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Kettlebell 24kg 2-handed swings, or 16kg 1-handed swings?

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LejonBrames

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After finally working my way up to 16kg swings(one-handed) and get ups to start on Simple, I now find myself wondering if I should stick with the 1-handed swings, or exchange them for 24kg 2-handed swings.

Thoughts?
 
A video of your swings would help a lot. Have you ever done2H swings with 24kg or more? If not, I'd say spend some time on 2H swings, to develop the strength and power.

Working towards 1H 24kg swings, one option that's not mentioned in the S&S book but we did practice at my recent cert is one-arm deadlifts. If the 24kg is a good weight for you but you're not yet confident with 1H swings with it, 1H deadlfit it for reps. It's just like the 2H deadlift in S&S, but only use one hand and don't let the kettlebell pull you off center. Maintain your alignment and practice the anti-rotation force that you will need to swing it.
 
After finally working my way up to 16kg swings(one-handed) and get ups to start on Simple, I now find myself wondering if I should stick with the 1-handed swings, or exchange them for 24kg 2-handed swings.

Thoughts?
There's no reason to choose. Two-handed swings will help you get used to a heavier weight. In one blog here I authored, I suggest trying to mix two- and one-handed swings in the same set as a way to make that transition.

As @Anna C suggests, it would be great if you'd post a video of some of your swings.

-S-
 
After finally working my way up to 16kg swings(one-handed) and get ups to start on Simple, I now find myself wondering if I should stick with the 1-handed swings, or exchange them for 24kg 2-handed swings.

Thoughts?
When I progressed from 16 kilo one-hand to the next weight, I swapped in one set of 10 at a time of 24 kilo two-hand, until I was at 10 x 10 at 24 kilo two-hand (one session of the week I did 10 x 10 at 16 kilo one-handed to keep up the practice).

Then I began swapping two-hand for one-hand, one set at a time, at 24 kilo, until I was at 10 x 10 at 24 one-hand.

So the pattern that worked for me (and I believe is "by the book") is two-hand at current weight, progressively work in one-hand at the next weight, compress the rest interval with the higher weight (one-hand) until performing 100 swings in 5 minutes strongly, then repeat with the next weight.
 
Working towards 1H 24kg swings, one option that's not mentioned in the S&S book but we did practice at my recent cert is one-arm deadlifts. If the 24kg is a good weight for you but you're not yet confident with 1H swings with it, 1H deadlfit it for reps. It's just like the 2H deadlift in S&S, but only use one hand and don't let the kettlebell pull you off center. Maintain your alignment and practice the anti-rotation force that you will need to swing it.

As I recovered from my recent shoulder surgery, I did not/could not do swings on my good arm because I could tell the high velocity would put too much stress on the other, injured side. But after the first couple of weeks, I could do one-arm KB deadlifts without problem. I did sets of 20 with 32kg, which was my main working swing weight before surgery.

After a few more weeks, I am now able to do swings again with my good arm (as long as I don't swing my off arm at all -- I hold onto the hem of my shorts on that side to keep my arm still). It turns out that I haven't lost much on my 32kg swings, and revisiting the deadlift for lots of reps has given me an opportunity to explore the hinge pattern in an interesting way.
 
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Thanks for the responses everyone :) I will see about posting a video.

I have worked with the 24k bell, and was using it for swings for a while before deciding I should try to work my 1 armsl swings as well, and slowly going to full, 1 arm 35lb swings.

I'm thinking of alternating days of 24k and 16k for the benefits of both until I can work in some 1 arm swings with 24k. Thoughts on this?
 
I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again.

I would love to see someone intentionally alternate 2 hand and 1 hand S&S sessions from the get go.

BUT the 2 handed would be at least 8kg more than the 1 handed. Preferably 12 or 16kg.

Yes I know it's taboo to mess with S&S.
 
I would love to see someone intentionally alternate 2 hand and 1 hand S&S sessions from the get go. ... Yes I know it's taboo to mess with S&S.

@MattM, it's not taboo, but it's best reserved for those who have some experience in terms of planning.

I'll give you an example of how I mix them - from my lifting log:

SW: on the :55
(44 kg x 2h x 5, 32 kg x 5L, 32 kg x 5R) x 3 = 45 reps

I do a lot of things better in my 2h swings than in my 1h swings, and I like this approach because I feel like my 1h swings "learn" by coming after my 2h swings.

My current program contains both swings and deadlifts, and I prefer to swing almost every day, and too many swings before deadlifts can take away from your deadlift, so on deadlift days I keep my swing volume a little lower, and on non-DL days, if I'm doing swings, I do more of them. I had planned to do 4 "circuits" of the above but when I'd finished 3 of them, I felt like it was enough so I stopped there.

Someone might ask why I'm doing 5's instead of 10's - I vary the volume and format daily, again because I know it works for me. Some days I do 10's on the minute, some days I do 5's on the minute, some days I lengthen or shorten the time interval, some days I vary the reps on every set, some days I do longer sets on much longer rests, e.g, yesterday I did 15's on the 2:30 - that's about 20 seconds of lifting followed by 2:10 of recovery.

I believe it's all good, and I know I can trust my own programming to work for me, not something everyone should do.

-S-
 
I've been at S&S since February 1st 2016 (over a year ago). I started with the 16kg bell and now I'm doing the whole thing plus a few preliminary exercises and add ons with the 40kg(!) bell.

The way I've moved up is to first do everything 2 handedly and then to start substituting sets of 1h for 2h. I think it's deluded not to try to progress towards 1 handed swings for your core workout in S&S because evidently they are better exercise than 2h swings. However, there is no hurry.

When you get real good at 2 handed swings at the next weight and you're doing them hard and fast without much rest between sets, then it won't be hard to start substituting sets of 5 or 10 single handed swings in there.

My wrists for some reason are ever so slightly stiff today, so I might choose to limit my 1 handed swings in S&S to 4 sets of 10 and then do 6 sets of 2 handed swings to finish off. I'll see. No shame in that.

As long as you're doing at least some sets 1 handed in almost every session, you'll progress gradually towards getting the 100 core swings done single handedly.

My workout with the 40kg bell goes like this:

3X10 2h swings
3X5 goblet squats
10X10 1h swings (or 20X5)
2X5 Turkish get ups

Later in the day I tend to do Clean and Press or just Press with the 32kg bell for several sets, normally of 3 reps each.
 
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