Rest Day (Yesterday)
Simple and Sinister Day 62
One-Arm Swings
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 3x5
28kg: 1x10
Turkish Get-Ups
28kg: 2x1
40kg: 3x1
Everything felt heavy today.
Upper Body Day
Chest and Shoulders
Today I joined RATTLEHEAD for a Meadows-style chest and shoulders session. I didn’t note exactly what we did at the time, and can’t remember it all so I’ll just write a little bit about it here. We started with flat dumbbell press (30kg: 3x10), then did incline barbell press (50kgx?), then flat bench (50kg again I think?). Then for shoulders we did lateral raises, barbell press, wide grip barbell press (could only manage the bar lol!) and then finished up with rear delt flyes.
I’d never trained like this before (with pre-fatigueing and really focussing on the MMC etc) and it was really humbling! RATTLEHEAD was very knowledgable and helped me out with a lot of technique tips etc. I really enjoyed the session!
Kettlebell Rows
20kg: 1x10
40kg: 3x5
I decided to do a little back work an hour after the chest and shoulders session, so I could count today as a full upper body day.
Bodyweight: 95.9kg
I finished up with 15min stretching, including a 2:20min squat hold (which is a big improvement for me).
Rest Day
Today I did 20 min of stretching, including two 2:30min squat holds. These feel like they are really helping.
Also got a nice amount of DOMS from yesterday :).
Enjoy your log! I enjoy kettlebells as much if not more than barbell lifting. I have been doing 5/3/1 2-days a week and doing kettlebell workouts for conditioning 2-3 days a week for the past few months. I see you are a pretty big fan of Pavel. I have several of his books including Simple and Sinister but my favorite though is Enter the Kettlebell.
I did S&S for a couple of months and enjoyed it until I got addicted to doing snatches. Feel like that program really laid the foundation for learning proper snatch form. 40kg Get Ups are damn impressive in my opinion. I was feeling pretty good about my 5x1 24kg get ups in the 10 minute goal of S&S but seeing the 40kg makes me want to get back to working on those Get Ups!
Simple and Sinister Day 63
One-Arm Swings
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 4x5
Turkish Get-Ups
28kg: 1x1
40kg: 3x1
28kg: 1x1
Todays session felt fine. Nothing to report really. Did some stretching, right knee felt funny.
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Enjoy your log! I enjoy kettlebells as much if not more than barbell lifting. I have been doing 5/3/1 2-days a week and doing kettlebell workouts for conditioning 2-3 days a week for the past few months. I see you are a pretty big fan of Pavel. I have several of his books including Simple and Sinister but my favorite though is Enter the Kettlebell.
I did S&S for a couple of months and enjoyed it until I got addicted to doing snatches. Feel like that program really laid the foundation for learning proper snatch form. 40kg Get Ups are damn impressive in my opinion. I was feeling pretty good about my 5x1 24kg get ups in the 10 minute goal of S&S but seeing the 40kg makes me want to get back to working on those Get Ups! [/quote]
Thanks a lot jblues85! Yeah I’m really enjoying Simple and Sinister at the moment (along with my upper body days). Snatches are something I really haven’t done much of myself, I should get into them. That’s a good idea, combining 5/3/1 and kettlebells.
[quote]furo wrote:
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Enjoy your log! I enjoy kettlebells as much if not more than barbell lifting. I have been doing 5/3/1 2-days a week and doing kettlebell workouts for conditioning 2-3 days a week for the past few months. I see you are a pretty big fan of Pavel. I have several of his books including Simple and Sinister but my favorite though is Enter the Kettlebell.
I did S&S for a couple of months and enjoyed it until I got addicted to doing snatches. Feel like that program really laid the foundation for learning proper snatch form. 40kg Get Ups are damn impressive in my opinion. I was feeling pretty good about my 5x1 24kg get ups in the 10 minute goal of S&S but seeing the 40kg makes me want to get back to working on those Get Ups! [/quote]
Thanks a lot jblues85! Yeah I’m really enjoying Simple and Sinister at the moment (along with my upper body days). Snatches are something I really haven’t done much of myself, I should get into them. That’s a good idea, combining 5/3/1 and kettlebells.
[/quote]
It’s worked out pretty well. I went from the 10,000 swing challenge back to 5/3/1 in May. The swing challenge brought my conditioning levels up drastically with a slight strength decrease. After a few weeks my lifts were way stronger than before. Doing the get up helped a ton with my overhead pressing strength and stability. The 1 arm and 2 arms swings brought my deadlift up quite a bit as well. Was skeptical about all of the kettlebell rage until I got my hands on one and they will be apart of my training for life.
Upper Body Day
Kettlebell Rows
20kg: 1x15
40kg: 5x6
These felt heavy, but I got them done.
Push-Ups
BW: 3x25
I did 20min of stretching, including a 4min squat hold. My right knee felt really weird again when I stretched my quads.
Tomorrow is a rest day (which I feel I need) and then I have 7 consecutive days of 13 hour shifts, so I don’t have high hopes for training. I’ll just play it by ear and do what I can.
I’m really glad to hear how much success you’ve had with kettlebells jblues85. I haven’t really tested my barbell lifts since switching to them. I imagine my squat and bench will have gone down, but perhaps my deadlift has increased? I’ll have to test it at some point. All the best!
Rest Day
I just stretched today, including a 4min squat hold. I also made an apple, spinach and ginger drink thanks to ActivitiesGuy - it tasted very good!
Not much to report, I have zero energy or inclination to train this week. I’ll get back into it on Friday when I finish these horrible shifts.
The really good news is that my knees are tolerating so much standing and walking without the slightest problem, which definitely wouldn’t have been the case a year ago or more. I’m not sure if it’s due to the different style of training or the stretching/mobility work. Probably a bit of both.
I hope everyone is doing well!
[quote]furo wrote:
Not much to report, I have zero energy or inclination to train this week. I’ll get back into it on Friday when I finish these horrible shifts.
I hope everyone is doing well![/quote]
Sometimes a week off is what us needed. Just dont let the diet go out of cobtrol which usually happens with me when I get tired. I was chatting to a few quacks over the weekend and apparently IF is all the rage. They feel that it may provide some real and significantly beneficial effects. Have you heard much about this from your colleagues?
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I really agree about a week off being a good thing, I find it’s great for maintaining motivation. Tbh my diet did take a dive over the week (last day was yesterday) but I also definitely had a much greater expenditure and I’ve actually lost weight - today I weighed 93.6kg. Slightly worrying actually.
Oh that’s really interesting, I saw your post about that in the EyeDentist thread. No I haven’t heard about it from any colleagues, but I’ll definitely keep my ear to the ground.
Simple and Sinister Day 64
One-Arm Swings
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 3x10
28kg: 1x10
I’m really happy I got 3x10 on 40kg, but my rest periods were long.
Turkish Get-Ups
28kg: 2x1
40kg: 1x3
Bodyweight: 93.6kg
I think my weight loss (3-4kg) is due to working long hours and being very stressed and missing some meals, it is a lot though :/. I mean I’m trying to drop weight, but I’d rather it was more controlled. I have a week off now so I’ll try to just hold at this weight.
EDIT: I also did just under an hour of stretching before this session. I still feel quite tight, but don’t feel like doing any more right now.
I know that you’ve got a clue what you’re doing, and just mentioned low energy due to some killer work shifts, but a workout that I’ve done a couple times recently and thought I would share with you:
10 pushups
1 clean and press (per hand)
1 Turkish get-up (per hand)
Repeated for 10 rounds (doesn’t have to be in a huge rush). This just seemed like a really nice all-around workout that makes good use of kettlebell and bodyweight stuff. Thought you might enjoy it if you’re ever seeking a changeup from your Simple & Sinister workouts 
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
I know that you’ve got a clue what you’re doing, and just mentioned low energy due to some killer work shifts, but a workout that I’ve done a couple times recently and thought I would share with you:
10 pushups
1 clean and press (per hand)
1 Turkish get-up (per hand)
Repeated for 10 rounds (doesn’t have to be in a huge rush). This just seemed like a really nice all-around workout that makes good use of kettlebell and bodyweight stuff. Thought you might enjoy it if you’re ever seeking a changeup from your Simple & Sinister workouts :)[/quote]
That sounds like a great workout! What sort of weight do you use for it? I’d have to go pretty light to do that for rounds!
Upper Body Day
Kettlebell Row
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 3x5
Push-Up s
BW: 3x10
Bodyweight: 95.5kg (that’s better)
I just did a scaled down session today because I only got home from a day trip at 9pm. Tomorrow is going to be a pyjama day for sure haha.
Simple and Sinister Day 65
One-Arm Swings
28kg: 1x10
40kg: 1x10
28kg: 1x10
Turkish Get-Ups
28kg: 1x1
40kg: 1x1
28kg: 1x1
Bodyweight: 96.1kg
I actually wasn’t going to train today, I had a headache and didn’t feel like it, but then I read through Panzerfaust’s new log and felt like I should (although I only did 3 sets, not 5). My bodyweight looks to be heading quickly back to my standard weight of 96.5-97.5kg, which is fine.
EDIT: I also did 30min of stretching, including a 5min squat hold which I think is a PR.
Conditioning Day
Today I did some conditioning with Rattlehead. We did 40kg swings, upright rows, backwards sled drags and sled rows. We deliberately did it with a back focus so I can count it as an upper body day and do S&S tomorrow. I also did 40min of stretching this morning, including a 5min squat hold.
Are your legs and hips feeling a lot better since you started doing the squat holds? I have considered doing a goblet squat hold for time while watching TV and was wondering how the holds were working out for you. Just holding a goblet squat for 10 secs makes my entire lower body feel so much better before any workout.
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Are your legs and hips feeling a lot better since you started doing the squat holds? I have considered doing a goblet squat hold for time while watching TV and was wondering how the holds were working out for you. Just holding a goblet squat for 10 secs makes my entire lower body feel so much better before any workout.[/quote]
I have been incorporating goblet squats in my training. I just do them in between working sets. I sometimes do them for reps, and occasional “hang out” at the bottom. I still need something to hold on to tough. I have felt it has really helped my hip flexibility and my knees feel better than ever, although I have a one way to go before I can squat ATG.
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Yes I definitely feel that the squat holds are really helping my hip mobility and knee pain. In fact my knee pain has all but gone (but I can’t be sure of the exact reason and how much squat holds contributed). I think doing them while watching TV would be a really good idea.
Simple and Sinister Day 66
Two-Arm Swings
28kg: 10x5
One-Arm Swings
40kg: 4x10
28kg: 1x10
Turkish Get-Ups
28kg: 1x1
40kg: 1x1
28kg: 1x1
Bodyweight: 94.6kg
I also did 10min of stretching, including a 5min squat hold. As I said above, I really feel like these are helping. I hope to hit 10mins reasonably soon.
Today I was teaching a friend how to do swings, hence the high volume of swings I did myself. He also did swings for the last 3 sets when I was doing Turkish Get-Ups, so he did a lot of volume: 10x5 with 28kg, then 5x10 with 28kg, then 3x5 with 40kg (all 2-handed).
Initially I had the plan of making this my first ever session where I get all sets on all exercises with the 40kg, but my grip failed me on the swings and then I lost motivation to push myself on the get-ups. Rubbish excuse, sorry!