Lonnie's Log: The Dan John Experiments (And Beyond)

Training Logs
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Still kicking around, still training.

I have chronicled a couple of notable efforts here in the past, usually choosing to create a separate thread for each one, and this will be no different.

The idea behind this one is rather simple. You know all those cool articles you read 10 years ago, liked them, but never did them? Well I’ll be doing a few of them here.

Dan John has always spoken to me as an author, I have always loved his writing and been intrigued by his programs but, Quite honestly, was too stubborn and set in my body building only ways to give them a shot.

The plan Ive conconted for the Summer is to run a few of his programs back to back to see how they work, see how they feel, and what I can learn about myself from them

Program 1 - The 10,000 kettlebell swing workout … Huge shoutout to @T3hPwnisher for inspiring me to do this Combined with his “family man velocity diet” to kick start (…and end) a summer fat loss and lay the ground work for…

EDIT: 10,000 Swings Program results and write up

Program 2 - 40 day program

Edit: Part 1 Results and Part 2 review

Program 3 - Mass made simple

Edit: Mass Made Simple Review and Picture Results

Edit: Mass Made Simple (Article Version) Review and Results

And depending on how things feel after that I might throw in One lift a day

Will Dan become my new Guru or will I curse his name at the end of the summer? Stick around the find out…

Previous logs and experiments:

-Metcon for Muscle
-Bulgarian Training Simplified Review
-Waterbury Super High Frequency Experiments
-I just looked and apparently my old contest prep log is gone! Thats too bad

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Front relaxed and flexed

Current measurements are 190lb and 37 inches around the biggest area of my abdomen/love handles.

This is about all I track now a days

10,000 Swings Begins

First workout of the 10,000 swing challenge in the books. I ordered a few kettlebells to just add to my gym but only the 35lb one showed up so what the hell, thats what Im starting wtih. Wendler always says “start too light” and he seems to know a thing or two, so what the heck, here we are. I’ll go through it once each workout and then bounce up to the 50lb when it gets here.

33:33 total time for the first workout with pullups in between sets. Even though I keep a bit more of an athletic bent to my workouts these days I was surprised how easy the workout was, I was expecting to be utterly gassed by the end (such as in the Metcon for Muscle I did last year) but honestly the hardest part was simply keeping the count of the swings haha.

I tend to do a “summary” type log so I wont be here daily but if anyone stops in I will be aroud

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Awesome. It’s great when you see someone running through some stuff you always planned to do but haven’t because you’re too stubborn and set in your other training ways to give them a shot.

Maybe it will it push me to give them a go. Never Let Go was a gamechanger for me early on, so it makes sense I should practice some of the stuff he preaches… eventually.

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Ha yeah honestly It always looked interesting and I loved his writing but It also felt just 1 step to far away from how far I wanted to stray to try it out…

Kettlebells… Ladders… 5/3/2 rep schemes… full body… 6 days a week… Training really light… “tonic days”… There was just enough stuff in his stuff to make me go “huh, interesting but thats for someone else I guess”

Now that Im more experienced and have seen that I wont lose all muscle if I dont train to gut busting intensity with a bro split Im much more on board with trying it out.

Maybe youll jump on board and I can follow along

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Following along! Interested to see how it goes. I ran easy strength for fat loss last year and then followed with the 10k KB swing challenge. Definitely cursing his name during the 4 weeks I did the 10k in

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Thanks for the tag; I am totally excited for this log! Cannot wait to see what unfolds. You put the bug in my ear too: I might need to tackle Mass Made Simple because of this.

Do you have his Easy Strength Omnibook and Mass Made Simple ebooks for the 40 day and MMS programs? If not: please let me pick up at least one of them for you to support this. You have been a huge support to me over the years; its the least I could do.

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In for this!

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I don’t have either, you think there’s enough juice in there vs just the articles online ?? Not that having more Dan John writing is ever a bad thing

Good to have you along, especially for the kettbells portion since your 10,000 swings got me planning all this out

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You 100% need the book for MMS. It’s wildly different. Meanwhile, the Easy Strength Omnibook is Dan’s best work. I can get both of them for you. I want you to have them for this.

So glad to hear I have been able to contribute. You were the first person to comment on my “rate my physique” post a decade ago and it still holds impact

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I appreciate it, Crazy the impact we can have on people sometimes without even knowing it, and now you are inspiring me! How would you like to go about setting that up??

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I will just need to grab an email address from you. I will use some moderation powers to message you

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You got mail! I am so excited for you dude!

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Along for the journey, love Dans work and yet also have not used any of his programs. Very interested to see how you go.

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One of us! One of us!

Perhaps we can make it a theme for the logs this year haha

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tagging in @wiseman83 because he has just started using some of Dans work.

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Yo!

Yep. 5 days into Dan’s Easy Strength program.

Using (ahem) Front squat, press, chins and RDL’s for now, with ab work and carries alternating each day.

Dan says the squat doesn’t work with easy strength. Well not well. I’m using the front squat because I suck at it, so it’s really not even heavy enough to kill me at this point when compared to my back squats. I couldn’t do it with back squats.

Anyway. I’m here for the ride.

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Nice, I need to follow along for the ride as those are pretty much the lifts I might use (although I might roll with the dead lift because I am so piss weak and I want to get that number up)

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I want to switch to the deadlift. Just went with RDL’s for a bit more posterior activation after a three week layoff. Took me five sessions to get em right LOL.

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Day 2 of 10,000 swings:

After being a bit surprised how “easy” the first day was I basically eliminated most of the rest periods for day 2 and I shaved 9 minutes off my day 1 time and finished in 23 minutes… and I STILL wasnt totally gassed Which was surprising. Until my 50lb bell shows up Im only using a 35lb bell, so its probably just too light weight??

I added on a 15 minutes weight vest walk after for good measure.

@T3hPwnisher - Dan John says if you do this 5 days a week one day should just be the swings with no strength movement. Any tips of getting to 500 as not-boring as possible. I was thinking of just doing 500 swings for time, might do that as a becnhmark type thing to keep track as the weeks go on. I find it almost impossible to keep count as the numbers get high, any tips there would be good too… Music? No Music? lyrics no lyrics? Any tips appreciated

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Oh man did you come to the right guy!

How about trying to do the 500 in one set?

You could also try one-handed swings to mix things up, or go for the “500 snatches” challenge that Dan has thrown up.

I’m no good on the numbers thing. I’ve never had that issue. I know lots of folks do, and it’s not something I can relate to.

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