Furo's Kettlebell Log

Training Training Logs
1061

[b] Cutting Week 14 Summary

Baseline: [/b] 97kg

Fortnight 1: 95.8kg

Fortnight 2: 94.9kg

Fortnight 3: 94.6kg

Fortnight 4: No data

Fortnight 5: 93.8kg

Fortnight 6: 93.3kg

Fortnight 7: 93.1kg

I have decided to start summarising my training fortnightly as weekly summaries were becoming too cumbersome. I think it’s easier to interpret this way.

This week has consisted of 5 fullbody kettlebell days, one hike and one rest day. 4 of the days were with the full weight and one was slightly lighter. My goal for next week is to use the full weight for all sessions. After next week I will likely change up my training slightly as my second 28kg kettlebell should have arrived and I’d also like to start incorporating 40kg clean and jerks for my challenge with ActivitiesGuy.

1062

[quote]furo wrote:

Hey Bird, I am a fellow IFer so don’t eat breakfast. I have to confess that my lunches aren’t great: usually quite a large portion of meat, chips (fries) and a tonne of green veg. I find it hard to restrict myself at lunch when I’m stressed (poor excuse I know).

[/quote]

We are going to have to change this. Large portion of meat and green veg is great, but how about replacing the chips with maybe some rice. You can buy little cups of rice from the supermarket that only need to be microwaved for a minute and its ready to eat. Aim to make small changes/adjustments to your lunch time habits, and eventually your diet will be spotless.

Im not sure of this s applicable in your situation, but my standard first meal of the day is 4 boiled eggs and a plate of veges (from dinner the night before). I eat this at about 11:30am, and then for my second meal at about 2pm I have a protein shake and maybe some rice paper rolls or sashimi from the local Japanese place.

Uncle Bird.

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1063

[quote]theBird wrote:
We are going to have to change this. Large portion of meat and green veg is great, but how about replacing the chips with maybe some rice. You can buy little cups of rice from the supermarket that only need to be microwaved for a minute and its ready to eat. Aim to make small changes/adjustments to your lunch time habits, and eventually your diet will be spotless.

Im not sure of this s applicable in your situation, but my standard first meal of the day is 4 boiled eggs and a plate of veges (from dinner the night before). I eat this at about 11:30am, and then for my second meal at about 2pm I have a protein shake and maybe some rice paper rolls or sashimi from the local Japanese place.

Uncle Bird.

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[/quote]

Hey bud, I think you are right and I should work on cleaning up my lunch, but it’s working at the moment and I’d rather leave that tool for when I plateau and it is needed. Due to the pace of my job I never spend more than 15-20min eating and I certainly don’t have the time to eat twice during the day, which is why I find it so easy just to wolf down one big plate. But I definitely agree with you and when my progress stalls eating like this my next move will be to replace the chips at lunch.

1064

Cutting Week 15: Upper Body

Barbell Press/Chin-Up Superset
30kg/BW: 10/5-10/5-10/5

Bench Press/KB Row
60kg/24kg: 10/10-10/10-10/10

Ring Dips/Lateral Raises
BW/6kg: 3/15-3/15-6/15

Barbell Curls/Band Extensions
20kg/Band: can’t remember, 10-15 reps

Bodyweight: 92.1kg

This was a really nice upper body session with Rattlehead. Bodyweight is going well too at the moment.

1065

Cutting Week 15: 40-Day Program Day 15

Warm-Up
Hip circles and goblet squats

Goblet Squats
40kg: 2x5

Kettlebell Press
28kg: 2x5

Kettlebell Row
40kg: 2x5

Two-Handed Swing
40kg: 20

Ab-Rollouts
BW: 5

Bodyweight: 93.5kg

Not much to say about this one. More of the same. Tight hips.

1066

Cutting Week 15: Double 28s!

Warm-Up
Goblet squats and hip circles

Double Front Squats
2x28kg: 5x5

Clean and Jerk
2x28kg: 5x5

Kettlebell Swing
40kg: 1x20

Bodyweight: 93.1kg

The double front squats felt awesome - much more like proper barbell leg work than anything else I’ve tried with kettlebells. As with all kettlebell exercises I had to expend more energy stabilising the whole thing, but that was less pronounced than with goblet squats. They felt like they challenged my quads and also my core. I also think the weight itself is perfect for my needs: I can do 5x5 with good form, but it was a struggle towards the end of each set.

The clean and jerks were another matter. My initially plan was to try a 3min long cycle, but that blew up horrendously. 5 reps in and I was completely gassed and, embarrassingly, my strength was also failing. My respect for the kettlebell sport guys just went through the roof. I think part of it was a technical, as I’ve never done the lift before, but most of it was my horrible conditioning and poor strength. In many ways this is a good thing though - the worse you are at something the more important it is you work on it. My plan for these is to build up like normal a normal strength exercise: 5x5 for one week, 4x8 for the next and then 3x10 for the third week. Hopefully I’ll initially get some noob gains in conditioning and technique and that jump won’t be too hard. After that I’ll work on timed sets.

I like the idea of high frequency full body days so I plan on alternating this session with one of 40kg clean and jerk singles and rows.

1067

[quote]furo wrote:
The clean and jerks were another matter. My initially plan was to try a 3min long cycle, but that blew up horrendously. 5 reps in and I was completely gassed and, embarrassingly, my strength was also failing. My respect for the kettlebell sport guys just went through the roof. I think part of it was a technical, as I’ve never done the lift before, but most of it was my horrible conditioning and poor strength. In many ways this is a good thing though - the worse you are at something the more important it is you work on it. My plan for these is to build up like normal a normal strength exercise: 5x5 for one week, 4x8 for the next and then 3x10 for the third week. Hopefully I’ll initially get some noob gains in conditioning and technique and that jump won’t be too hard. After that I’ll work on timed sets.
[/quote]

I chuckled a bit when I read this because those were my exact thoughts when I started Long Cycle and Jerk themselves. They are just different beasts and a lot more technical compared to the other kettlebell movements. Glad I’m not the only one who feels this way about them! Had a feeling you would love the front squats on a positive note!

1068

^I’ll second/third the “man, long cycle is harder than I expected it to be” emotion.

I was worried by double 44’s might not be heavy enough for long cycle and that I’d just be ripping through 10 minute sets right away.

Or, well, not.

Gives us something to work towards :slight_smile:

Furo: I’m glad you like the double front squat. You’re somewhat more structured than I with training but if you ever want a quick and mindless workout, set a timer and do singles of the clean/squat/press complex on short rest. It feels easy at first, but those last few reps the rest periods start to feel shorter and shorter! I also feel that is good training for KB sport and our 40 kg press challenge!

1069

Thanks a lot for the idea ActivitiesGuy, that sounds absolutely brutal. I like the idea of having a broad structure to my training, but some variation and randomness within that structure, if that makes sense.

Cutting Week 15: Rows and Long Cycle

Warm-Up
Hip circles and goblet squats

Kettlebell Row
40kg: 3x5

Kettlebell Clean and Jerks
2x28kg: 8x3 (EMOM)

Ab Roll-Outs
BW: 1x5

Bodyweight: 92.8kg

Today I tried the dice idea for my clean and jerks: I’ve decided to roll one dice for the weight (1-2: 20kg single, 3-4: 28kg double, 5-6: 40kg single) and two for the sets (done every minute on the minute). I rolled a 4 and then an 8 so that’s 2x28kg for 8 sets. In terms of reps I decided to go with 3 as it was light enough that I could maintain form but heavy enough that I didn’t fully recover between sets and was a bit of a mess by the end. With the 40kg I’ll stick with singles and I’ll have to experiment with the 20kg, but I’m guessing I’ll do sets of 5. I really like this way of training, and will definitely stick with it. Thanks jblues!

The only place I have any DOMS from yesterday is my neck and traps, which is a shame because they aren’t necessarily weak points. Having said that I shouldn’t really expect DOMS as I’m not introducing any completely new movement patterns and I didn’t use a high volume yesterday.

I’ve been doing a lot of static stretching over the last few days and really feeling the benefit. I’m trying to work towards side splits and my hips feel a lot better, so I think it is doing me good.

1070

Hey Furo,

Just checking in and letting you know Ive hurt my back again. Not sure exactly what did it, but it was probably a combination of deadlifts and the heavy workload I have recently been doing.

Anyway I think Im going to take a leaf out of your book, and reduce the iron, and maybe try some kettlebell/bodyweight stuff. Do you know of any good books I should read up on to help me on my journey?

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1071

[quote]theBird wrote:
Hey Furo,

Just checking in and letting you know Ive hurt my back again. Not sure exactly what did it, but it was probably a combination of deadlifts and the heavy workload I have recently been doing.

Anyway I think Im going to take a leaf out of your book, and reduce the iron, and maybe try some kettlebell/bodyweight stuff. Do you know of any good books I should read up on to help me on my journey?

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Ah Bird I’m really sorry to hear that! It really sucks.

I would highly highly recommend going down the kettlebell/bodyweight route at least initially (although you might find yourself sticking with it).

I don’t know of any specific books on back injuries, but I’d really recommend checking out anything by Pavel Tsatsouline for training in general. His Simple and Sinister routine would probably be the best possible routine for you to start on so I’d suggest that. It would only require getting one kettlebell (at least to start with) and it is a minimalist routine that stays well away from failure but trains the core and lower back especially well. As well as not aggravating your lower back it should do a really good job of making you more resistant to future injury. Before starting it I would definitely give yourself a week or two of just light bodyweight stuff so that you’re not jumping straight into direct weighted lower body work.

If I were to structure a rough outline it would be something like:

  • 1-2 weeks of high rep bodyweight only lower body (usual upper body)

  • 6 weeks of Simple and Sinister with a relatively light kettlebell (16/20/24kg) plus additional upper body stuff (whatever you feel like)

  • then either continue Simple and Sinister with a heavier kettlebell or use the base you’ve built to explore other kettlebell routines

Just a suggestion, but that’s probably what I would do personally. I’d also recommend checking out Pavel Tsatsouline’s website, but I don’t think they’ll allow me to post a link. It’s strong first all one word.

EDIT: I should add that one of the main concepts of S&S is the idea of being anti-fragile and resistant to injury and so I think it is particularly useful in our situations.

1072

Cutting Week 15: Front Squats and Long Cycle

Warm-Up
Hip circles and goblet squats

Double Front Squats
2x28kg: 5x5
These felt good, although my knees were slightly uncomfortable.

Clean and Jerks
20kg: 9x5 (EMOM)

Kettlebell Swing
40kg: 1x20

Bodyweight: 92.5kg

My knees felt slightly off on the front squats. Nothing major, I’m just a bit wary. The front squats aren’t something I want to push hard - I really just want to get my quads to an acceptable level and then maintain that. I have no ambitions to build very strong quads - my enthusiasm lies with the posterior chain lol. My long term plan with squats is actually to taper down my volume: I’ll start with 5x5 then reduce a set every 4 sessions or so until I’m just doing 1 or 2 sets - this should allow me to build the requisite strength to comfortably do 5s with the two 28s, with the minimum amount of effort (and strain on my knees) to maintain it.

The clean and jerks with the single 20kg went really well. 5 reps per hand worked out perfectly - I was getting 20 seconds rest between the early sets, but as I slowed down they shrunk to the point that I had to do the final two sets back to back. It left me very gassed, but not destroyed from a strength point of view. I think this dice idea that jblues had is fantastic :).

1073

Glad you are enjoying the dice idea. That was my biggest takeaway from Return of the Kettlebell. Once you get into it more you will notice the different numbers you roll you will change your approach to pace. Unless your name is Ivan Denisov there aren’t too many people that could go balls to the wall with Long Cycle for 12 minutes straight and live to tell about it!

1074

Hey Furo,

I was just thinking about your squats a bit. You were doing 2 x 5 with the 40kg for quite some time, right? Then when you got the second 28kg, you jumped the volume up to 5 x 5. That could be quite a bit since it coincides with a 16kg jump.

Nice work with the long cycle stuff. I’m excited to follow your continued progress on those.

brian

1075

[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Glad you are enjoying the dice idea. That was my biggest takeaway from Return of the Kettlebell. Once you get into it more you will notice the different numbers you roll you will change your approach to pace. Unless your name is Ivan Denisov there aren’t too many people that could go balls to the wall with Long Cycle for 12 minutes straight and live to tell about it! [/quote]

Yeah I was thinking about that today, I like the idea of doing a minimum of EMOM training, but if I roll 2min with the 20kg just going for it continuously. I guess I’ll have to be flexible :).

[quote]booksbikesbeer wrote:
Hey Furo,

I was just thinking about your squats a bit. You were doing 2 x 5 with the 40kg for quite some time, right? Then when you got the second 28kg, you jumped the volume up to 5 x 5. That could be quite a bit since it coincides with a 16kg jump.

Nice work with the long cycle stuff. I’m excited to follow your continued progress on those.

brian[/quote]

Hi Brian, good to hear from you :). Yes you are right it is quite a jump. Looking back through my log it seems I was doing 40kg lunges for a while, then 3x10 40kg goblet squats for a few weeks and then most recently 2x5 40kg goblet squats daily for the last few weeks. All of that probably helped with technique but none of that will have built much strength, so I do think the jump to 56kg for 5x5 is quite a big one. Having said that it doesn’t seem to be enough to cause any real problems, I certainly don’t have any DOMS from it and I feel well recovered. I think 2x28kg is the perfect weight to be a bit of a grind without being too difficult, and if I get to the stage where it is really comfortable I will be very happy with that. It has been a very long time (probably since the barbell lunges at the start of this log) since I’ve really pushed myself on a quad-dominant movement. To be honest I’m a little surprised I can do the 2x28kg front squats (not that it is an impressive feat lol). I guess strength isn’t very straightforward once you’ve been training for quite a while. Seems like sometimes it plateaus for ages (eg my rows) and sometimes you can do things you feel you haven’t earned (eg my barbell front squat PR), without much rhyme or reason. Keeps it interesting I suppose!

I’m extremely happy that I feel like I’ve found a completely balanced set of exercises. For the first time in absolutely ages I feel that I have a really good hinge exercise (the swing), a really good pull (the row), a really good squat exercise (the front squat) and a really good push (the jerk). Now I just need to get stronger and fitter at them all.

1076

[quote]furo wrote:

[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Glad you are enjoying the dice idea. That was my biggest takeaway from Return of the Kettlebell. Once you get into it more you will notice the different numbers you roll you will change your approach to pace. Unless your name is Ivan Denisov there aren’t too many people that could go balls to the wall with Long Cycle for 12 minutes straight and live to tell about it! [/quote]

Yeah I was thinking about that today, I like the idea of doing a minimum of EMOM training, but if I roll 2min with the 20kg just going for it continuously. I guess I’ll have to be flexible :).

[quote]booksbikesbeer wrote:
Hey Furo,

I was just thinking about your squats a bit. You were doing 2 x 5 with the 40kg for quite some time, right? Then when you got the second 28kg, you jumped the volume up to 5 x 5. That could be quite a bit since it coincides with a 16kg jump.

Nice work with the long cycle stuff. I’m excited to follow your continued progress on those.

brian[/quote]

Hi Brian, good to hear from you :). Yes you are right it is quite a jump. Looking back through my log it seems I was doing 40kg lunges for a while, then 3x10 40kg goblet squats for a few weeks and then most recently 2x5 40kg goblet squats daily for the last few weeks. All of that probably helped with technique but none of that will have built much strength, so I do think the jump to 56kg for 5x5 is quite a big one. Having said that it doesn’t seem to be enough to cause any real problems, I certainly don’t have any DOMS from it and I feel well recovered. I think 2x28kg is the perfect weight to be a bit of a grind without being too difficult, and if I get to the stage where it is really comfortable I will be very happy with that. It has been a very long time (probably since the barbell lunges at the start of this log) since I’ve really pushed myself on a quad-dominant movement. To be honest I’m a little surprised I can do the 2x28kg front squats (not that it is an impressive feat lol). I guess strength isn’t very straightforward once you’ve been training for quite a while. Seems like sometimes it plateaus for ages (eg my rows) and sometimes you can do things you feel you haven’t earned (eg my barbell front squat PR), without much rhyme or reason. Keeps it interesting I suppose!

I’m extremely happy that I feel like I’ve found a completely balanced set of exercises. For the first time in absolutely ages I feel that I have a really good hinge exercise (the swing), a really good pull (the row), a really good squat exercise (the front squat) and a really good push (the jerk). Now I just need to get stronger and fitter at them all. [/quote]

I forgot about those sets of 10 with the 40kg and the lunges. No doubt you’ve got some good leg strength going (that front squat PR from a few weeks ago is a perfect indication).

Looking through my brief post, I see I left out a specific issue I was thinking about. That would be not that I think the jump in weight/volume would trouble your strength and technique, but it seems like it might be enough to trigger some issues in your knees. Tendons and ligaments seem so easy to tweak. I know I have this issue regarding my left shoulder and elbow when it comes to clean and pressing and pullups. The last few workouts I’ve cut my pullups shorter than I planned. Basically right when I started to feel something. Now I’m in the habit of doing that, and I’m slowly piling the work back on. Could be a luck thing, though.

One of the things I love about training is that it is NOT straight forward. The principles are when you read about them, but once you put everything into practice it becomes very, very nuanced.

1077

[quote]booksbikesbeer wrote:
I forgot about those sets of 10 with the 40kg and the lunges. No doubt you’ve got some good leg strength going (that front squat PR from a few weeks ago is a perfect indication).

Looking through my brief post, I see I left out a specific issue I was thinking about. That would be not that I think the jump in weight/volume would trouble your strength and technique, but it seems like it might be enough to trigger some issues in your knees. Tendons and ligaments seem so easy to tweak. I know I have this issue regarding my left shoulder and elbow when it comes to clean and pressing and pullups. The last few workouts I’ve cut my pullups shorter than I planned. Basically right when I started to feel something. Now I’m in the habit of doing that, and I’m slowly piling the work back on. Could be a luck thing, though.
[/quote]

You are completely right, I hadn’t thought of it from an injury/ligament/tendon point of view but that jump is quite dramatic and I have been having some knee pain since. I think kettlebell movements are a bit more vulnerable than barbell lifts to injury in that it’s harder to maintain absolutely perfect form with all the stabilising you have to do, although they are safer in terms of sheer weight I guess. Unfortunately I don’t have a way to bridge the gap between the 40kg goblet squat and the 2x28kg front squat, but I’ll definitely put more effort into my warm-up (so far I’ve been doing 3x5 with a 28kg, but I should do some sets with the 40kg.

[quote]booksbikesbeer wrote:
One of the things I love about training is that it is NOT straight forward. The principles are when you read about them, but once you put everything into practice it becomes very, very nuanced.
[/quote]

Yes that is one of my favourite things too! It makes it all much more interesting. I feel like strength training is simultaneously one of the simplest and most complex activities one can do.

1078

Cutting Week 16 - Rows and Long Cycle

Warm-Up
Hip circles and goblet squats

Kettlebell Row
2x28kg: 5x5

Clean and Jerks
20kg: 8x5 (each hand) EMOM

Ab Rollouts
BW: 1x5

Bodyweight: ?

I spontaneously went home for the weekend, which is why I didn’t train for the past 2 days. I also feel a bit tight but I think that is because of all of the driving.

This session felt great. I experimented with two-handed rows (like a barbell row) and loved them. In hindsight I think getting the second 28kg has been more beneficial than getting the 40kg, although both are very useful.

I rolled a 2 then two 4s, so did 8 sets of on-the-minute clean and jerks with the 20kg (5 reps in each hand). Unfortunately my neck has really been playing up this weekend, and I think it may be to do with all of the clean and jerks. I will persevere and keep stretching my neck and hopefully it’ll stop happening.

1079

Cutting Week 16: Front Squats and Swings

Warm-Up
Hip circles and goblet squats

Front Squats
2x28kg: 4x5

Kettlebell Swings
20kg: 1x50
28kg: 1x25

Bodyweight: 92.9kg

My neck was especially sore and I woke up with a tension headache today, so I did high rep swings instead of any clean and jerks. This is very frustrating. The swings felt weird - I focused on keeping my shoulders packed and not shrugging my shoulders, and I felt a strong stretch in my neck.

I did a more thorough warm-up today and my squats felt more comfortable. Instead of doing 28kg 3x5 goblet squats I did 20kg x15, 28kg x10 and 40kg x5. Hopefully I’ll feel good tomorrow having warmed up well and avoided clean and jerks.

1080

Cutting Week 16: Rows and Swings

Kettlebell Rows
2x28kg: 5-8-10 (like barbell rows)
40kg: 3-5-8 (like dumbbell rows)

Kettlebell Swings
20kg: 3x50

Bodyweight: 92.8kg

I avoided clean and jerks again today, but plan on doing them tomorrow. The rows felt good - 8 reps with the 40kg was difficult but I maintained good form and I’m pretty sure it is a PR.

After my challenge with ActivitiesGuy I think I’ll do a bit of a bodybuilding phase. Something to build a little muscle and more importantly avoid any injuries at all. I’m thinking of something along the lines of an upper/lower split just using 4 main exercises: front squats, swings, push-ups and rows (as well as abs). I think it would be cool to start at 3x10 on all exercises and add a set per week until I’m doing 10x10. My swings and push-ups are definitely strong enough for 10x10 at the moment, but my front squats and rows are behind. If I work them consistently they should be good for 3x10 by the time of the challenge and I think 10x10 is quite a reasonable goal. So that would be a nice 8 week bodybuilding phase, and additionally it should allow me to nicely build up my strength on the front squats in particular.