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Kettlebell "Giant 1.0"

Wow have you been documenting your progress with that kind of volume (especially for hypertrophy)?
I have a log going, hypertrophy I haven’t really done any updates. Maybe once I finish the program, but I didn’t really take before photos.

My wife comments on my traps, but I notice my forearms. My lower forearm next to the wrist is popping out in a way I had never seen before on my body. I started the program after having my bicep repaired so it’s hard to track progress in that area, but it looks normal again.
 
120+ reps in one session is quite a lot!! I could never come close to that output! Matter of fact 120+ reps is like a whole week's output for me on many an occasion!!

Wow.
They’re just 24 kgs, I’m not moving the weight you are with those 36s. After I got cleared to lift, I tested with a single bell and was 4 on the arm that had surgery and 6 on the healthy arm. I never tested with doubles once the second bell came in, ran DFW straight into Giant. (Skipped the fifth week of DFW)
 
I have a log going, hypertrophy I haven’t really done any updates. Maybe once I finish the program, but I didn’t really take before photos.

My wife comments on my traps, but I notice my forearms. My lower forearm next to the wrist is popping out in a way I had never seen before on my body. I started the program after having my bicep repaired so it’s hard to track progress in that area, but it looks normal again.
What size bells are you banging out 120 reps with? When I first started the Giant with 24s I worked up to 124 reps on the Giant 1.1 but found it was a bit much lol
 
Just did 4 weeks except the very last light day of The Giant and I can confirm my shirt got tighter. Shoulder looks round, upper back got some mass and biceps are getting bigger from the front. Even rolling in BJJ felt stronger although this could partly be because the workouts let you recover properly.

Got up to 77 reps with double 16’s on the heavy day in Week 3 which is massive improvement from 51 reps in my first workout. Also in Week 4 I did as sort of a deload where workouts were 20 mins instead of 30. I did 50 reps so I basically did the same reps as some of the earlier workouts but in 2/3 the time. I like how I could auto regulate to control the volume and density as needed. I will take a break now as I did a ton of volume this month for double kettlebell clean&press and feel I need to focus on my legs.

I will definitely try it with my single 24kg of the lower rm version of The Giant but use a push press instead of press. Right now I need a program for my lower body and conditioning and will probably have to find one with less enjoyable exercises than the cleans&press such as the double kettlebell front squat (I hate this even with double 16’s) and double snatch.

Would you recommend doing The Wolf after the Giant? I don’t currently have a second 20kg for DFW which might have worked and I could try it with double 16’s but it looks way too easy while wolf heavy day looks like too scary.
I did the wolf a few years ago after my SFG. Killer program. I ran it with a pair of 20kgs and it was TOUGH. Follow the guidelines in the MKBM book to find the right pair of bells. I am gonna run the GIANT till I get as strong as @John Grahill
 
I did the wolf a few years ago after my SFG. Killer program. I ran it with a pair of 20kgs and it was TOUGH. Follow the guidelines in the MKBM book to find the right pair of bells. I am gonna run the GIANT till I get as strong as @John Grahill
@MikeMoran as I said to I believe @John K ..... you need to aim higher! I'm fighting father time and with it comes all the talked about things.....I can hear myself getting fatter, I'm losing endurance, my hairline gets shorter, I need reading glasses fir virtually everything, etc.
 
Just did 4 weeks except the very last light day of The Giant and I can confirm my shirt got tighter. Shoulder looks round, upper back got some mass and biceps are getting bigger from the front. Even rolling in BJJ felt stronger although this could partly be because the workouts let you recover properly.

Got up to 77 reps with double 16’s on the heavy day in Week 3 which is massive improvement from 51 reps in my first workout. Also in Week 4 I did as sort of a deload where workouts were 20 mins instead of 30. I did 50 reps so I basically did the same reps as some of the earlier workouts but in 2/3 the time. I like how I could auto regulate to control the volume and density as needed. I will take a break now as I did a ton of volume this month for double kettlebell clean&press and feel I need to focus on my legs.

I will definitely try it with my single 24kg of the lower rm version of The Giant but use a push press instead of press. Right now I need a program for my lower body and conditioning and will probably have to find one with less enjoyable exercises than the cleans&press such as the double kettlebell front squat (I hate this even with double 16’s) and double snatch.

Would you recommend doing The Wolf after the Giant? I don’t currently have a second 20kg for DFW which might have worked and I could try it with double 16’s but it looks way too easy while wolf heavy day looks like too scary.
I'm currently running the heavy and medium days from Giant 3.0 but for double cleans and front squats rather than presses. Then rather than the light day I instead do a day of pressing and rowing in-between to keep my upperbody ticking over. So:

M - DCL+DFS - Sets of 2
W - DP+Row - Sets of 5
F - DCL+DFS - Sets of 3

Appreciate I'm not doing The Giant anymore at all but I feel this is working well for my goal of improving squat strength whilst still scratching the itch to press. I also don't enjoy the day of singles so works well for me.
 
What size bells are you banging out 120 reps with? When I first started the Giant with 24s I worked up to 124 reps on the Giant 1.1 but found it was a bit much lol
24kg, I haven't ran into any issues with the volume but I peaked in total reps during 1.0. In 1.1 I have dropped off that volume and am more in the 100/day range. I have been holding fairly steady at the volume and haven't had any issues with it, body feels great and no aches and pains.

Weekly Volume-
3.0:
Week 1254
Week 2270
Week 3263
Week 4293
1.0
Week 1280
Week 2322
Week 3319
Week 4342

2.0
Week 1313
Week 2328
Week 3328
Week 4336

1.1
Week 1273
Week 2294
Week 3287
 
Just do the program as is. It's a minimalist clean and press program. Try it for 4 weeks and evaluate. If you want to squat, create your own program or find another.

122 pages of people have had success doing it as written. Would you add tarter sauce to a Big Mac? Tartar sauce tastes great. But on a burger? Won't taste as good. Adding squats would be great. But while doing the Giant? You won't receive as many benefits and GAINZ.
 
Wh
Just do the program as is. It's a minimalist clean and press program. Try it for 4 weeks and evaluate. If you want to squat, create your own program or find another.

122 pages of people have had success doing it as written. Would you add tarter sauce to a Big Mac? Tartar sauce tastes great. But on a burger? Won't taste as good. Adding squats would be great. But while doing the Giant? You won't receive as many benefits and GAINZ.
Tartar sauce tastes amazing in filet o fish burger but I get your point to not add exercises in order to get the maximum effectiveness out of the Giant!
 
One thing I am doing that is inspired by ROP... Is I do Sumo Squats on (some) off days, and roll two dice to figure out how many sets of 5,6, or 4 I have to do. I do this in an emom fashion. I find this does not hinder recovery, while still allowing my heart right to get a minor boost, and perhaps minimize the chances of losing leg muscles a bit.

I used to be so good at overtraining that I would tweak or get injured on programs after 1-3 weeks everytime! Not a good thing to have success at. Now, and as Geoff mentions, I prioritize off days and have noticed three benefits mainly.
1)I cannot wait to train the next day and really look forward to it on the day of, almost like a big game or something.
2) My performance (because of recovery of muscles and CNS) is way better.
3)I am finally able to stay consistent because my aches, tendonitis and minor injuries almost never happen anymore.
 
Just do the program as is. It's a minimalist clean and press program. Try it for 4 weeks and evaluate. If you want to squat, create your own program or find another.

122 pages of people have had success doing it as written. Would you add tarter sauce to a Big Mac? Tartar sauce tastes great. But on a burger? Won't taste as good. Adding squats would be great. But while doing the Giant? You won't receive as many benefits and GAINZ.
Spot on as usual Brian!
 
One thing I am doing that is inspired by ROP... Is I do Sumo Squats on (some) off days, and roll two dice to figure out how many sets of 5,6, or 4 I have to do. I do this in an emom fashion. I find this does not hinder recovery, while still allowing my heart right to get a minor boost, and perhaps minimize the chances of losing leg muscles a bit.

I used to be so good at overtraining that I would tweak or get injured on programs after 1-3 weeks everytime! Not a good thing to have success at. Now, and as Geoff mentions, I prioritize off days and have noticed three benefits mainly.
1)I cannot wait to train the next day and really look forward to it on the day of, almost like a big game or something.
2) My performance (because of recovery of muscles and CNS) is way better.
3)I am finally able to stay consistent because my aches, tendonitis and minor injuries almost never happen anymore.
I've been good at the same thing too.....
 
You could try The Olympic 2, I'm currently in the third phase , really enjoying it.
I'm doing this too. I haven't seen anyone post about it, but I think it's a great program, I actually think better for me than The Giant.

The things I like about it (without being specific enough to give the program away):
--It gives you your front squats along with your cleans and presses.
--You don't press every day, which I like. I like being able to focus just on squats some days, and just on presses some days.
--I like doing the drills as complexes instead of chains, although you can run it as chains if you want.
--I like the progression of the rep schemes. The way I am experiencing it, phase 1 is a build up, phase 2 is a sort of deload/backoff with shorter sets, and phase 3 is a step up in intensiveness.

I've been complementing it with Q&D snatches on off days from The Olympic and it's been working pretty well. The Olympic sessions seem to take less out of me. Whereas with The Giant, I either didn't want to do anything on off days, or not more than 2 series.
 
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I'm doing this too. I haven't seen anyone post about it, but I think it's a great program, I actually think better for me than The Giant.

The things I like about it (without being specific enough to give the program away):
--It gives you your front squats along with your cleans and presses.
--You don't press every day, which I like. I like being able to focus just on squats some days, and just on presses some days.
--I like doing the drills as complexes instead of chains, although you can run it as chains if you want.
--I like the progression of the rep schemes. The way I am experiencing it, phase 1 is a build up, phase 2 is a sort of deload/backoff with shorter sets, and phase 3 is a step up in intensiveness.

I've been complementing it with Q&D snatches on off days from The Olympic and it's been working pretty well. The Olympic sessions seem to take less out of me. Whereas with The Giant, I either didn't want to do anything on off days, or not more than 2 series.
It is a hidden gem :) I play cricket (very loosely like baseball) and notice benefit in season from squating and pressing (suprise suprise). I was looking through Geoffs programs I own for 3 x a week squat & press program I could recover from (I'm a 46 year old family man). The Olympic 2 has hit the nail on the head! I'm doing it as a complex with 24s. @Steve W. I also found on rest days I was able to do some extra if I wanted, swings, snatch, bike, low volume bent press etc etc
@Geoff Neupert any issues with going back through it after the end of phase 3 , but as a chain with 28s?
I also love Strong and the Giant but will probably stick to doing those out of season.
 
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