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Kettlebell "I Achieved S & S Simple! Here's My Story"

Hi everybody,
I'm paramedic and volunteer firefighter in Czech republic, 28 years old.
On Monday I just achieved The Simple Goal after about 1,5 year of training. On this link https://goo.gl/Q5PSjs I logged my progress. During my training I read S&S book many times, and when in doubt, I read it again. Also a lot of stuff there on forum and on SF blog helped me, too. I didn't have to ask about anything, beacause every question is answered in the book or there online. And what did I get from the training? I decided to summarize it like that:

EVERYTHING TOLD ABOUT S&S IS TRUE… ONLY IT IS NOT BORING!​

And some advices for others who follow the way to Simple goal? Only one:

3o-73uqJxYl9pog751qHMo2ADMb30ISfoFfvDzHpgBPoElL3jYZP8Y84PVpD1t8lnhAxML1-cI6Xo5ObLI7_ALCUTh3_ll1QQNgVStvUJzNAigIjDnIJHSdurW73SLExzoumEl2b

Thanks Pavel and the community for your work, your support and helping people to become better men and women.
 
@hw3 congratulations! Way to go and be persistent!

That is a fine log....and I notice a lot of "after night shift" in there....as someone who has worked nights on my career as well (and who usually feels like death warmed over when I get up in the day) you have my utmost respect!
 
@Oscar , @crazycanuck , @Jan : Thank you, guys!
@crazycanuck : Thanks! :) Yes, I think that without nights I would finish Simple goal sooner. And always I needed to sleep in the morning after night shift before training in the afternoon, otherwise I was prone to injury. But even though I was tired when I got up in the afternoon, when I started training, I really finished fresher and stronger than started. And many times I felt strong enough to add heavier set - WTH! (y)
 
I'm 54 male, 6'3", 235 lbs and was in o.k. shape. It's been exactly 2 years today since I purchased my first kettlebell. I tried Simple and Sinister and couldn't do a TGU with 16 kg, I had to go down to 25 lbs. Just completed my first "Solid" test, with 40 kg and felt like I really owned it. I can't believe the change in strength in back, shoulders and grip. It's really carried over into other sports like swimming, cycling and running. I would have never imagined I could have done this 2 years ago. It was a real jump going from 32 to 40 kg and I had some set backs with shoulder pain and not packing correctly. I expect the jump to 48 kg will also be difficult, but achievable. Be patient and avoid injury. Read and reread S&S. Really concentrate on form. Get a session with a SFG trainer. I was lucky to live near Master SFG Phil Scarito and two sessions with him really improved my form and prevented future injury.
 
@Tom G, welcome to the forum and congratulations on an impressive achievement. Phil is my go-to guy as well, and even though he's close to 3 hours away, we get down that way from time to time and I always try to schedule a visit with him when I'm in the area.

-S-
 
I achieved ‘Simple'

Geordie,

I am a 27 year old male with around 10 years training experience. Joining the military at 18 saw me exposed to functional ‘Battle Fitness’ (as it was called in the Australian Army). This was when I was first introduced to the Kettlebell and fell in love. After that, vanity prevailed and I subjected myself to the world of bodybuilding for around 3 years before committing to a disciplined ’Stronglifts’ Program. I adored this style of training and experienced very satisfying results. It was during these power lifts that I incurred an Inguinal Hernia. My body couldn’t hold up and blew out at its weakest link. The next 3 years saw me dialling it right back to yoga and Kettlebells. After the surgery I knew exactly what type of training philosophy I wanted to adopt. Functional movement patterns based around Kettlebells, Rings and Bodyweight. A 2:1 of mobility to strength training.

It's hard for me to quantify exactly how long it took me to reach the ‘Simple’ goal. There have been a few set-backs along the journey; mainly niggling shoulder and knee injuries (causes unrelated to S&S).
I’d say around 6 months of exclusively doing S&S. Physically I’ve never felt better. Nothing puts me in a better place than a S&S session while listening to Death Metal.

I have been an addict of S&S for around a year now. With each session I'll learn something new. Due its simplicity it allows and encourages us to be become a fanatic about the two movements. There will always be corrections to make. Variables to tweak. I reached the ’Simple’ goal fairly comfortably around two weeks ago. I’ve had so much fun with the journey and patience involved. Even though the program is minimal in nature and all laid out clearly in the book, I’ve found that to reach the ’Simple’ goal includes problem solving and experimentation. There are few variables to manipulate but the ones that are there provide drastic changes. The program is everything but boring and meeting the requirements with a heavy bell cannot be cheated. I’ve witnessed an amazing amount of strength and crossover to everyday life, everything I do is easier, everything from general house work to becoming stronger and more capable in all other athletic endeavours. Where from here ? I’m unsure at the moment. I was contemplating maintaining the ‘Simple’ standards (Perhaps one session every couple of weeks, not testing the standard but rather adhering to the ’talk test') and doing ROP. My press needs a lot of work and I would like to change things up a bit. I could always come back to S&S and see how I’m holding up.

Apologies for the ramblings, I’ve been a long time lurker on the forum and am just making up for lost time. A huge thank you to you all for all of the awesome information found on this forum, a kick-a#@ community to be a part of. Sincerest acknowledgements to Pavel for making all of this possible! Strongfirst!
 
Jan said:
@Geordie : Welcome to the forum :)
What a nice intro :), and congratulations on reaching Simple.
There is a kettlebell 'standard' progression available here:
Things Are Going So Well, Help Me Screw It Up, Part 2 | StrongFirst
Click to expand...

Thankyou Jan!

That article by Dan John was a much needed read and very timely. I'm Definitely going to work my way through ROP now. I've already done a few revised practice C+P ladders and can already see the foundational strength built from the Get-up in S&S. Understanding the ROP program now gives me the confidence of not getting to hung up about maintaining the 'Simple' goal. I think by default those standards will be maintained during ROP, especially if I practice Get-ups on my variety days. ROP monotonous ? after S&S it's like a buffet ! I'll be adding pull ups as per Pavels suggestion, also, having the sovereignty to change up the swings on Heavy and medium days makes me happy; One-arm, two-arm, swing weight ect.....

Good times ahead!
 
Since September 2015, I started the S&S program with a 16 kg bell. I had learned kettlebell swings in the past but nothing to the level as detailed in the book. Most of my previous training was from instructors at my local gym or workout videos. Even then, the weight was limited to maybe 15 lbs at most. Back then I couldn't imagine doing TGUs with anything heavier than a 10 lb kettlebell.

But after listening to an Art of Manliness Podcast episode featuring the Stronglifts S&S program, and had gotten to the point that I wasn't enjoying the 5x5 Stronglifts Powerlifting program anymore, I decided to give the S&S program a try. From day one, I was hooked to how simple the routine was and enjoyed the fact that all I had to do nearly everyday was a 100 kettlebell swings and 10 TGUs.

I probably progressed slower than what was prescribed in the book. I wasn't really thinking I would achieve the Simple goal. I just wanted a good daily workout routine. But as I got more proficient with the bell and was able to get to and surpass the 24 kg bell, I began to believe that Simple was in my future.

Fast forward to 2/12/2018, having been working with a 32 kg bell for swings since July 2017 and 36 kg bell for TGUs, I was anxious to finally achieve the Simple goal. I posted a thread and receive a lot of advice on how I could get there. My original plan was to get there in 7 weeks.

Fast forward to today (2/26/2018), I didn't feel the best this morning.My body was a little stiff and lethargic. But I already committed myself to test weekly on Mondays so I came into today's training with a goal to complete 8 sets of swings. It took a lot of effort. I actually wasn't quite sure I make it past 6 sets. But every time the buzzer went off I just started swinging. When I got to 8 I just said, what the hell, and went for it. My last couple of sets weren't the strongest but I still got the bell up to chest level. Upon reflection, I think my body knew the amount of effort needed to get the bell up to the correct height. Even without thinking about it critically, my body knew exactly what to do.

After about a minute break, I punch out the 10 TGUs. I knew I could do these in under 10 mins without rushing the movements. However, it was still challenging considering I just got my heart rate up to at least 178 BPM and stayed in HR Zone Level 5 since at least set 3.

Now sitting at my computer looking back at my training log, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. It took about 2 years and 5 months to get to this point starting with a 16 kg bell. I remember backed then how the bell felt impossible to even do 1 TGU. Its been a great journey that has gotten me to the best shape of my life. I no longer have any random back pain moments, my cardio capacity is even better than I could ever remember.

I haven't made the decision on if I'll go for the Sinister goal next or jump to the ETK program. For now, I would like to cut weight since I did gain at least 5-10 lbs that I didn't want but I felt was necessary to have enough energy to hit the Simple goal. But I think I'll do the Simple test one more time in the next couple of weeks to really see if today wasn't a fluke.
 
Many congrats @dnguyen411 !

I really admire your patience. I quite love S&S as my main road to follow, but I never hesitate to take all the very tempting detours. ;)

I wish you all the best luck on your further journey and suggest to reinforce your Simple-Status (as you already stated yourself).
 
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