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Kettlebell Things I’m learning about myself

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Trever

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I started using kettlebells about 1.5 years ago. I have combined them with barbell and body weight work in different ways and programs.

I’m 51 and spent most of my adult exercise time “winging it” in the gym with no direction or goal. Always being in decent shape but never really accomplishing anything specific. In the last decade or two I’ve spent too much time inconsistently doing, sweaty, tiring, interval type workouts thinking that it would keep me healthy and fit. It always gave me good endurance for grueling backpack trips, but also gave me shoulder problems from imbalances, hard to gain mass and a weak core. Over the last couple years I’m actually starting to learn some things.

What I’ve learned is that I am hooked on using kettlebells.

I’ve always had the problem of thinking I needed to do everything. Now I’m realizing I am getting better results with less of everything.

I’ve learned that my favorite and most effective things so far for me are BB deadlift, kettlebell double clean/press/front squat, single snatch, swing and TGU. I’m currently doing an A/B split combining these things. A=Low volume deadlift plan, DC/press/front squat. B= TGU, a+a snatch/swing. Training 3-4 days a week with long walks, with and without pack, on off days.

This strongfirst world of learning is information overload, but I’m realizing that the best thing for me is minimalist type training done consistently. It is addicting.

Now what I need to do is break the year into maybe 3 programs. With the goals being good overall strength, maintaining and adding mass because I’m thin and getting older, and overall health. I’m halfway through the book Q & D which will overload me with even more info.

I would love some suggestions of how to break up the year to meet these goals. With all this info available I can experience paralysis by over analysis. If someone could just tell me what to do, that would make my life easier LOL.
 
My year looks something like this:
6-8 week endurance block (aim to clock a good 1.5mile and/or 10k). Only running + bodyweight work + KB. No barbells. Lots of mobility work.
8-12 week barbell focus. 2 lifts to train hard. A few other lifts as accessories.
4-6 week KB work. S+S mainly in the past but in recent times adding snatches, presses. Lots of mobility work.
Repeat.
Sometimes I train for an event (OCR, etc) and I give myself 10-12 weeks to train for those.

You can plug and play programs like PTTP, the Texas method, Reload into the BB block.

For the KB block, S&S is always good. But a version that I like is doing Push Presses + Goblet Squats. There are plenty of possible KB programs on this site.

Hope this helps.
 
My year looks something like this:
6-8 week endurance block (aim to clock a good 1.5mile and/or 10k). Only running + bodyweight work + KB. No barbells. Lots of mobility work.
8-12 week barbell focus. 2 lifts to train hard. A few other lifts as accessories.
4-6 week KB work. S+S mainly in the past but in recent times adding snatches, presses. Lots of mobility work.
Repeat.
Sometimes I train for an event (OCR, etc) and I give myself 10-12 weeks to train for those.

You can plug and play programs like PTTP, the Texas method, Reload into the BB block.

For the KB block, S&S is always good. But a version that I like is doing Push Presses + Goblet Squats. There are plenty of possible KB programs on this site.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, that is helpful. I’ll try and break the year up into 3 programs. That’ll give enough time to get results from each, and hopefully having a yearly plan will prevent the urge to program hop.
 
OK ...


Then you have learned correctly, no overload.

-S-


Thanks Steve, I hear what you’re saying. I feel like I’m on the right path, just have to dial in the plan/programs.
The more I train in a minimalistic way, the more proof I get that it’s effective for me.
 
A tad condescending, no?
I don't think so, In my experience, in strongfirst a lot of the things that are commonly conversed about are things that aren't even aknowledged usually outside of it, things like tension, breathing, etc. wich may make it seem to some like "information overload", but in my opinion it is quite the contrary, it's distilling the most useful and important information in an actionable way.
the most common reccomendation I see here is just "do the program as written", from my understanding, @Steve Freides was merely pointing out the inconsistency in reasoning, and not in an offensive way.
 
Im a newbie in kettlebells and I think you Are too. So for us newbies I would not Split the year, I would rather set a goal that the strongfirst community has judged to be important and then just work on it until the goal is achieved.

Im a rebell by nature WHO likes to do things by own way so it has taken med 35 years to realize this.

After you have achieved the normal goals like simple, maybe solid and half bodyweight military press you can start thinking for yourself and Split up the year and other advanced stuff.
 
I take a seasonal approach, due to both competition needs (when do my weightlifting meets happen) and climate (I don't like to train in my unheated garage in the winter).

Summer: 12 weeks of barbell pre-season S&C, teensy bit of KB just to maintain

Fall: 8-12 weeks of weightlifting competition prep, de-load, break

Winter-Spring: 24 weeks of mostly KB & bodyweight (rings & bar work), teensy bit of BB just to maintain. I usually break this down into to 2 x 12 week cycles.

I get bored and demotivated if I do the same programming for more than 6 months, not to mention diminishing returns.
 
I don't think so, In my experience, in strongfirst a lot of the things that are commonly conversed about are things that aren't even aknowledged usually outside of it, things like tension, breathing, etc. wich may make it seem to some like "information overload", but in my opinion it is quite the contrary, it's distilling the most useful and important information in an actionable way.
the most common reccomendation I see here is just "do the program as written", from my understanding, @Steve Freides was merely pointing out the inconsistency in reasoning, and not in an offensive way.

Subjectively, I have the opposite impression -- sometimes I feel like the kettlebell world, generally, is a realm of information under-load.

Compared to other modalities and implements, there have been very few studies on kettlebells.

I can find oodles of studies on EMG activation for various muscles in the body using a multitude of implements and modalities, but rarely are kettlebells included in the mix.

In many ways, kettlebell research is several decades behind in the S&C literature.
 
Subjectively, I have the opposite impression -- sometimes I feel like the kettlebell world, generally, is a realm of information under-load.

Compared to other modalities and implements, there have been very few studies on kettlebells.

Only the Swing has been extensively studied, so in general I definitely agree with this.

Confounding the matter, there are a lot of ways you can train with kettlebells, and factors such as tension and breathing aren't unique to kettlebells .
 
@watchnerd. I meant with one arm. I don't have any knowledge for whom this feat would be most difficult; the relative light ones or the relative Heavy ones.
 
With a KB or a barbell?

Half bodyweight single arm press with a KB is quite the feat at heavier bodyweights.

That would be a ~50kg 1 arm press for me.

That's a doozy.

It's all perspective. I'm a little guy (60kg) and 24kg press is a long term goal. You might think it's easy for others to 'only' need to press 32kg to accomplish 1/2 bw, but 32kg is a lot to people that start the journey at 12kg.
 
It's all perspective. I'm a little guy (60kg) and 24kg press is a long term goal. You might think it's easy for others to 'only' need to press 32kg to accomplish 1/2 bw, but 32kg is a lot to people that start the journey at 12kg.

Fair point, but there is a reason for the comment when it comes to relative strength.

Generally, lighter to medium weight lifters, in any strength sport I can think of, do better in terms of % bodyweight. There are lots of physics advantages in being smaller when it comes to relative strength.

Naim Suleymanoglu, the "Pocket Hercules", is the first and only lifter in history to snatch 2.5 times his bodyweight (4'10", 62 kg):





Relative to body weight, nobody has beaten this to this day.
 
@watchnerd. I meant with one arm. I don't have any knowledge for whom this feat would be most difficult; the relative light ones or the relative Heavy ones.

Relative to bodyweight, the data says lighter lifters have an advantage, at least at the highest performance levels.

Here are the relative bodyweight tables, based on 321,000 recorded lifts. Look at the 'Advanced' and 'Elite' to the right.

[Note: this is for a barbell, so single arm, more unstable KBs would be ~20-30% lower, divided by 2]

Male Military Press Standards (kg)
Show bodyweight ratios
BodyweightBeginnerNoviceIntermediateAdvancedElite
5016x0.3125x0.4936x0.7350x1.0166x1.32
5519x0.3429x0.5241x0.7556x1.0273x1.32
6022x0.3733x0.5446x0.7762x1.0379x1.31
6525x0.3937x0.5651x0.7867x1.0385x1.3
7028x0.4140x0.5855x0.7972x1.0391x1.29
7532x0.4244x0.5959x0.7977x1.0396x1.28
8035x0.4348x0.664x0.882x1.02101x1.27
8538x0.4451x0.668x0.887x1.02107x1.25
9041x0.4555x0.6172x0.891x1.01112x1.24
9544x0.4658x0.6176x0.895x1116x1.22
10046x0.4661x0.6179x0.79100x1121x1.21
10549x0.4765x0.6283x0.79104x0.99125x1.19
11052x0.4768x0.6287x0.79108x0.98130x1.18
11555x0.4871x0.6290x0.78111x0.97134x1.17
12057x0.4874x0.6293x0.78115x0.96138x1.15
12560x0.4877x0.6197x0.77119x0.95142x1.14
13063x0.4880x0.61100x0.77122x0.94146x1.12
13565x0.4883x0.61103x0.76126x0.93150x1.11
14067x0.4885x0.61106x0.76129x0.92154x1.1



Lightest Elite lifters average = 1.32 x bodyweight
Heaviest Elite lifters average = 1.1 x bodyweight


Full disclosure:

At 100 kg bodyweight (and age 50), my 1RM with barbell military press is 86kg, which would make me upper Intermediate on this chart.

I can do a pretty shoddy 1-3 reps of 40 kg KB press.
 
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@Trever, my favorite approach is modeled on what I know of competitive powerlifters' approaches. The year is divided into 4 sections, each 13 weeks long. For 12 weeks, prepare for a competition, complete the competition, then take a week off. Use the next 13 weeks to do other things - it could be to address weaknesses in your competition lifts, or just a change of pace of some sort. And then do that all again - 13 weeks of focused training culminating in a competition, and 13 weeks of something else.

For those who follow our PlanStrong methodology, this means two 4-week Prep periods followed by a 4-week Comp period. I'm doing this now, and since PL meets aren't really happening these days, and going to do my first - ever, I think - 1RM test at home in two weeks.

-S-
 
Thanks Steve, I hear what you’re saying. I feel like I’m on the right path, just have to dial in the plan/programs.
The more I train in a minimalistic way, the more proof I get that it’s effective for me.
@Trever , the guy that wrote the book you are reading ( as of a recent podcast ) has minimized his program to swings and dips. A hinge, a press.
 
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