Pyotr Krylov: Simplicity in Strength and Health

“Strengthening the body is not a difficult thing. It is much more difficult to learn how to control your desires, to subordinate your aspirations and impulses to iron discipline. This must be done daily, constantly watching himself, not giving reason to slackness and slackness. Hardening the character, suppressing bad and trifling desires, you can achieve any success in the arena and in life.” -Pyotr Krylov

Pyotr Krylov, often referred to as the King of Kettlebells, was a kettlebell lifter, wrestler, and circus strongman. He was born in 1871 and died in 1933 at the age of 62. After graduating from a maritime school in his early 20s, he became a navigator and sailed all over the world and visited many different countries. After three years his career took a turn to becoming an athlete, performing as a circus strongman and later competing in wrestling.

Some of his feats of strength included bending coins and breaking horseshoes and chains. In addition, he is credited with the following lifts:

·        Crucifix (holding two weights at arm’s length to the sides): 2 x 41kg / 90lb kettlebells

·        Pullover and press of a barbell in the wrestler’s neck bridge: 130kg / 286lbs

·        One arm overhead press: 114kg / 251lbs

·        One arm overhead kettlebell press: 30kg / 66lbs x 86 reps

Throughout his lifetime he was an advocate of health and training. His training consisted of two sessions daily. He developed an incredibly athletic, powerful, and muscular physique with an extremely simple approach to exercise and nutrition.

In the morning, he would begin with a 10 minute “air bath” (deep breathing outside) in the winter or sun tanning in the summer. He would then do a variety of pull-aparts with an elastic chest expander. Next, he would do pushups on the palms or fingertips for up to 100 repetitions. He would then run for 10-15 minutes followed by a series of frog jumps. After this he would take a cold shower. He would walk until dinner time.

Two hours after dinner he would perform the following workout.

1.     Press or jerk of an 80kg / 176lb barbell for 5 sets x 10 reps

2.     Press with two 32kg / 70lb kettlebells for 5 sets x 10 reps

3.     Barbell Squat for 10 sets x 10 reps

4.     Walking up and down stairs while carrying someone on his shoulders

5.     Various shoulder and bicep exercises with 20lb dumbbells

This training was performed every other day, three days per week. He would train wrestling on the days he wasn’t strength training. In addition, he would perform various strongman lifts in the circus.

He believed one should not train for records initially as this would wear the body out. He felt one should first achieve maximum development of their muscles before working for records.

Pyotr’s diet echoed the simplicity of his training. For breakfast he would have two eggs, 2 glasses of milk, and a glass of sweet tea. Dinner was meat, vegetables, potatoes, and fruit. No protein powders, supplements, or steroids. Later he stopped eating meat in favor of vegetables, potatoes, and fruit as he felt it was much healthier.

Pyotr is an example of the exceptional strength and muscular development one can attain with nothing more than free weights, whole foods, and hard work.