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Bodyweight Gtg and Conditioning?

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Hello,

Thus, when we use GTG (OAOL PU + pistols), has the big pull (DL or snatch) to be done another day ? Later the same day ?

Kind regards,

Pet'

In Naked Warrior Pavel advise to do use a more conventional workout for the big pull. He gives twice a week 5x5 as example (Kindle location 1724).
 
Hello,

@Shahaf Levin
Yes you are right about the 5x5 twice a week. Nevertheless, just before (in the same paragraphe) you can read :
"Yes, but you had better add a big pull, such as the barbell deadlift, the clean, or the kettlebell snatch. None of these has to be done daily in the GTG format".

So I understand that the big pull has to be done another day if we follow the book guidelines. But the kettlebell snatch is a ballistic exercise. Thus we do high rep sets. In that case, what kettlebell snatch configuration do we have to follow ?

Eg: a 10 minutes snatch test ? 10x10 "S&S like" ?

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I wouldn't take it that literally. He wrote NW around when he wrote Enter the Kettlebell. He hadn't created the S&S programme yet. Clearly, back then he thought the snatch was superior to the swing, which it is indeed if you are talking about the same (necessarily) light kettlebell. However, you can't do snatches with heavy kettlebells, so, according to a blog article he wrote much more recently, the swing comes out looking quite nice (because you can do it with much heavier kettlebells than you can snatch)!

Having done the NW routine (if we can call it that really) for two months in the summer to good effect, I think I fully understand what he means about the "big pull" having to be included:

NW tones up the body very nicely and imparts brilliant pushing strength. Pullups add grip and lat strength (I don't think other gains are important from pullups as they're covered in the pushups.) The part lacking is the lower back which is SO IMPORTANT for real world strength. If you can't pick up something heavy from the ground then what kind of "strongman" are you???

So, I'm pretty sure that any kind of exercise where you are pulling somthing heavy up from the ground will do: deadlift, swing, clean, snatch, etc...

Based on what I've read here from more experienced people, you can combine the 10X10 swings from S&S with any kind of "big push" exercise to good effect. I considered doing this with the warrior pushups, but instead I decided to not deny myself the benefits of the amazing Turkish Getups, and to therefore drill some one arm pushups as a bonus instead of working through a 5X5 warrior pushup workout as a replacement for the getups. Getups load less weight on you than the pushups, but I think they are much better because they develop multi directional strength.
 
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Hello,

I agree with you about the "picking up something heavy from the ground" which is a "fundamental" of strength training. It clearly has a functional /real world purpose.

I understood the idea of working a pull (snatch or DD). What I did not understand at the beginning was the proposal of snatches (more cardio and high reps) or DL (low rep heavy-weight), because NW is only strength oriented.

Your post makes the topic clearer:
=> In a strength oriented program (no conditioning) DL is far better.
=> if you want to also increase power then snatches / swings "S&S like" could be interesting.

Thanks a lot,

Pet'
 
Hello,

I agree with you about the "picking up something heavy from the ground" which is a "fundamental" of strength training. It clearly has a functional /real world purpose.

I understood the idea of working a pull (snatch or DD). What I did not understand at the beginning was the proposal of snatches (more cardio and high reps) or DL (low rep heavy-weight), because NW is only strength oriented.

Your post makes the topic clearer:
=> In a strength oriented program (no conditioning) DL is far better.
=> if you want to also increase power then snatches / swings "S&S like" could be interesting.

Thanks a lot,

Pet'
Frankly, if there were no real world application for lower back strength, I would not train it at all - I'd just do the naked warrior system (which does ideally include pullups) to make me look good. The problem is that looking good isn't everything in life. All those showy muscles are pretty worthless if you have to actually pick something up or wrestle with someone!

Regarding snatches versus swings, to me it would appear to be better to do swings with a higher weight than to do snatches with a lower weight, so if I only had a 24kg bell, I'd snatch it, but if I had a 40kg too bell I'd swing the 40 instead of snatching the 24.

Everything about exercise is a compromise. We don't have the stamina to train everything nor the room to have every kind of useful training apparatus. I prefer the S&S system due to its compromise between real world multi-directional strength endurance and the fact that I don't want to compromise my living space or my home's structural integrity with a heavy barbell. I add the NW moves onto it to make myself stronger.
 
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Hello,

I read somewhere in the forum that a strong swing (meaning "low rep swing" with a heavy weight) leads to a strong deadlift. That way the same exercise done different ways can lead to various results : conditioning or strength. Besides, it does not require a lot of space as you already said. It is minimalist but efficient.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
It's like the old metaphor of the barbell being an M16 and the kettlebell being an AK47 - the M16 is the better gun, but the AK47 is more reliable and easier to use and abuse. I frankly don't have the patience to keep adding and taking off weights on a barbell, nor the room in my house to have 3 different barbells perfectly weighted for different exercises. So, I use the kettlebells. What is their special feature? Well, "strength-endurance". Kettlebells are nowhere near as heavy as barbells can be, but we can put FORCE into their swings, so we can still tire ourselves out with them, constantly building strength-endurance if not the high levels of pure strength we could build with 300kg barbells. My guess is that kettlebell swings help with barbell lifts since the swings help us develop strength-endurance to handle longer workouts and holding up the barbell for a longer amount of time than otherwise. That's my guess at any rate. I don't lift barbells so I don't know for sure. The unsteadiness of the kettlebell in presses helps to make up for its lack of weight relative to barbells. Its unsteadines activates more muscles, so even though pressing a 48kg kettlebell over your head isn't anything like what barbell guys do in Olympic style weightlifting, it's still got its own charms.
 
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