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Kettlebell "Giant 1.0"

As I read through Geoff’s email reminding us to not get too carried away and just follow the programming, I can’t help but admit that I have a hard time in my rest weeks. I have to convince myself that I’m not being lazy, that I need to take it easy so I can recover and push in my next session. Too many times I’ve tried to do “fun” freestyle sessions in my rest weeks and I end up doing a ton of complexes and body weight stuff and essentially beat myself up. Does anyone else need the reminder that it’s ok to take a week away from strength training in hopes of coming back fresher in a week?
 
Gypsyplumber said:
As I read through Geoff’s email reminding us to not get too carried away and just follow the programming, I can’t help but admit that I have a hard time in my rest weeks. I have to convince myself that I’m not being lazy, that I need to take it easy so I can recover and push in my next session. Too many times I’ve tried to do “fun” freestyle sessions in my rest weeks and I end up doing a ton of complexes and body weight stuff and essentially beat myself up. Does anyone else need the reminder that it’s ok to take a week away from strength training in hopes of coming back fresher in a week?
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There will come a time when you are older where you will welcome the "lazy days" if ya know what I mean.
 
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I thought I'd write up my experience using Strong and Giant protocols with snatches.
I used 2x24kg bells, 20 minute sessions.
I am 56, 5'7", and best described as 'dumpy', despite practicing Strongfirst and Mr. Neupert's programs for years. Oh well, it would undoubtedly be worse without kettlebells

I did this because I like snatches although they beat me up badly, and I wanted the heavier bells.
I began with at best 3-4 shaky reps.
I did Strong as written, also doing One as written. In retrospect, I would have simply done Strong. One gets pretty brutal and deserves its own focus.
On off days for both Strong and One, I only did some walking, and often the 9-Minute KB and Bodyweight Challenge from Aleks Salkin. This too is great, and it fit in nicely with my doing Original Strength type exercises for warmups.
I ended Strong with a solid 12 reps, then another 6 after a short break, mainly because I couldn't believe it myself.

On to Giant 1.0, again with 2x24Kg:
Huge success, and fun to boot.
Rep counts increased by 36% to 16 %, and raw numbers by 25 to 16 reps.
I never felt beat up. Well, not for long-- high rep days are a challenge.
If anything, I was conservative and left a bit in the tank, as the progression really adds up when you "add a set" each week.

Best of all, snatches in volume used to really rip up my hands, especially in an odd place in the center of left, which always developed a nasty rip. That is completely gone: no callus rips, no blisters, barely even a hot spot. Strong was a fantastic training resource.

And! One hand 32KG snatches were merely a fantasy prior to these sessions. After a week or so of Strong, I tried one in the middle of my session, and it just flew up. Simply by adding some reps throughout Strong, in a very conservative manner, I now have solid 4 /3 on strong/stronger arm.

I'm now two weeks into Giant 1.1, and there's another surprise: I've dropped 4-5 pounds since beginning. I absolutely was not trying for this, and in fact have been doing a little too much beach and beer to expect it. I have been trying to eat less, and better. but nothing systematic. I personally rarely see any change in body composition or looks except for my default of 'dumpy', but I feel great.

In summary: I had a good time, made excellent --for me-- progress, lost a little weight, and was never rushed, hurt, or exhausted. A++ .
 
Think I'm about to jump on the Giant bandwagon again.

Just feeling a little bored of my current programme. Which I really enjoyed but just fancy something that's less days a week.

This time starting Giant 3.0 with a single bell.

Reason I'm doing Giant 3.0 is I only have one bell at my partner's.
It's roughly a 5-7 RM.

I'm going to go by feel & switch between 20 & 30 mins workouts.

I'm going to do dead start cleans from the floor instead of the standard swing-clean for a bit more back & leg work.

Also going to allow a bit of lean with the press. It won't be a true side press but definitely not a strict military press either.

Looking forward to the next 12 workouts.

Then retest normal C&P with same sized bell for reps.
 
MarkSch said:
I thought I'd write up my experience using Strong and Giant protocols with snatches.
I used 2x24kg bells, 20 minute sessions.
I am 56, 5'7", and best described as 'dumpy', despite practicing Strongfirst and Mr. Neupert's programs for years. Oh well, it would undoubtedly be worse without kettlebells

I did this because I like snatches although they beat me up badly, and I wanted the heavier bells.
I began with at best 3-4 shaky reps.
I did Strong as written, also doing One as written. In retrospect, I would have simply done Strong. One gets pretty brutal and deserves its own focus.
On off days for both Strong and One, I only did some walking, and often the 9-Minute KB and Bodyweight Challenge from Aleks Salkin. This too is great, and it fit in nicely with my doing Original Strength type exercises for warmups.
I ended Strong with a solid 12 reps, then another 6 after a short break, mainly because I couldn't believe it myself.

On to Giant 1.0, again with 2x24Kg:
Huge success, and fun to boot.
Rep counts increased by 36% to 16 %, and raw numbers by 25 to 16 reps.
I never felt beat up. Well, not for long-- high rep days are a challenge.
If anything, I was conservative and left a bit in the tank, as the progression really adds up when you "add a set" each week.

Best of all, snatches in volume used to really rip up my hands, especially in an odd place in the center of left, which always developed a nasty rip. That is completely gone: no callus rips, no blisters, barely even a hot spot. Strong was a fantastic training resource.

And! One hand 32KG snatches were merely a fantasy prior to these sessions. After a week or so of Strong, I tried one in the middle of my session, and it just flew up. Simply by adding some reps throughout Strong, in a very conservative manner, I now have solid 4 /3 on strong/stronger arm.

I'm now two weeks into Giant 1.1, and there's another surprise: I've dropped 4-5 pounds since beginning. I absolutely was not trying for this, and in fact have been doing a little too much beach and beer to expect it. I have been trying to eat less, and better. but nothing systematic. I personally rarely see any change in body composition or looks except for my default of 'dumpy', but I feel great.

In summary: I had a good time, made excellent --for me-- progress, lost a little weight, and was never rushed, hurt, or exhausted. A++ .
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Are you saying you are using the rep range from the Giant but for snatches but not for C&P? Congratulations on the fat loss.
 
Feedback appreciated by any and all! Question below.

I am using 2x24kg currently. They were my 11/12 rm before starting Giant 1.0. I have a single 32 kg which I can clean and press for 3 good reps on each side. My plan is to run 2.0 starting tomorrow with my 2x24 kbs and upon completion, do 3.0 with a single or double 32 kg.

After completing 3.0 with single or double 32 kg….

1) Do you think I can do Giant 1.0 with 2x32 kg? I want to avoid having to buy 2x28kg and go straight from 2x24 to 2x32….

2) Would it be smarter to do DFW with 2x32 kg instead of Giant 1.0 with 2x32 as an intermediate step?
 
Brenton8989 said:
Feedback appreciated by any and all! Question below.

I am using 2x24kg currently. They were my 11/12 rm before starting Giant 1.0. I have a single 32 kg which I can clean and press for 3 good reps on each side. My plan is to run 2.0 starting tomorrow with my 2x24 kbs and upon completion, do 3.0 with a single or double 32 kg.

After completing 3.0 with single or double 32 kg….

1) Do you think I can do Giant 1.0 with 2x32 kg? I want to avoid having to buy 2x28kg and go straight from 2x24 to 2x32….

2) Would it be smarter to do DFW with 2x32 kg instead of Giant 1.0 with 2x32 as an intermediate step?
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You may need to run Giant 3.0 more than once in order to get your 32kg from a 3RM to a 10RM.
 
Brenton8989 said:
Thanks!

I wonder if I do 1.1–>1.2–>2.0 w the 2x24 kg, if the 32 kg will become a 5-6 rm by the time I start 3.0…
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Very possible. I spent a lot of time doing almost nothing but work with the 24s and got them around 17RM territory, tested my double 32kg C&P and got 5 good reps and started Strong! - and Phase 1 is very similar to Giant 3.0. A lot of folks get 8-10 reps at the end of Phase 1, which is 8 weeks of something very similar to Giant 3.0.
 
John K said:
Very possible. I spent a lot of time doing almost nothing but work with the 24s and got them around 17RM territory, tested my double 32kg C&P and got 5 good reps and started Strong! - and Phase 1 is very similar to Giant 3.0. A lot of folks get 8-10 reps at the end of Phase 1, which is 8 weeks of something very similar to Giant 3.0.
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Typically, I’ve observed that when I am able to hit 5RM of one size bell I can hit 1 of the next size bell. Although this is not linear, I have seen that when I took my double 24s to 7-8RM, I could do 4-5 reps with double 28s. This sort of also worked for the single KB military presses too !!!

Regarding the idea of whether there is carry over when you increase your strength endurance, I’m sure there is, but it is a different stimulus. I would expect that doing 5 reps with double 32s will have a different stimulus vs 20 reps with double 24s. Depending on what’s available and what your goals are you can choose one vs the other.
 
mvikred said:
Regarding the idea of whether there is carry over when you increase your strength endurance, I’m sure there is, but it is a different stimulus. I would expect that doing 5 reps with double 32s will have a different stimulus vs 20 reps with double 24s. Depending on what’s available and what your goals are you can choose one vs the other.
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Definitely! I also think it is different training vs testing with sets of 20. But I think you hit the nail on the head with what's available and what the goals are being important - as well as whether or not you can hold it together for a higher rep sets!
 
Back to the Giant 3.0 with double 32s today. The last time I ran this version in January I was getting around 45-50 total reps. After not touching the 32s really since then I barely banged out 6 sets of 2 in twenty minutes lol. I hope to run 2-3 rounds of 3.0 with them and really make the 32s my 10 rep max some day. But I’m not in a hurry.
 
Also going to be disciplined this run through and listen to Geoff. I’m not going to do swings on my rest days or pull ups on the weekends lol. I’m gonna focus on those 20-30 minutes each day and really try and recover the other days. Especially the weekends, just do some nice family walks and some yoga throughout the week.
 
I started GIANT 1.0-1.2 3 months ago. Started very conservatively at 2x18kg bells (about 40lbs each) as I wanted to focus on technique.
I had also not really used KB's for a while and had been doing various BW programs. I forgot how much I loved the bells.

I gained endurance, mass,strength and lost fat. Killer! This was doing 3x20 min sets per week since I also do BJJ 3x a week.

Today I grabbed a pair of 24kg bells. Got 8 reps , 9 would squeaked in but 10 was not in the cards. I think I will start with GIANT 3.0 for 4 weeks and retest.
 
MikeMoran said:
I started GIANT 1.0-1.2 3 months ago. Started very conservatively at 2x18kg bells (about 40lbs each) as I wanted to focus on technique.
I had also not really used KB's for a while and had been doing various BW programs. I forgot how much I loved the bells.

I gained endurance, mass,strength and lost fat. Killer! This was doing 3x20 min sets per week since I also do BJJ 3x a week.

Today I grabbed a pair of 24kg bells. Got 8 reps , 9 would squeaked in but 10 was not in the cards. I think I will start with GIANT 3.0 for 4 weeks and retest.
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Awesome ! I’ve only done 3.0, I loved it, the reps just keep creeping up.
 
MikeMoran said:
I started GIANT 1.0-1.2 3 months ago. Started very conservatively at 2x18kg bells (about 40lbs each) as I wanted to focus on technique.
I had also not really used KB's for a while and had been doing various BW programs. I forgot how much I loved the bells.

I gained endurance, mass,strength and lost fat. Killer! This was doing 3x20 min sets per week since I also do BJJ 3x a week.

Today I grabbed a pair of 24kg bells. Got 8 reps , 9 would squeaked in but 10 was not in the cards. I think I will start with GIANT 3.0 for 4 weeks and retest.
Click to expand...
Welcome back. Use the 24's and do 1.0 9 is close enough. The magic happens in the 6-9 reps of the program.
 
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