Thanks for the response. I wouldn’t even try a KB snatch without someone instructing me on how to do them correctly. I’ve played around with the single arm swings a little but I only have one 44 lb KB and was just doing two arm swings in blocks like I described.
Maybe I’ll give the one arm swings another try like you say said but doing two arms the way I was in blocks was tough enough. In the program I started I was 'supposed to’ shoot for doing 300 swings a day and can tell you that was not happening ! The best I did was 150 swings in five blocks ( 50,40,30,20,10 ) three times a week on my off days from the weights. I could only stay consistent with it for a couple weeks before I crashed and burned at three times a week , then reduced to two and still couldn’t maintain enough interest to keep it up.
Damn, he advocates those snatches for forty minutes ??? I’d be brain dead alone doing the same thing for that long.
I’m still questioning Jay saying there shouldn’t be any stopping or resetting in cardio as in strength training … so why is resting for fifteen seconds acceptable with the KB snatches ?
Cannot answer as to the whys. When I did the snatches I started with 7 in fifteen seconds. When I hit the forty mins I moved to eight. Then nine. That is as far as I got. Where I noticed improvement was in recovery. I could regain normal breathing in no time at all.
With the limitations you have with a 44 lb kb you can just do the two handed swing. Start with a number you can do for fifteen seconds and let it rip. Don’t expect to hit forty minutes the first time, just build up to it. I worked at it a couple times a week and tried to add 5-10 minutes a week.
Kenneth Jay currently does not recommend kettle bells for cardiovascular conditioning! On the other hand, the Fulcrumator kettlebell uses momentum to accentuate the contraction/relaxation phase, and protects the wrists with a revolving handle!
I personally have adopted CT’s recommendations, namely every other day training where you tag on ‘cardio’ after your weights workout. It’s early days but I continue to make progress on the strength workouts which suggests the cardio is not negatively impacting. I am also more active on off days, aiming for minimum 10,000 steps and maybe a few soccer drills.
EDIT: for me, the cardio part is essentially a brief HIIT session followed by a longer aerobic session. Often, this looks like the slam ball; three moves 30s on/off x 6 rounds (only 3 minutes but that’s my conditioning level at the moment). Then, depending on my schedule, I do some solo football drills or go to football training.
The ACSM cardiovascular training recommendations is 2 days/week or more for a minimum of 10 min. per training session, with an intensity of at least fifty percent of VO2 max. Accordingly, less than the above is inadequate for developing and maintaining acceptable levels of fitness in healthy adults.
FYI, Fulcrumator uses momentum along with revolving handles
During my weight training session yesterday, my heart rate was at an average of 124 bpm and reached a peak of 158 for my session that lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. Surely this would constitute a good workout to the cardiovascular system.
But he did in that interview … wonder what it was that made him change his mind ? Either way, you cant keep switching what you do because someone one changes their mind , etc.
About two years ago I tried the KB swings like I said and started blocks pf 40,30,20 and 10 for a total of 100 swings … when I worked the time down where I completed 100 swings in under 5 minutes I added a couple swings to each block with the intentions of eventually doing 100 straight swings with my 44 lb KB.
I felt pretty good one hot August afternoon and got 64 swings in the first block … and spent the next 10 minutes trying to catch my breath … I thought I never would !! Brutal … to the point of not fucking with a KB again for awhile ! A workout isn’t supposed to make you lose interest in it , lol.
Now I see stuff where you take 15 seconds rest after 15 reps … which comes to around 20 a minute and doing the match , you should reach 300 swings in fifteen minutes
So which is it … trying to get as many as swings in as few blocks as possible until you hit the magic number or continuing for a certain amount of time with so many seconds rest after a certain number … like '15 swings , 15 seconds rest ’ , ‘on the minute’ ??
I initially became interested in trying KB swings when a guy on Dardens old board said results of ten minutes of swings a couple times a week in addition ton his weights was the best thing he ever did for conditioning. Not long after that this new board replaced the old and that particular guy never posted here or I’d have asked him how he laid out his KB swing workout.
I did the blocks so WTF , thinking of giving the ‘15 on and 15 off’ a try .
I would reframe the categorization of cardio/not cardio to be described more by its primary energy system being utilized.
Like “aerobic vs. anaerobic” seems like it would be more accurate instead of going “My heart beat real hard, therefore, cardio.” .
When something is anaerobic, one is accumulating oxygen debt. Once that occurs the metabolism ramps up, etc. to rectify this. Another way is active recovery. This is typically light to moderate cardio, utilizing a higher intake and conversion of O², which has the benefit of helping to rectify the accumulated oxygen debt.
To me, this isn’t a strict cardio vs HIT question.
More interesting is whether HIT (or any high intensity lifting) is a cost effective way of also giving the cardiovascular system some maintenance?
In my opinion there must be something to it with any high intensity lifting compared to low rep lifting with longer rest periods. It all depends on what you are trying/wanting to achieve. A powerlifter is a powerlifter. A runner is a runner. The rest of us lifters is somewhere in between - depending on degree of intensity.
During a period of work in the military, I had to combine cardio with lifting weights in order to pass the yearly physical tests. What I experienced was, to keep a middle ground you had to sacrifice perfection in both areas.
As I wanted to excel in lifting weights, I got heavier and less conditioned for lengthy runs - but I could still run in a decent pace, but not for too long as it became too demanding for my knees.
When I prioritized running, my lifts decreased and I lost interest in weight progression.
The solution was CrossFit, which I did for a period of 6 months. Very challenging and good fun - but I never got particularly good at anything apart from allround endurance activities. Obviously, my body hardened, but I always felt overtrained and found myself cheating through the movements. A great learning experience though.
I used to do triathlons which include 3 exercises ( swimming , running and biking) where you may be breathing hard almost to the point of passing out for long periods. For me that was the ideal cardio workout. Not able to do that anymore I find the next best workout for me , I repeat ,for me to be 4 or 5 30 to 60 seconds all out rows on my concept 2 rower where I’m practically gasping for air at the end of each row. I wait about 30 seconds between rows.
Scott
What I found amazing about triathlons is there were some really muscular guys who looked like bodybuilders. They weren’t the best but they weren’t the worst either, Some of those muscular guys were pretty dang good! I did HIT when I ran those races so it was possible to lift weights and do tons of cardio with out burning out. Those guys just had better genetics than I did.
Scott
