There is a good chance that you’ve never heard of Pavel Tsatsouline and Gray cook but, chances are you know of their fitness ideas. These men are two of the most influential people in the fitness world over the past decade. The ideas and practices exposed by them have influenced all areas of the fitness realm. So who are they?
Pavel Tsatsouline (often abbreviated to just Pavel) is the man most credited for repopularizing the kettlebell here in the West. Thanks largely to the CrossFit phenomena, the kettlebell has become one of the most popular fitness tools around. Pavel was instrumental in the founding of The Russian Kettlebell Certification, RKC for short, the first kettlebell certification in the West. He has since split from the RKC and has helped develop the StorngFirst Kettlebell certification course.
Pavel’s contributions go beyond just kettlebells. His idea of performing large muscle, multi-joint movements has become exceedingly popular, thanks again to CrossFit. He also advocates the tensing of all the muscles when performing an exercise, not just the ones directly involved. This idea originated with his kettlebell work, though has now been applied to traditional weight lifting exercises as well.
Gray Cook is the founder of one of the most sought after certifications in the fitness industry: Functional Movement Systems (FMS). Cook and his FMS stress quality of movement patterns. The FMS consists of a series of assessments used to judge important movement patterns. After scoring each movement, there is a sequence of specific exercise to be used to restore full movement to any area of movement deficiency.
FMS’ focus on movement differs from the traditional approach for treating dysfunction. In traditional thinking, you start with correcting static posture. The rationale for this is that movement comes from the static. By correcting static posture, movement pattern will also be corrected. FMS starts with correcting movement patterns and moves to the static. The idea is that it is more important to be able to move without pain.
Pavel and Gray Cook’s influence can be felt throughout the fitness world. Whether you are doing strength training or corrective exercise or group classes, there is a good chance that their ideas are impacting your workout. Their effect on fitness is deep and their ideas are here to stay.
-Nick
ACE-CPT, NASM-CES, PES