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Recommendations/Reviews/FS/WTB AleksSalkin 9 min challenge

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@AleksSalkin
I really like the look of the 9 Minute Challenge and I am thinking about swapping the crawling with the big 4. Couple questions

1. Is marching in place an ok alternative to marching for distance? I dont have a lot of room.
I asked to do standing cross och crawls a few weeks back via mail and he (Aleks) said it was ok. Please correct me of I wrong @AleksSalkin
 
Absolutely. A number of people have told me that these moves have really helped their swings and Get Ups.

I ended up pairing the 9-minute challenge with Tim Anderson's Habitual Strength (doing swings instead of one-legged deadlifts) and I absolutely love it -- it pairs perfectly. Habitual Strength is basically the OS version of your One Lift A Day article.

I wanted to share something I've been doing with your challenge. The part of it that really resonated with me is the part about keeping it easy and relaxed -- this is exactly the way I want to trian because I'm a tense, stressed out kind of guy and my training reflects that.

My first day doing the challenge, I was doing a bunch of stuff waaaaay too hard. For instance, I was carrying the 72lbs KB and by the minute mark, I was working pretty hard and nothing was relaxed. The next work out had me carrying 25lbs dumbbells, and i was completely relaxed as I accumulated 3 minutes. After the workout, I felt nice and energized -- something I'm not used to feeling.

But the light weight bugged me.

So the third workout, I carried the 72lbs KB again, but since I'm able to carry it for 15s in a really relaxed, easy fashion, I alternated 15s carries with 15s rest for six minutes. I was able to stay really relaxed the entire time and still had that energized feeling at the end. Since then I've bumped up to 20s on / 20s off for 6 minutes and am working on reaching an easy 30s on / 30s off for 6 minutes.

I warm-up by skipping rope for 10 minutes, then do this 6-minute-per-exercise scheme for the three moves, so the entire workout takes ~30 minutes. Habitual Strength at night takes 20-25 minutes, with only 10-15 minutes being intense work.
 
@AleksSalkin I have been following Original Strength for a while now and recently started doing 10 minutes of crawling (loaded and bw) every morning after some Resets. I then do my regular training later in the day.

I really like the look of the 9 Minute Challenge and I am thinking about swapping the crawling with the big 4. Couple questions

1. Is marching in place an ok alternative to marching for distance? I dont have a lot of room.

2. Would you suggest not adding load to the crawling until the 3 minutes becomes easy at BW or would alternating loaded and unloaded be acceptable? Would require more breaks for loaded obviously.

3. Do you suggest varying the carries as much as possible or sticking to 1 or 2 and working those

Thanks man!!
Hey there - I could've sworn I responded to this but it looks like I did not. Thanks for your patience.

To answer those questions:

#1: absolutely. I think marching around is deal, but marching in place can definitely be done. In fact, I'd say if you have at least a little space (let's say enough to do a few paces in any direction) consider doing multi-directional marches - forward, backward, sideways, etc. A very effective way to march with little space.

#2: Believe it or not, it's not a yes-or-no answer as far as when to add load. In general, I would say don't worry about adding load until you can crawl for around 5 minutes straight, but that's hardly a hard-and-fast rule, more like a guideline. Some people actually respond better to load early on as a means of encouraging the body to move the way it's supposed to while crawling, but that's another story for another day.

#3: I love varying the carries, so by all means I'd say mix it up. Stick to 1 and 2 kettlebell variations, but by all means play with as many different versions as you can. The only one I would advise *against* would be double overhead carries as those can get pretty hairy if fatigue starts to set in. One kettlebell overhead and the other in the rack/suitcase position is fine, but two overhead is not advisable.
 
I ended up pairing the 9-minute challenge with Tim Anderson's Habitual Strength (doing swings instead of one-legged deadlifts) and I absolutely love it -- it pairs perfectly. Habitual Strength is basically the OS version of your One Lift A Day article.

I wanted to share something I've been doing with your challenge. The part of it that really resonated with me is the part about keeping it easy and relaxed -- this is exactly the way I want to trian because I'm a tense, stressed out kind of guy and my training reflects that.

My first day doing the challenge, I was doing a bunch of stuff waaaaay too hard. For instance, I was carrying the 72lbs KB and by the minute mark, I was working pretty hard and nothing was relaxed. The next work out had me carrying 25lbs dumbbells, and i was completely relaxed as I accumulated 3 minutes. After the workout, I felt nice and energized -- something I'm not used to feeling.

But the light weight bugged me.

So the third workout, I carried the 72lbs KB again, but since I'm able to carry it for 15s in a really relaxed, easy fashion, I alternated 15s carries with 15s rest for six minutes. I was able to stay really relaxed the entire time and still had that energized feeling at the end. Since then I've bumped up to 20s on / 20s off for 6 minutes and am working on reaching an easy 30s on / 30s off for 6 minutes.

I warm-up by skipping rope for 10 minutes, then do this 6-minute-per-exercise scheme for the three moves, so the entire workout takes ~30 minutes. Habitual Strength at night takes 20-25 minutes, with only 10-15 minutes being intense work.
Fantastic, dude! I like how you took the weights you had, took your current abilities into account, used the 9 Minute Challenge's general outline and made it all your own. That's a champion's way.
 
So I have been tacking this onto my workouts at the end for the last month or so. However, this past week I've been at home recovering from COVID. COVID wasn't too bad, but I certainly didn't want to do full-body strength workouts. So I took a pause from my regular training and did the 9-minute challenge everyday this week followed by a 30 minute walk. (I live out in the country and wasn't going to encounter anybody on the roads). It was enough to get in some movement work while not draining me so much that I struggled with recovery (COVID-wise or exercise-wise).
 
I'm wondering if it's "okay" to put in 30 seconds on each of the three daily in between swing sets? Would that be over doing things?
It'd save the separate nine minutes
 
So I have been tacking this onto my workouts at the end for the last month or so. However, this past week I've been at home recovering from COVID. COVID wasn't too bad, but I certainly didn't want to do full-body strength workouts. So I took a pause from my regular training and did the 9-minute challenge everyday this week followed by a 30 minute walk. (I live out in the country and wasn't going to encounter anybody on the roads). It was enough to get in some movement work while not draining me so much that I struggled with recovery (COVID-wise or exercise-wise).
Great approach - glad you were able to get some training in despite recovering from Covid. May you have a speedy recovery and get back to normal in no time.
 
I'm wondering if it's "okay" to put in 30 seconds on each of the three daily in between swing sets? Would that be over doing things?
It'd save the separate nine minutes
No, I think you can definitely do that. If you're tight on time but not on ambition, getting your 9 minutes in any which way you can - including the manner you described - is more than okay.
 
Thank you!

So, any which way... also later in the day? In other words, if i have several-hours-long breaks between: what will that mean in terms of my overall benefit from the 9 min?
Oh, absolutely. The several hours-long break between sets will give you a more "grease the groove" effect in that it can potentially help you become much more efficient at the movement. Although you won't necessarily get some of the built-in conditioning effects of doing it all back-to-back, you will absolutely prosper from doing it even with long breaks.
 
For those who enjoy his programs, just got this latest email from Aleks Salkin in my inbox today:

If all goes as planned, on Wednesday, August 10th, my first-ever self-published book The No BS Kettlebell & Bodyweight Kickstart Program will be officially released for sale on Amazon for both Kindle AND paperback.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty excited.

So much so, in fact, that on the glorious day of its triumphant arrival I’ll be offering a pretty sweet bonus deal if you snag a copy – digital OR paperback – and to top it all off for a very short time the digital version will be available for just $0.99. So keep your eyes peeled for more details as they come.
 
For those who enjoy his programs, just got this latest email from Aleks Salkin in my inbox today:

If all goes as planned, on Wednesday, August 10th, my first-ever self-published book The No BS Kettlebell & Bodyweight Kickstart Program will be officially released for sale on Amazon for both Kindle AND paperback.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty excited.

So much so, in fact, that on the glorious day of its triumphant arrival I’ll be offering a pretty sweet bonus deal if you snag a copy – digital OR paperback – and to top it all off for a very short time the digital version will be available for just $0.99. So keep your eyes peeled for more details as they come.

I'm definitely buying that. I hope it's about progression and not just a series of standalone workouts, but I'll scoop it up either way. The thing about the 9 minute challenge is how my body is responding to the progression -- I haven't seen my body progress this quickly from very many things.
 
After every third workout (every third day), you eliminate one of the sets by expanding the other sets' length. That's a really aggressive progression scheme and my body is just fine with it. I'm more interested in his progression schemes than his workouts now because he might have more golden ideas like this.

Do you do: 9 min challenge daily, Super Simple Strength 3 times, and S&S 2 times a week?
 
After every third workout (every third day), you eliminate one of the sets by expanding the other sets' length. That's a really aggressive progression scheme and my body is just fine with it. I'm more interested in his progression schemes than his workouts now because he might have more golden ideas like this.
I’ve done something similar - it’s math, e.g., for ~25 reps total, 12 doubles, 8 triples, 6 x 4 reps, 5 x 5 reps. Stop there or keep going to 4 sets of 6 reps, 3 sets of 8, and 2 sets of 12.

-S-
 
Do you do: 9 min challenge daily, Super Simple Strength 3 times, and S&S 2 times a week?
Not asking me but this is my current setup. 9M every morning with OS Resets. Then in the afternoon I alternate SSS and S&S each day. I dont have the TGU day for SSS since thats part of S&S. So it goes:
Day 1: Squat/push/carry
Day 2: S&S
Day 3: Hinge/Pull/Crawl
Day 4: S&S
Repeat..

I stick to the "Tie The X" moves from the perfomance grid for all my SSS work which has made me feel strong even tho it's hardly any weight.

Wow just realized thats all "S" acronyms. Sorry about that.
 
Not asking me but this is my current setup. 9M every morning with OS Resets. Then in the afternoon I alternate SSS and S&S each day. I dont have the TGU day for SSS since thats part of S&S. So it goes:
Day 1: Squat/push/carry
Day 2: S&S
Day 3: Hinge/Pull/Crawl
Day 4: S&S
Repeat..

I stick to the "Tie The X" moves from the perfomance grid for all my SSS work which has made me feel strong even tho it's hardly any weight.

Wow just realized thats all "S" acronyms. Sorry about that.

Thanks for the answer.

Well I know many SF experts view hitting every pattern not necessarily needed and I am not defending against that and I believe Pavel’s two move programs are genius.

However, if I leave that discussion aside, I think your program is like a poem :)

One question. What is your experience of progression when you hit one pattern only once a week? And what about soreness? And are you using Nasal breathing technique w SSS?

Best;

Ege
 
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