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Kettlebell measuring progress?

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Reubenz

Reubenz

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I have completed week2 in the program called kettlebell burn and i have a question. How do you measure your progress? Do you for instance multiply the weight of your kettlebell with your number of sets and reps and get the total volume and view it as progress or do you think in some other way?
 
To me, the progress that matters is what happens to your body and mind. Are you growing stronger and more confident? That's what's important.

Now, if you're following a program, such as 10,000 swings in a month, then measure yourself against that. Or calculate the total weight you've moved. Or whatever you want. But the effects on you personally are what really matter.
 
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One way to do it is multiply weight, sets and reps. Then divide that by minutes, meaning how much time it took to accomplish that session. If you did same number of volumes but took less time, then that's step forward.

This density is a good gauge from time to time but not always, because you just can't simply keep raising this index forever.
 
How you measure your progress is entirely dependent on what your goals are. If your aim is to improve endurance, increased repetitions and/or decreased rest times are good indicators; if it's changing your body composition (less fat, more muscle etc.), then weighing and measuring yourself is the way to go; if it's pure strength, then increasing the weight once you reach a certain repetition range for each exercise will allow you to progress and continue to make gains.

It's easy to get caught up in the idea of progress for the sake of progress and even easier to become disillusioned if you don't feel as though you're making any. It's possible to make progress towards improving your strength while using the same weight of kettlebell even though it may feel as though you're stuck because you're still using a 24kg bell for swings or some such. I find that, especially where numbers are concerned (weights, reps etc.), it's very easy to lose sight of your original goals and feel like you're not getting anywhere if you're focusing on the wrong things.

I hope that makes sense.
 
I define progress as how much I can "play" with the weight. That came from someone here, but I can't remember who.

Basically, when starting with a new bell it is challenging and my thought process is "limit difficulty by doing this, or slight challenge by doing this." After time, I notice my thoughts are more "I wonder if I can do this this way?" That's when I can start playing around or getting more creative, so I know it's progress.
 
When the load needs to be increased for me to stay in the same repetition range, or I have to increase the difficulty of a given movement either by changing the pacing, rest periods or mechanics.

It all depends on the goals.
 
Hello,

There are a lot of definitions IMO
> lifting heavier in the same amount of time
> lifting the same weight than before in less time
> being able to perform a record several times in a row, even on bad days, so it is no longer a record
> HR is perfectly controlled, no matter the rest
> less rest neeeded between two sessions
etc...

Then you also have a more "mental" version which could be something like simply feeling stronger while being more relaxed.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Hello,

What @Geoff Chafe says is very important because it underlines the principle "quality over quantity".

For instance, related to certain moves such as OAOL PU, I just recently control all my body: Visualization of all the muscle engaged, breathing while maintaining tension, low speed low rep. I only do a few reps, but they are more intense and mental. Nonetheless I am stronger than ever in daily life.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
There's so many ways really and think ultimately its what works for both you and is relevant to your goal. For myself typically I break training down into quantitative and qualitative.

My personality loves quantitative but there's issues when used alone - typically breaking down into four areas

Intensity - either % of 1RM or for intensity of a workout weight x sets x reps divided by total reps to work out an intensity average

Volume - weight x sets x reps

Density - weight x sets x reps/ time taken

Frequency - number of sessions in a given time period

Alternatively there's qualitative where the focus is on subjective measures mostly such as ease of performance (RPE etc), movement performance against ideal technique and feeling of control

Issues arise when one side is focused on more than another and I can hold my hand up to say my qualitative took a back burner whilst I chased the quantitative which whilst you get immediate satisfaction will typically come back to bite you on the bum down the road
 
For burn you work for 15 minutes is segments so you can measure progress two ways

1. Same amount of sets done in less time
2. More sets in the same amount of time
 
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