relaxed for a moment. And I tried the splits again. Result?

Of course I didn’t manage it. But this time, instead of just 90 degrees, I got noticeably further, 98, maybe 100 degrees.

That’s a little trick I learned a long time ago from Pavel Tsatsouline’s book Relax Into Stretching.

As you, might know, Pavel’s legend is that he was formerly a fitness instructor for the Soviet Special Forces. He loves to use the word “comrade” in his training videos and to cite Soviet-era exercise science to back up weird body tricks.

Such as [imagine it with a Russian accent]: “Contract-relax stretching is documented to be at least 267% more effective than conventional relaxed stretching!”

But it’s not just the body that works this way. The mind does too.

There’s a way to bring people into hypnosis called the Dave Elman induction. A part of it is the usual, “close your eyes, relax” guidance from the hypnotist.

Except once your eyes are closed, the hypnotist tells you, ​​​”Open your eyes. Now close your eyes again and relax twice as deeply as before… Now open your eyes. And close your eyes again and relax even more deeply…”

It’s called fractionation, and it’s supposed to be a reliable technique to bring people into deeper and deeper trance.

Does it really work?​
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Test it out yourself and see. The next time you’re at the gym… or in bed as you’re trying and failing to fall asleep… or perhaps the next time you’re writing a sales email.

And now imagine click below to my Most Valuable Email sales page, and reading all the fascinating and curious things I promise in the headline…

No no, stop imagining. Come back to earth or at least back to this email.

Now imagine that fascination and curiosity building up to an almost unbearable level as you make your way down the sales page…

Seriously stop it. Stop imagining being so fascinated and curious. It’s off-putting.

Except wouldn’t it be fascinating and curious to finally find out what the Most Valuable Email trick is? Of course it would. Here’s where to go to get it:

https://bejakovic.com/mve/

The capitalist running dog responsible for a billion-dollar industry

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I started a new gym routine today.

And ​I’m finally trying some kettlebells. Which is rather odd, when you think about it.


Ten years ago, almost nobody had every heard of kettlebells.

Today, these lumps of iron are probably a billion dollar industry. Every gym around the world literally has dozens of them — and they ain’t cheap.

So what explains this explosion in kettle-interest?

In one word, Pavel.

In two words, Pavel Tsatsouline.

AKA “The Evil Russian,” Pavel Tsatsouline popularized the kettlebell in America, and was directly responsible for the fact that I was using one this morning.

Of course, Pavel didn’t do it alone.

There was also John Du Cane, owner of Dragon Door Publications, a direct marketing publisher that sells martial arts and fitness programs, including Pavel’s original Russian Kettlebell Challenge.

Over the years, Dragon Door has had other promising fitness stars in its stable.

But none of them have had anything close to the mainstream impact of The Evil Russian.

Which raises the question, why?

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might be able to guess my thoughts on why Pavel was so successful.

In a nutshell, it’s his origin story.

Born in Minsk, raised in Riga, Pavel was supposedly a physical training instructor for Spetsnaz, the elite Soviet special-forces unit.

He then emigrated to the U.S., and after a string of odd jobs, became a “capitalist running dog,” selling Soviet military training secrets to pudgy middle-class Americans.


Of course, not everybody can claim to be peddling military secrets.

But with a bit of work, different elements of Pavel’s origin story can be applied, with surprisingly good effect, to any product, service, or brand.

This is something I’ll talk about in more detail in the future. For example, in my upcoming book on email marketing.

If you want to get notified when that book is out, and even to grab yourself a free copy, then comrade, you have but one task. Go to the page below, and subscribe to my newsletter:

https://bejakovic.com/profitable-health-emails/