[quote]BCFlynn wrote:
But seriously guys, what is everyone working on?
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My main focus is improving my clean-and-press. Most of my workouts also incorporate a little “pump work” as my apartment building has a fitness room with a little Universal machine, so I do the following several days a week:
A1. KB Movement (Goblet Squat, Snatch, Swing)
A2. Lat Pulldown
A3. Chest Press
I’ll do a few rounds of that to warm up (or sometimes just do that 8-10 rounds and call that the workout). My favorite workout starts with 4 rounds of that cycle to warm up, then a bunch of heavy KB clean-and-presses with my 88 pounder.
I’ve got my little challenge with furo coming up (max reps with 88 pounder in 5 minutes), and a long-term goal of mine is to press a 48 kg (106-pound) kettlebell, which is a requirement for the StrongFirst Level II certification.
I also will likely give kettlebell sport a go at some point. Gotta get better at long snatch sets with a heavier bell to do that.
[quote]furo wrote:
In terms of my next move I’m considering getting a second 28kg and incorporating a lot of doubles stuff. Not completely sure though. I also really want to find a way to do pull-ups regularly as I don’t have anything set up at home. [/quote]
I can’t decide if I should buy a second that I already have so I can do doubles, or if I should get a 32 kg (70-lb) to fill in the large gap between my heaviest (40 kg / 88-lb) and second-heaviest (24 kg / 53-lb).
Or, just saving up for a 48kg / 106-pounder to work on the Beast challenge. I’m not sure I could do anything more than swing one that heavy at this point, though, but now that I can move the 88 for 30+ swings, a 106 would probably have some utility.
great work clean and pressing the 88! I can only push press it. I need to focus on that someday.
I can do TGU’s w/ it as welll
Furo, try this once you have the goblet squat conquered. Clean the 88 and then Hold it in the rack and try squatting then switch hands. It teaches you to stay really tight.
I would get another 24 or two 32’s. There’s so much that you can do with doubles before you buy the 48kg,
I’m on the ROP right now. Using the 28kg. Yesterday’s workout was the heavy day. Clean and presses:
2 x 1, 2, 3, 4
3 x 1, 2, 3
And I do 5 bodyweight pullups (or chinups, as I alternate the grip some days) after each rung. So 85 pullups yesterday.
Then I finish with 10 sets of 10 one handed swings. That is something I liked about the S and S stuff. One handed swings and working on power rather than ‘how many swings can I get in X minutes?’
My variety days are get ups with the 32kg and 3 x 5 zercher squats.
I’m hoping this plan will let me put on a little lean mass and keep getting stronger, too.
So, I bought a second 44-pounder for my collection. I’ll start playing with double swings and the long cycle. Details in my log.
Birdy: gosh, there’s so much. I found the following youtube video (15 minutes) a great intro to the foundational KB exercises:
I’m sure you can find something more substantive, but that seems to be the best bang-for-your-buck in teaching the basics cleanly in 15 minutes. I really think most KB movements (swing, press, squat) are very intuitive. The snatch and clean are a bit more complex.
For more substantial material, you can’t go wrong with anything by Pavel Tsatsouline. It depends what writing style speaks to you, what kind of videos you like, etc. Some people need/like a video to follow along for an entire workout, while I prefer making up my own.
Day 1
Bench Press: 5/3/1
Double KB Jerks: for time
Barbell Row: 5x10
DB Curls -superset- Tricep Pushdowns: 3x10 (optional)
Day 2
Front Squat: 5/3/1
Front Squat: 3xFSL (first set last)
1 Arm Kettlebell Snatch: for time
Abs / Lower Back: 3-5x10
Day 3
Overhead Press: 5/3/1
Long Cycle: for time
Lat Pulldowns: 5x10 (Ended up doing 25 pull-ups this past week)
Lateral Raises -superset- Rear Delt work: 3x10 (optional)
Day 4
Power Clean: 5/3/1
Box Squat: 5’s Pro
1 Arm Kettlebell Snatch: for time
Abs / Lower Back: 3-5x10
I ran this setup for the past week and felt pretty good about it. My Long Cycle and Jerks have a loooooong way to go but my Snatch performance is getting better. I set an 8 minute rep PR of 121 reps with my 55# kettlebell on Friday and felt like I had more reps in the tank if I would have sped myself up. Trying to concentrate on pacing myself as opposed to speed right now. I decided at the last minute on Friday to put deadlifts on the shelf and go with Power Cleans and Box Squats. I found deadlifts to be pretty tough to recover from along with all of the kettlebell work. Power Cleans, Box Squats and all of the kettlebell movements should still keep my deadlift where it’s at or possibly make it stronger without actually performing the move.
I’ve been slacking since leaving a house with a full gym. Since moving into a tiny apartment, I’ve picked up a CAP 20lb & 40lbs KB.
Thanks all for your input. I’ve posted here to make myself more accountable.
And I had my screen name long before ISIS was around, just haven’t posted in a while. No affiliation. :)[/quote]
Glad you have taken up kettlebells. Having kettlebells you have a full gym right there in front of you. Furo and Activities Guy has some really good workouts in here and on their logs. They live in apartments and have come up with some really good workouts using kettlebells. I add my kettlebell work after 5/3/1 barbell work for strength and focus on high rep timed sets with kettlebell snatches, double kb jerks, and long cycle. You will be surprised how quick strength gains come with kettlebells.
[quote]jblues85 wrote:
Day 1
Bench Press: 5/3/1
Double KB Jerks: for time
Barbell Row: 5x10
DB Curls -superset- Tricep Pushdowns: 3x10 (optional)
Day 2
Front Squat: 5/3/1
Front Squat: 3xFSL (first set last)
1 Arm Kettlebell Snatch: for time
Abs / Lower Back: 3-5x10
Day 3
Overhead Press: 5/3/1
Long Cycle: for time
Lat Pulldowns: 5x10 (Ended up doing 25 pull-ups this past week)
Lateral Raises -superset- Rear Delt work: 3x10 (optional)
Day 4
Power Clean: 5/3/1
Box Squat: 5’s Pro
1 Arm Kettlebell Snatch: for time
Abs / Lower Back: 3-5x10
I ran this setup for the past week and felt pretty good about it. My Long Cycle and Jerks have a loooooong way to go but my Snatch performance is getting better. I set an 8 minute rep PR of 121 reps with my 55# kettlebell on Friday and felt like I had more reps in the tank if I would have sped myself up. Trying to concentrate on pacing myself as opposed to speed right now. I decided at the last minute on Friday to put deadlifts on the shelf and go with Power Cleans and Box Squats. I found deadlifts to be pretty tough to recover from along with all of the kettlebell work. Power Cleans, Box Squats and all of the kettlebell movements should still keep my deadlift where it’s at or possibly make it stronger without actually performing the move.[/quote]
What size bells are you using for the long cycle? How long can you go? When I did 5/3/1 I had great success using my kettlebells during de-load week. I also did pull-ups of 2-5 reps in between sets of everything else. Aimed for 100 + a week.
[quote]BCFlynn wrote:
What size bells are you using for the long cycle? How long can you go? When I did 5/3/1 I had great success using my kettlebells during de-load week. I also did pull-ups of 2-5 reps in between sets of everything else. Aimed for 100 + a week.
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I am using two 55# Kettlebells for Long Cycle. As far as how long I can go is something I cam currently working on. Last week I got to 15 reps and I think only 2-2.5 minutes went off the clock (8 minute set) before I set the bells down to catch a breath. My pace was too fast starting out and my performance REALLY suffered the rest of the time. I came up with a better system for myself that I am excited to try tomorrow when I do Long Cycle. Once I clean the bells I will pause for a second, jerk, then let the bells rest in the rack position until I’m ready to perform my next rep and repeat. I am still new at Long Cycle and Jerks so I’m still trying to work on technique and become more efficient with the movements. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Doing 5/3/1 before the kettlebell work definitely has it’s challenges. My shoulders have some fatigue after benching and overhead that I can feel my shoulders starting to wear out a little early when doing jerks or long cycle. Snatches after front squats are difficult mainly due to front squats being so tiring with FSL. I performed snatches again on Friday after Power Cleans and Box Squats and felt I had a lot more energy. Dropping the deadlift on that day was a tough decision but felt it needed to be done if I’m going to continue with this set up.
As far as pull-ups are concerned I used to super-set pull-ups (upper body days) and abs (lower body days) with my KB work when I was doing 5 sets of 10. Since switching to timed sets I have to save the pull-ups for later. During my de-load week I have a full body circuit that I really enjoy that is good conditioning but not too taxing. I will do 5-pull-ups, 5-Long Cycle (2x55#), 5-Double Front Squats (2x55#), and 10-2 Hand Swings (80#) for 5-10 rounds depending on how I am feeling.
Mike Mahler has a 4 DVD set with Ken Blackburn and Steve Cotter discussing the clean and jerk in one of the discs. One of the keys that sticks out with the technique was using the chest to help drop the bells as well as bumping them up in the jerk. In the Age of Quarrel. There was also a great disc on the snatch.
I can imagine the shoulders being a little toasty. I really did miss them when doing barbells but was making really good gains with the barbell.
Have you thought about doing kettlebells on 2 off days instead of after 5/3/1? Just a thought in regard to managing fatigue. More days,less volume?
[quote]BCFlynn wrote:
Mike Mahler has a 4 DVD set with Ken Blackburn and Steve Cotter discussing the clean and jerk in one of the discs. One of the keys that sticks out with the technique was using the chest to help drop the bells as well as bumping them up in the jerk. In the Age of Quarrel. There was also a great disc on the snatch.
I can imagine the shoulders being a little toasty. I really did miss them when doing barbells but was making really good gains with the barbell.
Have you thought about doing kettlebells on 2 off days instead of after 5/3/1? Just a thought in regard to managing fatigue. More days,less volume?
[/quote]
My long range plan in the next few months (maybe weeks) is to move over to a 2 day template and have 3-5 days devoted to kettlebells and cardio (sprints and/or 1-2 mile runs). I did not intend on starting timed sets until then but figured I would try it for 3-6 weeks and see how it goes. Right now the extra fatigue is somewhat manageable but looking a couple of cycles ahead I can see where the brick wall will hit.
I have gotten slack on watching videos to help with technique. Right when I got my 2nd 55# bell I learned a lot by watching Mike Mahler and need to revisit a lot of his stuff now that I have some experience under my belt. Thanks for the recommendation on the DVD’s. I will certainly have to check those out if I can find them!
So this is hardly revolutionary stuff, but a workout that I have really enjoyed this week has involved repeated singles of the following:
Double KB Complex: Clean, Squat, Press
Lift the bells off the floor with slight swing backwards between the legs.
Clean the bells to shoulder height.
Front Squat, good and deep.
Press and lock out overhead.
Return bells to floor.
Repeat on short time intervals (I’ve done it one-complex-every-30-seconds and, this morning, one-complex-every-25-seconds) for 15-20 minutes.
Breathing differently when doing short duration sets and doing longer duration working sets was an eye opener for me. Took a seminar with my daughter as I was trying something, anything to get her go after a healthy life. She is now 100 lbs lighter and is in, of all places, Russia getting her masters degree AND training with Russia’s best woman. I took her to grade school with what I know…she is now post grad
We have talks. If you think that personalities and ad hominem attacks are exclusive to bodybuilding, …um NO
Hi guys, I am looking for advice regarding my training. My training over the past year or so has consisted of a lot of high frequency whole body stuff (S&S then some of my own stuff then 40-day programme) and I like that style of training.
Right now my short term goal is a friendly challenge with ActivitiesGuy which is max 40kg clean and jerks in 5min (single, not double). I can currently clean and jerk the 40kg with some difficulty (but not strict press it) and my conditioning is very poor.
Longer term I am interested in experimenting with kettlebell sport, the long cycle particularly appeals. Today my second 28kg arrived so I tried some long cycle with that and embarrassingly only made it to 5 reps before my conditioning let me down and my technique began to go.
My current rough idea for training is to train most days alternating between a day of front squats and clean and jerk with the double 28kgs and a day of clean and jerks and rows with the 40kg. I feel this plan will be good for improving strength and technique, but it doesn’t really address my main weakness which is conditioning.
So my main question is what do you think would be the best way to build conditioning, especially for 5min continuous clean and jerks? In terms of lighter kettlebells I have a 20kg and a 10kg - is the obvious answer to do clean and jerks with them for conditioning? Or would I be better off incorporating some variety (e.g. tabata/running/timed sets of swings)?
My guess would be all of the above and to really hammer down Jerk technique. Right now I am focusing on timed sets of Long Cycle but not going to stress if I have to put the bells down because that will come with time. Also adding sprints on the weekends and a few 400m sprints (I use that term loosely) to see how that works for me. I have read that a lot of the sport guys will do some steady state cardio for 10-15 minutes. Someone once said it’s like training for a marathon more than a weightlifting competition.
As far as load, I would vary your loads and times on different weeks since you have several bells to choose from. Maybe 1 week could be 5 minutes and you use your 2-28 kg bells and push it pretty hard and the next week could be 6 minutes with lighter bells. I’m biased to the roll of dice mentioned in Enter the Kettlebell because it’s random and you could have different times each week whether it’s 2 or 12 minutes and use kettlebells or a pace you know you can get a lot quality reps. I’m just now getting my feet wet with any idea of sport training and haven’t fully committed to it yet.
A setup I would try would be this but focusing on quality of reps. Quantity will come (at least that’s what I tell myself anyway!)
W1 - Timed Double Swings
W2 - Timed Jerks
W3 - Timed Double Cleans
W4 - Timed Long Cycle
These could easily be inserted before or after your main work and see how it works. Again I’m still learning and trying to figure out the best approach for myself in a possible biathlon. If I were to do Long Cycle only, this is how I would setup my training starting out and adjust as needed.
Thanks a lot jblues85! Those sound like great ideas, I particularly like the dice one! What do you think of keeping the 5x5 front squats and rows consistent but vary the clean and jerks with dice. Maybe one die for the weight and two dice for the time. I hadn’t thought of putting the kettlebells down mindset but that sounds like a very sensible idea.
One full round is 100 swings plus 10 squats and takes 4-5 minutes.
You could just repeat that several times as a standalone workout (I’ve done three rounds with a progressively heavier bell: 44, 53, 88 - and found that a solid quick workout) or incorporate as a finisher with every workout. I’ll tell ya, a full round of that with the 88 will leave you breathing awful heavy
