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Kettlebell Geoff Neupert "THE GIANT" ??

I'm 58 and have stayed pretty fit. I have a first-class garage gym, but I had to spend a month in an apartment in a different city. The apartment had a limited gym so I did Giant 1.0 with 50 lb. Db's (that was the heaviest they had). Week 1 - 20 min., Week 2 - 25 min., Week 3 - 30 min., Week 4 - 20 min. (deload). I did 5 sets of pull-ups after each workout. I just finished this morning and will likely get back to more barbell based training (I'm back home now), but I'm noticeably thicker in my shoulders, traps, and foreams. It's an excellent program.
 
Any of you ever squeeze in a few single kb sets towards the end of your sessions? Did 1.1 D2 today (sets of 8) and I was cooked by the 20:00 mark, so I did single arm sets of 8 to end it…not my “wind”, just my overall power was dwindling and didn’t want to force less than optimal reps…

That cheating?


Interestingly, I felt like switching to single arms wasn’t easier per se, just different. I feel as though I could get the same total reps by doing singles but might get more of a fat loss effect…. Working for twice as much time …..
 
Brenton8989 said:
Any of you ever squeeze in a few single kb sets towards the end of your sessions? Did 1.1 D2 today (sets of 8) and I was cooked by the 20:00 mark, so I did single arm sets of 8 to end it…not my “wind”, just my overall power was dwindling and didn’t want to force less than optimal reps…

That cheating?


Interestingly, I felt like switching to single arms wasn’t easier per se, just different. I feel as though I could get the same total reps by doing singles but might get more of a fat loss effect…. Working for twice as much time …..
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The Giant is both a double KB program and a single KB program (in KB Express it’s a single bell program, I don’t own the full program but based on this thread I assume it’s written as a double bell program) so I don’t think that’s an issue at all.
 
Confused on what set up to use with the double clean. Dan John teaches the “V to me “ set up and it looks like Neupert has the V away from him? Is this just personal preference? I’m still trying to get through the Strong! teaching material however there is a ton there, maybe it’s explained and I haven’t gotten that far in.
 
breasoner121 said:
Confused on what set up to use with the double clean. Dan John teaches the “V to me “ set up and it looks like Neupert has the V away from him? Is this just personal preference? I’m still trying to get through the Strong! teaching material however there is a ton there, maybe it’s explained and I haven’t gotten that far in.
Click to expand...

Watch the Strong videos. A thorough explanation on the how’s and why’s.
 
breasoner121 said:
Confused on what set up to use with the double clean. Dan John teaches the “V to me “ set up and it looks like Neupert has the V away from him? Is this just personal preference? I’m still trying to get through the Strong! teaching material however there is a ton there, maybe it’s explained and I haven’t gotten that far in.
Click to expand...
I think preference is important. I started swings with the “V” ( looking down at the bell handles ), which was fine for swings. But for C&P, the reverse V worked better ( less rotation of the elbow and better technique), and then recently tried almost a hammer grip ( looking down at the bells, the handles point almost front to back, or a very slight reverse V ), and find this grip even better again. Your wrists don’t have to rotate as much and it feels better to me.

If you’re not getting elbow or shoulder issues you should be ok

Keep watching the vids
 
Brenton8989 said:
Any of you ever squeeze in a few single kb sets towards the end of your sessions? Did 1.1 D2 today (sets of 8) and I was cooked by the 20:00 mark, so I did single arm sets of 8 to end it…not my “wind”, just my overall power was dwindling and didn’t want to force less than optimal reps…

That cheating?


Interestingly, I felt like switching to single arms wasn’t easier per se, just different. I feel as though I could get the same total reps by doing singles but might get more of a fat loss effect…. Working for twice as much time …..
Click to expand...
I did a run of the 3.0 with a single 32 and on fridays I’d use a 36 for 1 rep per side. It was more time under tension for sure and the core got worked pretty good. But overall the doubles still seemed to take more out of my cns just moving the load of both bells is more taxing for me. I will run it again with a single bell some day.
 
Brenton8989 said:
Any of you ever squeeze in a few single kb sets towards the end of your sessions? Did 1.1 D2 today (sets of 8) and I was cooked by the 20:00 mark, so I did single arm sets of 8 to end it…not my “wind”, just my overall power was dwindling and didn’t want to force less than optimal reps…

That cheating?


Interestingly, I felt like switching to single arms wasn’t easier per se, just different. I feel as though I could get the same total reps by doing singles but might get more of a fat loss effect…. Working for twice as much time …..
Click to expand...
I don't see that as cheating at all. Matter of fact it seems like a great idea!
 
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breasoner121 said:
Confused on what set up to use with the double clean. Dan John teaches the “V to me “ set up and it looks like Neupert has the V away from him? Is this just personal preference? I’m still trying to get through the Strong! teaching material however there is a ton there, maybe it’s explained and I haven’t gotten that far in.
Click to expand...
I also remember seeing Andrew Read's video years back talking about the V set up. I played around and eventually found the inverted V the most comfortable to use. That's just me though.
 
Gypsyplumber said:
I did a run of the 3.0 with a single 32 and on fridays I’d use a 36 for 1 rep per side. It was more time under tension for sure and the core got worked pretty good. But overall the doubles still seemed to take more out of my cns just moving the load of both bells is more taxing for me. I will run it again with a single bell some day.
Click to expand...
I used to feel the same way but I actually find single bell/unilateral work more "challenging" especially if done left side then immediately right side without putting the bell down. It makes for quite a long set and in higher reps it's brutal.
 
I have some asymmetries right now and poor mobility so I was going to run 1.0 with 1 bell. I was wondering if you set the bell down between the left and right arm. Those bigger set days seems like it would be brutal.
 
breasoner121 said:
I have some asymmetries right now and poor mobility so I was going to run 1.0 with 1 bell. I was wondering if you set the bell down between the left and right arm. Those bigger set days seems like it would be brutal.
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I say give it a shot. If you have to break the set up between right and left, so be it!
 
breasoner121 said:
Confused on what set up to use with the double clean. Dan John teaches the “V to me “ set up and it looks like Neupert has the V away from him? Is this just personal preference? I’m still trying to get through the Strong! teaching material however there is a ton there, maybe it’s explained and I haven’t gotten that far in.
Click to expand...
Strong! covers that.

There are four basic positions with doubles - the V ( \ / ), the A ( / \ ), parallel (II) and the horizontal/in-line (--).The V takes some stress off the elbows at the bottom (thumbs rotated in and pointing up under your groin), the A (thumbs rotated up a little and pointing down when under your groin) allows more bicep involvement (but also puts more stress on the elbow, especially if your form isn't good). The horizontal/in-line just confuses me because either way they end up in a V or an A as they go under my groin, they just don't start there on the floor. Parallel for me seems to tend towards an A form anyways once I hike them back under the groin, so again, it seems more about the floor setup then effecting the actual clean.

That's been my understanding from Strong!, SFG1, and my personal experience. If I'm missing something or misunderstanding something I'm happy to be enlightened if someone thinks I got something wrong!
 
John K said:
Strong! covers that.

There are four basic positions with doubles - the V ( \ / ), the A ( / \ ), parallel (II) and the horizontal/in-line (--).The V takes some stress off the elbows at the bottom (thumbs rotated in and pointing up under your groin), the A (thumbs rotated up a little and pointing down when under your groin) allows more bicep involvement (but also puts more stress on the elbow, especially if your form isn't good). The horizontal/in-line just confuses me because either way they end up in a V or an A as they go under my groin, they just don't start there on the floor. Parallel for me seems to tend towards an A form anyways once I hike them back under the groin, so again, it seems more about the floor setup then effecting the actual clean.

That's been my understanding from Strong!, SFG1, and my personal experience. If I'm missing something or misunderstanding something I'm happy to be enlightened if someone thinks I got something wrong!
Click to expand...
Thank you! I need to get through these Strong! videos. I’ve been going slow, practicing along as the video goes.
 
breasoner121 said:
I have some asymmetries right now and poor mobility so I was going to run 1.0 with 1 bell. I was wondering if you set the bell down between the left and right arm. Those bigger set days seems like it would be brutal.
Click to expand...
I didn’t set the bell down and I’d do a hand to hand swing which doesn’t seem like much but it adds to it.
 
John K said:
Strong! covers that.

There are four basic positions with doubles - the V ( \ / ), the A ( / \ ), parallel (II) and the horizontal/in-line (--).The V takes some stress off the elbows at the bottom (thumbs rotated in and pointing up under your groin), the A (thumbs rotated up a little and pointing down when under your groin) allows more bicep involvement (but also puts more stress on the elbow, especially if your form isn't good). The horizontal/in-line just confuses me because either way they end up in a V or an A as they go under my groin, they just don't start there on the floor. Parallel for me seems to tend towards an A form anyways once I hike them back under the groin, so again, it seems more about the floor setup then effecting the actual clean.

That's been my understanding from Strong!, SFG1, and my personal experience. If I'm missing something or misunderstanding something I'm happy to be enlightened if someone thinks I got something wrong!
Click to expand...
One more thing to add is the A(/\) form also engages the lats reflexively. There is no right or wrong to this. Try all forms and find the one that you find most comfortable. I prefer the A form.
 
Wow! I’m going on vacation next week so I thought I’d practice around with 1 bell 1.0. Way harder than I thought it would be! I even went a bell smaller than I needed and thank goodness. I used a 24kg and did not count reps but my guess is 50-60 per arm. I can’t believe how much my heart rate spiked, I am either way out of shape or weaker than I thought. When I get home I’ll run the full 4 weeks and see how much I improve.
 
Everywhere you turn or look the Giant is there. Aleksander Salkin is supposed to have something in an upcoming email about the Giant.
 
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