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A jolly game of taming iron

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Harry King

Harry King

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I have been practicing Simple and Sinister since December 2019. I had a recent set back due to bicep tendon aggravation caused by incorrect swing technique and lack of patience. I followed the program blindly without taking extra time to own the weight before progressing. So here I am practicing with a reduced weight and doing some rehab exercise. On the bright side, I have learnt a lot and feel like I’m going to come back better than ever. Currently training almost daily as per the simple routine.

I chose S&S because of the simplicity and because of the healing properties of the swing and the get up. I suffered a back injury when I was 20 and have not felt better since I discovered Strongfirst! I also like the style and feel of Pavel’s program, it is training that has improved my temperament.

My goals for the future are to continue this style of training - Strong Endurance style ballistics while practicing a grind (like get ups) or following a Plan Strong program (military press, for example).

I work as a lifeguard at an army base pool/gym in Australia. I will also post my deep-end practice sessions (the pool here is 6m deep, I like to swim across the bottom - 20m) and easy 50m lap swimming for some locomotion.

EDIT: I should also add, I lie on my stomach and read immediately after my practice. I treat this as part of my training. I got this idea from Enter The Kettlebell! Inspired by Pavel's comment in S&S that something read twice is better than something read once, I decided to work my way through a five volume set of ancient philosophy translations while I'm doing S&S. Last year, I got through all five, Plato - Republic, Aristotle - Nichomean Ethics, Cicero - On The Good Life, Lucretius - On The Nature Of Things and Seneca - Letters From A Stoic. Now I am right back at the start!
 
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Today's practice, in order:

Work break - Easy Flexible Steel stretching from the book.

S&S 1HS and GU - No warm up, carried groceries home straight after work so I was already warm. 2 sets @ 16kg and 8 sets @ 24kg. I was on the 16 again all January while my shoulder recovered and this month I have reintroduced the 24 for two sets per week. So far so good, my should isn't completely fine yet but the 24 is giving me good feedback and I'm improving. I will see my local SFG soon for a check up. The plan is to go back to the standard month to month progression next month.

Back-bend reading - some of book 1, Plato's Republic.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
Today's practice, in order:

Work break - 200m easy swimming and diving/underwater swimming practice down to 6m. I worked up to 4 x 20m swims at a depth of 6m. Today I flipped a coin to decide between diving practice and just plain old swimming laps, which I want to do more of. I have been inspired by @Harald Motz and his routine of lifting and easy locomotion. I want to emulate this. However, I don't want to give up the breath holding/swimming work in the deep-end as it should be part of my job. Pavel also states in Q+D that hypoxia is useful for mitochondrial development. I have been practicing the dives for a year so I think I can maintain what I have by simply flipping a coin on my three pool days per week.

S&S 2HS and HGU - 2@16kg, 8@ 24kg. Half get-ups were suggested by Pavel in this article Introducing the StrongFirst “WOD” | StrongFirst

Back-bend reading - some of book 1, Plato's Republic.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
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Today's practice, in order:

Work break - Easy Flexible Steel stretching as described in the book.

S&S 1HS and GU - 2@16kg, 8@ 24kg. No warm up, started as soon as I got in the door after walking home from work. No problems with getting straight into it.

Back-bend reading - some of book 1, Plato's Republic.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
Today's practice, in order:

Work break - 200m easy swimming and diving/underwater swimming practice down to 6m. I worked up to 4 x 20m swims at a depth of 6m.

S&S 2HS and HGU - 2@16kg, 8@ 24kg.

Back-bend reading - no reading, phone call with my best mate.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
Today's practice, in order:

Work break - Easy aerobic swimming for 30 minutes. Did not bother counting laps. I am practicing the technique described in Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin, which was mentioned in Preparing for BUD/S | StrongFirst. Reading the articles is so useful.

S&S rest day. I got my first batch of home brew beer started instead...

S&S stretches before bed.
 
Today's practice, in order:

Work break - started my dive practice but I had trouble equalising that did not resolve. Switched to easy laps for the last 15 minutes of my lunch break.

Today was an off day that I did not want to turn into a day off.

S&S 2HS and HGU - 24kg. This practice turned out well considering, I focused on technique and relaxed on the power a little and I think it might have actually been better or at least close to my usual enthusiastic output. Felt fatigued towards the end of the swings though.

Back-bend reading - some of book 2, Plato's Republic.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
It has been a difficult week, after Tuesday things went south...

Wednesday - zero.

Thursday - Work break, easy laps in the pool. S&S 2HS/HG 24kg , surprisingly good practice considering I was suffering from significant fatigue.

Friday - Work break, easy laps in the pool. S&S disaster! first set, 3rd rep left hand, the bell slipped out and luckily did not do any serious damage. Called it quits.

Saturday - S&S 1HS/GU 24kg. Great practice out in the sun, felt much better. Disaster strikes again, bad evening.

Sunday - Recovering from one hell of a week!

I am planning on introducing easy running on the weekends, we will see how that goes.
 
ntapsak said:
Love the reading choice. You'll definitely get more out of the Republic with each read.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. It’s a dense, many layered book that (in my view) is easily misinterpreted. Anyway, regardless of the original intent I think it’s fair to take a lenient and broad view and let it grow into its years, so to speak. One can do that with any classic.
 
10/3/21

S&S 1HS and GU - 24kg.

Back-bend reading - some book 3 - Plato's Republic.

S&S Stretches before bed.

11/3/21

S&S 2HS and HGU - 24kg.

Work break -Flexible Steel practice.

S&S Stretches before bed.
 
12/3/21

S&S 2HS and HGU - 24kg. (ripped callus)
Back-bend reading - finished book 3 - Plato's Republic.
S&S Stretches before bed.

13/3/21

Hangover - freestyle KB practice with a 16kg bell in the sun, like a hard-living comrade!

14/3/21

OFF
S&S Stretches before bed.

15/3/21

S&S 2HS and GU - 24kg. (ripped callus)
Back-bend reading - some book 4 - Plato's Republic.
Work break - flexible steel practice
S&S Stretches before bed.

16/3/21

S&S 2HS and HGU - 24kg. (ripped callus) Shoulders are feeling much better.
Back-bend reading - some book 4 - Plato's Republic.
Work break - Dive practice and swimming in the pool
S&S Stretches before bed.
 
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17/3/21

S&S 2HS and GU - 24kg. (ripped callus)
Back-bend reading - some book 4 - Plato's Republic.
Work break - flexible steel practice
S&S Stretches before bed.
 
18/3/21
S&S 2HS and HGU - 24kg. (ripped callus)
Back-bend reading - some book 4 - Plato's Republic.
Work break - Easy freestyle lap swimming, 25 min.
S&S stretches before bed.

19/3/21
I tried something different today. I usually alternate single and two and swing days, but because my right hand needs to heal I have been doing two hand only while maintaining the get-up variation day to day. But I need to work on my left hand swings more anyway, so today I did the following:

Set 1 - left hand swings.
Set 2 - two hand swings... and so on.
It went pretty well.
Back-bend reading - some book 4 - Plato's Republic.
Work break - Swimming and dive practice.

S&S stretches before bed.
 
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