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Kettlebell No equipment Q&D

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tigreton

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Hi all,

I am currently traveling and don’t have access to any equipment, but wanted to go on with Q&D.

As an alternative to the kettlebell swing, I chose jump squats (so I do jump squats and power pushups).

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Thx!
 
You do not need to have a fully weighted gym to build muscle or the perfect body. I've challenged this theory for myself and have proven it wrong. Many of the "body builder crowd" crowd won't admit this, but it's the truth. I think many on this forum however, will agree.

I have a gym member ship and full access to any equipment I could ever possibly want there, within only a 12 to 15 minute drive, but the truth is I'd rather bang out sets at my house then go to the gym. Why? Because I can truly get the same workout, same results, without the 100k in gym equipment. In fact, I GUARANTEE you can build the perfect body without ever stepping foot in the gym. Many people are stuck in old ways and will have hard time letting the
heavy weights go, but the truth is if I was traveling each week and no gym, I wouldn't be the least bit upset.

Instead, I'd designate 1 single rolling suit case to a mobile workout station. Inside the suit case, would be 3 things.

1. Mobile pull up / dip station with push up bars
2. Weighted Vest.
3. Complete Resistance Band Set.

Tell me which muscles you couldn't hit with these (3) things? I honestly watch myself grow by the week. I think you get something from Weighted Pull Ups, Dips, Push Ups, and Squats you just can't get at the gym. That something I think you get is called "Efficiency." Isolating every single muscle using special "machines" isn't the most efficient way to build, despite what some teach. Especially if your a busy person and traveling a lot.

Where I believe weights are effective is for isolating muscle groups that lag behind with the compound movements. This is where the resistance bands come in. The truth is a 100 lb resistance band or a 100 lb weight stack, your muscles don't know the difference. 100 lbs of resistance is 100 lbs of resistance.

I can stack 280 lbs in resistance bands for Squats.
I can destroy my triceps with band skull crushers or extensions after several sets of weighted dips.
I can burn my Deltoids to another planet with bands.
I can burn out my shoulders with med / heavy band easily.
After my weighted Chin Ups, I throw in several sets of concentration curls with bands. (Your fast twitch bicep muscles actually love these.)
One of my favorite exercises for giving your abs that thick through the shirt appearance is using resistance band training.
I've found nothing more effective at isolating the upper back than using 40-60 lb resistance bands for face pulls.


I'm sure many others can chime in with advice. But just my 2c, find a portable pull up / push up/ dip station for your weighted compound movements, and use resistance bands to isolate any area you want to grow. I think this will give you the MOST BANG for your buck. However, the only reason I suggest a rolling luggage is because I prefer a really heavy weighted vest for compound movements. But if your just starting out you won't need more than a 30-40
lb vest for a while. I use a 80 lb max weight vest for pull ups and dips because it has fewer weights to remove to adjust. For push ups at the house I like the 140 lb vest + 120 lbs (70%) of my body weight in the push up stance. With the 140 lb vest and your body weight I get a better range of motion with the 260 lbs than on the standard bench. After you outgrow the 260 lbs, you can easily stack resistance bands over you.
 
I can destroy my triceps with band skull crushers or extensions after several sets of weighted dips.
I can burn my Deltoids to another planet with bands.
I can burn out my shoulders with med / heavy band easily.

I think you were just trying to exemplify how efficient exercise bands are when you wrote this, so I'm not directing this next comment towards you, it's more the benefit of any newcomers who might happen across this thread some time in the future.

Strongfirst principles are somewhat different to this philosophy, we're not trying to burn or destroy anything with the approach we take towards training. We rely on high tension lifts designed for maximum efficiency and we really try to avoid pushing into that burn zone with most of what we do. Feeling fried after a session is really not needed and even counter productive a lot of the time.

You can make great gains without pushing so hard and protect your muscles and joints so you can stay in the game for a lifetime. A lot of bodybuilders train on the edge all the time and get injured and many of them are out of the game after a few years. Some of the people here have been lifting for decades and are more capable and healthier than some people in their twenties.
 
I would love to know what others think about using jump squats or something else for Q&D as I have a knee injury and can currently do KB swings.
 
so not to be a jerk but you can't really do Q&D without swings/Pushups or Snatches. You can follow some of the methods within the book. I would suggest Power pushups every 3 min or series of sprints and pushups. not Q&D but should work since you would be following the same principles, but may not be as effective.

I'm a huge fan of Naked Warrior for travel. OAPU and Pistols with a bunch of hiking gets you in shape and strong quick.
 
@kenaces Wouldn’t jump squats be worse for a knee injury than KB swings?

I think hill sprints would be the nearest substitute. Remember ‘Victor’ in Q&D? He did hill sprints with push-ups at the top.

I don't want to steal the OPs thread so I won't go into details here - except to say that there are many different "knee injuries" :)

I like the idea of some hill sprints but since I live in FL it is hard to find a hill! I might wind up trying the viking push presses mentioned in the book.
 
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You do not need to have a fully weighted gym to build muscle or the perfect body. I've challenged this theory for myself and have proven it wrong. Many of the "body builder crowd" crowd won't admit this, but it's the truth. I think many on this forum however, will agree.

I have a gym member ship and full access to any equipment I could ever possibly want there, within only a 12 to 15 minute drive, but the truth is I'd rather bang out sets at my house then go to the gym. Why? Because I can truly get the same workout, same results, without the 100k in gym equipment. In fact, I GUARANTEE you can build the perfect body without ever stepping foot in the gym. Many people are stuck in old ways and will have hard time letting the
heavy weights go, but the truth is if I was traveling each week and no gym, I wouldn't be the least bit upset.

Instead, I'd designate 1 single rolling suit case to a mobile workout station. Inside the suit case, would be 3 things.

1. Mobile pull up / dip station with push up bars
2. Weighted Vest.
3. Complete Resistance Band Set.

Tell me which muscles you couldn't hit with these (3) things? I honestly watch myself grow by the week. I think you get something from Weighted Pull Ups, Dips, Push Ups, and Squats you just can't get at the gym. That something I think you get is called "Efficiency." Isolating every single muscle using special "machines" isn't the most efficient way to build, despite what some teach. Especially if your a busy person and traveling a lot.

Where I believe weights are effective is for isolating muscle groups that lag behind with the compound movements. This is where the resistance bands come in. The truth is a 100 lb resistance band or a 100 lb weight stack, your muscles don't know the difference. 100 lbs of resistance is 100 lbs of resistance.

I can stack 280 lbs in resistance bands for Squats.
I can destroy my triceps with band skull crushers or extensions after several sets of weighted dips.
I can burn my Deltoids to another planet with bands.
I can burn out my shoulders with med / heavy band easily.
After my weighted Chin Ups, I throw in several sets of concentration curls with bands. (Your fast twitch bicep muscles actually love these.)
One of my favorite exercises for giving your abs that thick through the shirt appearance is using resistance band training.
I've found nothing more effective at isolating the upper back than using 40-60 lb resistance bands for face pulls.


I'm sure many others can chime in with advice. But just my 2c, find a portable pull up / push up/ dip station for your weighted compound movements, and use resistance bands to isolate any area you want to grow. I think this will give you the MOST BANG for your buck. However, the only reason I suggest a rolling luggage is because I prefer a really heavy weighted vest for compound movements. But if your just starting out you won't need more than a 30-40
lb vest for a while. I use a 80 lb max weight vest for pull ups and dips because it has fewer weights to remove to adjust. For push ups at the house I like the 140 lb vest + 120 lbs (70%) of my body weight in the push up stance. With the 140 lb vest and your body weight I get a better range of motion with the 260 lbs than on the standard bench. After you outgrow the 260 lbs, you can easily stack resistance bands over you.
As I understand it, a recurring lesson in Pavel's work is the great importance of the "big pull" movement, i.e. a movement like a deadlift, a kettlebell swing or a snatch which involves the pulling muscles of the whole body from top to toe, so not a pullup or chinup which is really just upper body, theoretically a back bridge but bridges are not very heavy moves even if tricky to do... again, if I am understanding the theory correctly. This is one major recurring principle. Another is the "anti-twist" or "rotational" strength factor. So, one arm pushups, one legged squats, one arm kettlebell swings, one arm kettlebell snatches, one arm side/bent/military kettlebell presses, Turkish Getups: these are examples of this kind of strength. This is another major recurring theme in Pavel's writing. A third major principle seems to be to limit the moves you focus on in order to become very strong at them rather than to be all over the place and "so-so" with many moves. When limiting the moves you're doing, you'll need therefore big compound moves that exercise a great many muscles and directions in a complementary way (like 1h swings and TGUs) - again, coming back to the "anti-twist" stuff which engages a lot more than what meets the eye!

The anti-twist stuff can be achieved at least in a "push" way with bodyweight exercises like the one arm pushup and pistol, but even these big moves are not "big pulls" so somehow or other one ought to find some kind of weight to either deadlift, swing or snatch to strengthen the very important back strength chain.

In any case, I think with one kettlebell (24kg for snatching, or 32kg for swinging, one handed of course) added onto the pullup bar and dipping station, I'd feel I'd have enough stuff to become "very strong" by my own reckoning of what that means, which is likely similar to what you are thinking.

I totally agree that no one needs a gym membership to "get strong", although I cannot say with a straight face that I can get "as strong as" someone who deadlifts 700lbs, just with a few kettlebells and a pullup bar, hahaha! That person is most certainly stronger than I am... but that is what I call "extremely strong". As far as "very strong", yes, I can achieve that with very little equipment indeed, but please, at least a kettlebell of at least a third my bodyweight! :)
 
StrongFirst doesn't show much love to the burpee... but I think, done as a low-rep power exercise rather than continuous beat-down, they're great power training. It's pretty much a jump squat and a power pushup glued together by a hinge.

I do them in sets of 3 with lots of rest in between, primarily for volleyball training - jumping higher, and getting up quickly after hitting the ground.

Probably wouldn't fit into the Q&D rep/timing scheme, of course. But I think they're a good alternative.
 
StrongFirst doesn't show much love to the burpee... but I think, done as a low-rep power exercise rather than continuous beat-down, they're great power training. It's pretty much a jump squat and a power pushup glued together by a hinge.

I do them in sets of 3 with lots of rest in between

I do them really slow and call them "sun salutations" ;)
 
StrongFirst doesn't show much love to the burpee... but I think, done as a low-rep power exercise rather than continuous beat-down, they're great power training. It's pretty much a jump squat and a power pushup glued together by a hinge.

I do them in sets of 3 with lots of rest in between, primarily for volleyball training - jumping higher, and getting up quickly after hitting the ground.

Probably wouldn't fit into the Q&D rep/timing scheme, of course. But I think they're a good alternative.
Keep in mind that Q&D calls for exercises that continually load the same muscle group. So it would be better to use jump squats and power pushups seperately rather than to combine them.
 
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Hello,

I tend to agree with @WhatWouldHulkDo A burpee performed with proper technique, can generate a great output. When I do them, I really feel it. However, I do not feel as much output when I do a jump squat, and then a push up (power push up or not).

If one wants to do the 2 moves separately, I would rather do some kind of "circuit": 15 seconds of jump squats, then immediately after, 15s of push ups.

Even if this is not a true "no equipment" move, the rubber band deadlift can also be a good alternative. This is a piece of equipment I always have with me on the go. I perform some kind of "trap bar deadlift" (this way I do not even have to get a bar / stick). It works well. That way I can do my "big pull" anywhere anytime. It does not take place in a bag.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
pet' said:
Even if this is not a true "no equipment" move, the rubber band deadlift can also be a good alternative. This is a piece of equipment I always have with me on the go. I perform some kind of "trap bar deadlift" (this way I do not even have to get a bar / stick). It works well. That way I can do my "big pull" anywhere anytime. It does not take place in a bag.

Kind regards,

Pet'

Nice idea!
 
Hi all,

I am currently traveling and don’t have access to any equipment, but wanted to go on with Q&D.

As an alternative to the kettlebell swing, I chose jump squats (so I do jump squats and power pushups).

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Thx!

This is what I've done as well.

I ran it by Pavel, and he said it was okay to use body-weight jump squats in place of Swings as long as your knees can handle it and as long as you don't do them for too long.

When I train at the beach and don't feel like bringing a kettlebell, I opt for the jump squats. They work great!
 
I also use the band deadlift in the double suitcase fashion. This with my heaviest band. With one a bit lighter I do straight legged or Romanian deadlifts, looping the band on a stick and lifting it in front of my legs.
 
Squat Mae Geri's are a good substitute for swings. They don't work the posterior chain much but they get you in the heart rate target zone with a low rep protocol like a heavy bell.
 
One of Selouyanovs basic templates consists of power pushups, box jumps and explosive pull ups or rows performed for 10 reps for a total of 10 rounds. Should be easy to adjust to the Q&D format using the swing/push up template.

Here you can see it being performed by a high level wrestler:
 
I don't want to steal the OPs thread so I won't go into details here - except to say that there are many different "knee injuries" :)

I like the idea of some hill sprints but since I live in FL it is hard to find a hill! I might wind up trying the viking push presses mentioned in the book.
I think Victor did the hill sprints on stairs. I also use the stairs of the stadium... Works fine.
 
I'm in the middle of nowhere so I decided to do Q&D with hill sprints. I used the 044 format and did a total of 3 series, for 12 sprints.

It was way way harder than snatching the 24. When I think about it, a 10 second sprint is awful by itself, so doing 12 in 10 minutes is pretty tough. The last sprint I had very little power left and could hardly be called a sprint.

Maybe the 033 protocol with push ups would work better as it gives some more rest between sprints.

I'll let you know tomorrow if I can walk.

EDIT: minimum soreness the day after. All good.
 
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