Tactical Strength Challenge Home Page

What is Tactical Strength?

By Pavel Tsatsouline

Pavel Tsatsouline created the original Tactical Strength Challenge as a test of his own training ideal. You can read Pavel's ideas in his books Power to the People, The Russian Kettlebell Challenge, Beyond Bodybuilding, and others. We asked him to define "tactical strength" and he provided the answer below.

Many men and women participating in kettlebell lifting in the United States are from military backgrounds. Note, however, that (a) you do not need to be in the military or be a veteran to participate in the TSC, and (b) we do not claim that training for or participating in the TSC would fully prepare you for combat or any military operation.

Pavel Tsatsouline

How do I define tactical strength?

Tactical refers to small scale military or law enforcement operations.

Strength is defined as one’s ability to exert force under given conditions.

Tactical strength is the ability to perform the combat skills requiring great strength explosively and efficiently in the conditions defined by the mission.

Broadly speaking it is the strength to move rapidly in full kit (running, individual movement technique or IMT, negotiating obstacles), handle heavy weapons, carry the wounded, win in CQB, etc. The ‘mission specific conditions’ include but are not limited to the terrain, the climate, the method of insertion, etc.

One of variables is fatigue. In the law enforcement the fatigue is usually anaerobic. In the military the operator may experience many types of fatigue: anaerobic, aerobic, sleep deprivation, hunger, general fatigue from being in the field for an extended period of time, etc.