Kettlebell How much should one push themselves during S&S?

[crazycanuck]

I totally agree.

My first 2 sets I need like 30 seconds, but the last set might take me up to 2 minutes to normalize breathing.

Matts, you are right with your interpretation, you shold stick with rhe weight until you own it (maybe several months). The 1 month suggestion in the book is how long the transition takes from one bell to the next, not how long you have to stay with a given weight before starting the transition.

Yes to both of these! I think when you are working in a heavier bell, it is going to be harder, irregardless. Especially at first. It took me a little over 2 years to reach Simple. Some of that was due to injury, some stretches where I needed more rest, some due to just needing longer time to own the bell...and yes that took several months at some weights . Looking back, the heavier bell always felt a tougher at first, especially with grip, and with endurance for swings (getups were my stronger exercise as far as progression rate).

Overall, I found that keeping notes was helpful (like how I slept, if I worked overtime, for example), and over time I was able to see the changes in how easier the bell felt....less rest time needed between sets of swings, passing the talk test quicker, feeling recovered, getting to the point that I would pick the bell up for a practice and realize that lately, it felt as easy and light as the previous weight, that overall each practice my 10th set was just as good and crisp as my first ones, etc . For the heavier bells (new one I was working with), if I needed more time between sets, at first, I think that was to be expected....I could see over time, time and time again through past experience, that it got easier.

I never preplanned when I was going to test myself to a time standard (in moving up to the next weight by adding a set at a time, like the book describes), but would just get a overall sense that "today was the day" to do it, it just felt like it was time when I would evaluate how the last several weeks/months felt. I think we all deep down have a sense of what "owning the bell" means....of course you will breathe harder, maybe have a bit of a hard time talking between sets when testing yourself, but if you are struggling halfway through testing yourself to even get a powerful hip snap you may need to spend more time with said bell.


For just everyday practice....I found this article by Pavel T. to be a very helpful guide .... the pushing a little harder, once a week, was a great strategy.

Simple & Sinister Progression Tactic | StrongFirst

 

[Chrisdavisjr]

Plenty of good info in this thread.

For just everyday practice....I found this article by Pavel T. to be a very helpful guide .... the pushing a little harder, once a week, was a great strategy.

Simple & Sinister Progression Tactic | StrongFirst

The summary at the end of that article pretty much says it all, really.

 

[billyp]

This is a good question and something I struggle with. Looking at my training log I passed the time test with 24 kg on 8/1. In transitioning to the 32 kg I found myself having right knee pain around 9/5. I dropped back to completely using 24 kg. I thought it was really strange that I only had right knee pain. Then, the right knee pain went away, and I had left knee pain. Then the left knee pain went away and the right knee pain came back. I thought it was weird that only one knee would hurt me at once and that is when both knees started to hurt at once. Then came the back pain. At this point, it was difficult for me to walk so I stopped training for 2 weeks. It wasn't until 10/15 that the knee pain was completely gone.

I think that I just increased volume way too fast and that's what hurt me. I guess the book advocates for a very, very gradual transition where you only really bump up one of your 10 set's weight every week. I tried to go from doing 100 1H 24 kg swings to 100 2H 32 kg swings. As you can surmise, this did not go well for me. Right now I am transitioning from 24 to 32 without doing any 2H swings and this seems to be going well so far. I am only doing 1H swings with 32 in sets of 5 instead of 10 as well to keep the reps high quality.

I will say this about my kettlebells: I went to buy the cheapest ones I could find on Amazon (Yes4All) and I bought a 50lb and 70lb, so not exactly the same as 24kg and 32kg. The problem is that this company accidentally sent me a 75 lb kettlebell instead of 70. So my transition is from 50 lb to 75 lb instead of like 53 lb to 71 lb. So my "24kg" bell is 50 lbs, and my "32 kg" simple goal kettlebell is 75 lbs. This might have contributed to how I got injured as well because I think it's a pretty big jump.

So don't try to progress too quickly! Take it easy or you may find yourself with pain.

A while back I had some knee pain and discovered it was from my swing form. I had my feet a little too wide and a little too far turned outward. King my feet a little closer together and keeping them pointed a little more straight forward relieved the knee pain.