After a few month of downgraded S&S (more on this below), one month of consistent nearly daily practice, I celebrated today my 40th birthday with a session with 32 and 40 kg kettlebells.
I just finished the session with 8 one-handed swings at 32 kg, 2 sets with a mix of two-handed and one-handed with the bulldog. I wait till my HR goes under 120 before starting the next set, so it usually takes around 8-10 min. When I push it a little, a session does not take more than 5 min.
It was the third time this week that I did all getups with 32 kg. Still not in 10 minutes, but improving fast. First one lasted 25 min, second one 17, today 14.
I deloaded yesterday and used the 24, with a slight change : all the 5 left getups, then all the 5 right. Felt surprisingly easy.
To make the story longer...
After sucesfully building a basic level of strength with barbells (starting strength) about 4 years ago, I did not really progress anymore, mainly due to various work assignements where training was never optimal. For a couple of years, I basically regularly did again a linear progression with the big lifts to get back where I once was without really increasing my "all-time" bests.
I always had an issue with my bench (at one point, my 5-RM was a ridiculous 70kg at 80kg bodyweight, while I over-head pressed 60kg!). After seeing a coach this summer, it was (what a surprise) a extremely bad positionning of my shoulders. So I added S&S in August to complement my 3-times a week barbell routine, with light weights : 16 kg for getups to really learn to pack these shoulders, and the swing with 24 kg because it just fell good.
I started getups with the 24 after 2 weeks and was at 5 sets end of september. At that point, I attended a SFG course, which was great to improve my technique (and convinced me to register to the cert).
Then a new assignement prevented me to do any barbell work or kettlebells during the week. I focused on a progression on OAP and pistols and did 1 to 2 S&S sessions on weekends from October 5th to 18th december. Surprisingly, I did not regress. My getups stayed the same, and I started introducing the 32 kg for swings at the end of november, and quickly managed 10 sets. I guessed it is because the 24 kg was not that heavy for me, so the 32 was a reasonable challenge.
Then came the time to focus. From 19th December till now, I have been practicing nearly daily S&S, and nothing else. As mentionned, I swing almost all days the 32, while starting to introduce the 40, and I am compressing rest time in the getup with 32. Progress were quick.
Did I achieve the simple standard? Not yet. But it is definitively in sight, something I would not have believed after my first fluffy attempt to do a getup at 24 kg in August!
I will stay there a few more weeks before transionning to ROP. I need to practice the other basic lifts to be ready for the cert.
My impression overall : I do not think this is a program I would follow for more than a few months. I like deadlifts, overhead presses and some olympic lifting, so I will eventually come back to these, and just keep practicing getups and swings here and there. Nevertheless, progressing up to 32kg made wonder to my shoulders, my ability to KEEP THEM IN THE SOCKET, and staying tight. And this 24 kg kettlebell just feels so light now...