The Giant always delivers.
Just completed a round of Giant 3.0 which was my first run through of any sort of cycle or program with 2x24kg bells though I've previously done the Giant 1.0 and Easy Muscle A with 2x16kg bells.
My goals were two fold with this really:
1. Complete the step up to 2x24kg bells, as in increase my strength enough to go beyond just singles or shaky doubles.
2. I'm trying to drop some body fat ahead of the Summer.
As mentioned I couldn't do a lot with these bells so I structured the pressing part of my days as below cleaning every rep as usual:
3 reps - 3 push presses
1 rep - strict press
2 reps - 1 push press and 1 strict press
I did 20 minute sessions and followed about half the sessions with 3 x 5-6 rows mostly because I enjoy the exercise.
Rep counts progressed as below:
W1 - 15, 9, 12 = 36 reps (15 strict)
W2 - 18, 11, 14 = 43 reps (18 strict)
W3 - 21, 12, 20 = 53 reps (22 strict)
W4 - 24, 15, 20 = 59 reps (25 strict)
My rep max before starting was a shaky 3 that had the tank empty after. Tested my new rep max today and got a solid 5.
Also dropped from 187lbs to 181lbs whilst my wife commented that my shoulders/back/ traps were looking significantly improved.
Worth me noting I had to pause and missed a week's training due to a bout of covid though I picked up where I left off in the last week pretty seamlessly so although it didnt help it didnt derail anything.
I'm pretty over the moon with these results. The bells (especially during the cleans) feel so much lighter and I suspect my core strength is up significantly. Thanks again Geoff for writing a superb program. I would suggest anyone looking to go from 2x16kg to 2x24kg could adopt this approach and even more so if eating in a surplus unlike me they'd get great results.
My plan next is to re-run 3.0 but with all clean and strict press, no push pressing and see how soon I can get onto 1.0.