all posts post new thread

Recommendations/Reviews/FS/WTB AleksSalkin 9 min challenge

Products recommendations and reviews, items For Sale or Wanted To Buy
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

Just recognized, you don’t have off day, is it correct?
 
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
I dont really have a progression plan. I do nasal breathing and try to work for 10 minutes. If it starts to feel easy I will add weight but its more about just moving. It also works out to ABA BAB so slightly more than once a week. Ill also add in random pushups and chins if I can throughout the day. I work from home and it adds a little extra volume as well. Get a cup coffee? 5 chins. Bathroom break? 15 pushups etc.

I agree that the new PM is enough but what I found for me was I actually feel better alternating and adding the crawls and carries. My S&S sessions feel sharper and more focused than when I was doing it 5-6 times a week. Important to note I am not moving anything close to serious loads with SSS. Its almost recovery for me.
 
Do you do: 9 min challenge daily, Super Simple Strength 3 times, and S&S 2 times a week?

Right now, I'm doing the 9 minute challenge every morning. That's the only constant. I was going to do S&S 2 times a week, but decided to do Habitual Strength instead. That worked great for a month, but then I decided to change things up and program-hopped for a month because I just couldn't figure out what to do next. I'll probably return to Habitual Strength because I want to diet for the next few months and it would work well. However, I just ordered Salkin's book and Neupert's Easy Strength, so I've got no shortage of great programs, so I'm not sure what I'm going to end up doing. For some reason, my brain can't find a program it wants to do while dieting.
 
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-

Yeah, it's basically just adding reps, going from many sets of low reps to a few sets of high reps. But there are two differences in my mind: 1) counting takes my concentration away from the movement and b) it's really aggressive in its progression, demanding you improve every 3 days. I'm in surprise at how significant these two things are for me -- I usually favour slow progressions, but my body can handle this one just fine.

In fact, I had basically resigned myself to extremely slow progression -- build up volume for 3 weeks, deload, build some strength for 3 weeks, deload, build up volume again. Seeing myself force progress every 3 days is shocking to me.
 
Last edited:
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.
Need to add Starting Strength and the USSS snatch test, imo.
 
Whoa... my copy of Aleks' book just arrived and I am very, very happy with it. In fact, except for the fact that I'm going to add light pull-ups on day 3, I think this is the program I've spent the last several years of my life trying to devise. I'm going to apply a couple of periodization concepts from Easy Muscle and go hard on Alek's programming.

So now my training will look like this:

AM - 9 minute challenge

PM - Alek's book

I guess I just became a Salkinite.
 
Whoa... my copy of Aleks' book just arrived and I am very, very happy with it. In fact, except for the fact that I'm going to add light pull-ups on day 3, I think this is the program I've spent the last several years of my life trying to devise. I'm going to apply a couple of periodization concepts from Easy Muscle and go hard on Alek's programming.

So now my training will look like this:

AM - 9 minute challenge

PM - Alek's book

I guess I just became a Salkinite.

Is there one program in the book? Is it a high volume program?
 
Is there one program in the book? Is it a high volume program?

Yep, there's only one program in the book. It's a modified EDT program, like Easy Muscle, except with more movements and slightly less complexity in the programming.

Day 1 - full body A
Day 2 - full body B
Day 3 - rest and recover with Original Strength resets
Day 4 - repeat
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ege
Yep, there's only one program in the book. It's a modified EDT program, like Easy Strength, except with more movements and slightly less complexity in the programming.

Day 1 - full body A
Day 2 - full body B
Day 3 - rest and recover with Original Strength resets
Day 4 - repeat
Interesting. Is this the paperback? I'm due to get my copy in a couple of weeks.

How much daily time does it take?
 
Man, I just can not get over how well my body is responding to the 9 minute challenge. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me. I thought I was long past the days I could make sudden, radical progress. I feel like I'm having beginner's gains all over again.

I've been doing the 9 minute challenge for (I'm guessing) a little over a month now and have been doing it in conjunction with his book for less than a week now, but I suspect than in a couple of months I'm going to write him an email raving about how well his program has worked for me and thanking him profusely.
 
Just needed to report: I've been adding in the baby crawling, dead bugs, and marching for a few weeks now, from the 9 minute challenge.
The past week I started to do them as a warmup / mobility for S&S (in addition to the goblet squats and haloes)....

Something really started to change.... i don't know how to desribe it, but I guess you all know what I mean.

An OS epiphany...

Like. something told me to just sit down on the floor. I shocked myself at the fluidity of .... just sitting down... pretty darn amazing. AMAZING.

I've also started rocking and head nods as well as the nasal breating as much as possible.... but this was a real "ahaaa" moment...
 
So I had an eye opener at martial arts today. We were working throws and I was ripping my heavyweight training partner off the ground today like he was nothing.

I tried this same drill last year and it was a struggle for me. The last time I had this kind of power to launch a heavyweight into a high-amplitude throw quickly and effortlessly I was deadlifting and swinging the 88lbs KB and the 106lbs KB.

I can only attribute it to the 9 minute challenge because the only other strength work I'm doing is weighted push-ups, weighted rows, tactical lunges with the 2 pood KB and two-hand power swings with the 1.5 pood KB for 3-5 sets of 10. From my past experience, I don't think any of those things are contributing to the upper back strength or the full body power I need to do this. Like I said, I had to be swinging a hell of a lot of weight and deadlifting regularly when I was training wrestling throws 10 years ago.

I do think the farmer's walks, the weighted marching and the crawling are doing something good to me in ways I wasn't really able to test until today. After the suplexes, I felt mildly worked, like I do after farmer's carries.
 
So I had an eye opener at martial arts today. We were working throws and I was ripping my heavyweight training partner off the ground today like he was nothing.

I tried this same drill last year and it was a struggle for me. The last time I had this kind of power to launch a heavyweight into a high-amplitude throw quickly and effortlessly I was deadlifting and swinging the 88lbs KB and the 106lbs KB.

I can only attribute it to the 9 minute challenge because the only other strength work I'm doing is weighted push-ups, weighted rows, tactical lunges with the 2 pood KB and two-hand power swings with the 1.5 pood KB for 3-5 sets of 10. From my past experience, I don't think any of those things are contributing to the upper back strength or the full body power I need to do this. Like I said, I had to be swinging a hell of a lot of weight and deadlifting regularly when I was training wrestling throws 10 years ago.

I do think the farmer's walks, the weighted marching and the crawling are doing something good to me in ways I wasn't really able to test until today. After the suplexes, I felt mildly worked, like I do after farmer's carries.
Do you keep backwards crawls in your rotation? From what you describe it sounds like they might have a transfer here.

Anyway, I have started to use the 9minKBBW challenge this week and so far, I like it. One tweak: I don't accumulate the work, but use a 3 min density format. I was surprised that 3 minutes of vigorous marching were actually a bit challenging towards the end.
 
Do you keep backwards crawls in your rotation? From what you describe it sounds like they might have a transfer here.

Anyway, I have started to use the 9minKBBW challenge this week and so far, I like it. One tweak: I don't accumulate the work, but use a 3 min density format. I was surprised that 3 minutes of vigorous marching were actually a bit challenging towards the end.

Yep, I have limited space so I go forward and back every crawling session.

As for marching, I'm doing them with light dumbells in my hands and I'm surprised at how they work the glutes and quads. I definitely feel my basic movement being cleaned up a great deal.
 
I'm still baby crawling and am wondering if I should take on weight or increase time as a next step.

Any thoughts?

Also , when you leopard crawl: what position do you put your hand down? Fingers fully spread or something else ?
 
I usually find “gripping” the floor works best (pressure from finger tips into the ground as well as the outside and base of the palm).

I had wrist pain from push ups and crawls in the past that was from just letting the wrist take the load where I hadn’t realised the benefit of “gripping the floor” cue.

YMMV
 
I'm still baby crawling and am wondering if I should take on weight or increase time as a next step.

Any thoughts?

Also , when you leopard crawl: what position do you put your hand down? Fingers fully spread or something else ?
Tim Anderson talks about gripping the floor in his videos.
I would start transitioning to leopard crawling. So 90% baby crawling, 10% percent leopard crawling. When that becomes easy, 80/20. Then 70/30. And then keep going building leopard crawls until you can do them 100% of the time.
 
Tim Anderson talks about gripping the floor in his videos.
I would start transitioning to leopard crawling. So 90% baby crawling, 10% percent leopard crawling. When that becomes easy, 80/20. Then 70/30. And then keep going building leopard crawls until you can do them 100% of the time.
Thank you! Makes good sense
 
Hi all;

I couldn’t find a thread about Aleks Salkin’s 9 minute KB and BW challenge. It is a free challenge with a nice documentation especially for a free content. Aleks Salkin - Aleks Salkin

I have no correlation w Aleks Salkin, most probably we will never meet w him in person or even ever talk.

Its’s a challenge that you do some fundamental exercises daily for 9 minutes in total.

I have been doing this challenge for a week now, and I wanted to share my initial observations.

This is a program that fits in to some of SF teaching and principals very well.

It’s in my opinion a very successful minimalist program. The exercises are carefully selected, they don’t tax you at all (you could do any exercise to absolute failure and exhaustion with in 9 minutes but training to exhaustion HIT style is not this program’s intention for obvious reasons to SF followers)

I think there is a magic in it self of daily repeated exercises, especially when you do a select few exercises. Because you see amazing fast progress without even forcing yourself. I believe this is the beauty of minimalist programs. This is not a thread about minimalism, and yes there are many other flows or movement programs that involves much more number of exercises and hence so called cover all your aspects, this one is not trying to be an answer to all your problems. But while not trying to cover everything, it indeeds cover “ a lot “ because let you get polish your most basic moves over and over again without effort.

This program started to improve my fundamental movement patterns and even mobility of my problematic over head shoulder ROM only in a week. If you consider how little effort I put in to it, and I am putting zero brain cells in to it :) this is quite an achievement.

Are there any one out there who tried this challenge ? What are your experiences and thoughts on this one.

I think it improves your mobility, the way u move, and your strength in a beautiful way.
Thank you for bringing the 9 Minute Challenge to my attention. I am 69 and had a surgery this summer (not exercise related) that sidelined me completely for 10 weeks post-op. Even now I am under some continuing restrictions.

Under the circumstances, I needed to ease back in to exercising and ramp up my volume and intensity gradually. Aleks’s 9 Minute Challenge looked like the ticket. When my surgeon agreed and cleared me to start, I did. It has been fun and beneficial and reawakened my muscles after their layoff. I’ve combined the program with a daily walking regimen (3-6 miles over variable terrain).

I will be returning to swinging and snatching my kettlebells in the next couple weeks but I plan to keep the 9 Minute Challenge in my rotation. Thanks, Aleks!
 
Back
Top Bottom