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Kettlebell I finished Kettlebell Muscle!

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patterner

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So I finished Kettlebell Muscle today...first, a shout out to @GeoffNeupert for designing an amazing program!

Here are my quick thoughts about the program:
  • Wow, it's HARD. I'd just come off of DFW and Armor Building using a 16 + 24 (no matching 24s), so I thought using paired 16s would be easy....I was as wrong as wrong can be. Especially week 6 and week 12 (the ends of the two phases)
  • Rest is key...I tried to do the hourly swing protocol that Fabio posted, and even on the lighter days it was just about to kill me...including off days!
  • This was my first experience with double snatches, and that was interesting...I think I might be in love!
My results are as follows...not really quantified, but I think good qualitative stuff:
  • Hypertrophy:
    • Lots in the shoulder area, delts, traps, and the rhomboinds
    • Upper arms (maybe from the curls I do as part of the goblet squats I did as a warmup)
    • Upper pecs
    • Not much leg hypertrophy, though I wouldn't expect much given my squat is high 200s, so 70lb wasn't much, though I did see some right around the patella...so, the distal end of the quad
  • Body comp
    • T-shirts are definitely fitting more loosely, except around the shoulders and arms (see hypertrophy above)
    • I was eating at a slight deficit, so this is somewhat expected
  • Strength
    • Harder to quantify since I haven't done any testing, but curling, squatting, and caber tossing my grandkids is certainly easier! :)

Overall, I would heartily recommend the program, it covers all the big movements and will definitely kick your butt. However, it's certainly *NOT* a minimalist program.

Next for me, is probably a month of S&S, then I'm likely going to do the blended Strong! and One! programs from the Geoff's Kettlebell Strong! book using my 16+24 like I did with DFW earlier.

Hope this was helpful!
 
  • This was my first experience with double snatches, and that was interesting...I think I might be in love!

Could you elaborate upon why you may be in love?

I love 1H snatching (currently 28 & 32 A+A, 24 Q&D) and am really curious about the benefits of doubling down...
 
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Great work @patterner way to stick with it. Heavy day week 6 is atrocious. Geoff's programs are notoriously nasty at the end. I'm doing Kettlebell Burn 2.0 and just finished week 14 of 16.

One of the workouts is snatches x 3 for 15 minutes as many sets as possible then rest 3 minutes followed by 15 minutes of a superset of reverse lunges 10 each leg then 1 arm rows 10 each arm with a max 45 seconds rest between each superset. Rest 3 minutes and then TGU's for 10 minutes

It's awful in a good way.
 
@patterner , I have done KBM more than once and I was humbled too at the weight selection I had to use but it delivered tremendously for me. My only advice to anyone is drop any "extras" when doing Geoff's complexes. As the weeks progress you'll be thankful you did! I remember dreading Thursday nights knowing the Friday heavy day was in the morning!
 
Could you elaborate upon why you may be in love?

I love 1H snatching (currently 28 & 32 A+A, 24 Q&D) and am really curious about the benefits of doubling down...
My observation on the double snatch is that you can drive more weight overhead which makes for a powerful conditioning effect. Example: Use two 20kg kettlebells. and now your hinge is required to snatch 40kg overhead instead of 32kg while your shoulders are protected from a heavier single weight. I have used an eccentric press to lower the KBs for back safety.
 
Many thanks @SteveR - think you've just persuaded me to get another 20 and 24 instead of buying a 36...
You're welcome. I'm not an SFG but there is obviously some technique skill difference vs the single so starting light and building up is naturally recommended if doubles are new.
 
Could you elaborate upon why you may be in love?

I love 1H snatching (currently 28 & 32 A+A, 24 Q&D) and am really curious about the benefits of doubling down...
My observation on the double snatch is that you can drive more weight overhead which makes for a powerful conditioning effect. Example: Use two 20kg kettlebells. and now your hinge is required to snatch 40kg overhead instead of 32kg while your shoulders are protected from a heavier single weight. I have used an eccentric press to lower the KBs for back safety.
Exactly this. I've done some 1h with my 24 and my 32 (hooboy, those increased the pucker factor by quite a bit), and I loved the 2h way more. You lose a little in the anti rotation department, but you're doing enough work in this program you just....don't care. :)

I think snatches are one of the best reason to go for the in between sized bells. Snatching the 32 was way sketchier than I would have liked, but I think a 28 would be just about perfect for a "heavy" snatch for me.

Great work @patterner way to stick with it. Heavy day week 6 is atrocious. Geoff's programs are notoriously nasty at the end. I'm doing Kettlebell Burn 2.0 and just finished week 14 of 16.

One of the workouts is snatches x 3 for 15 minutes as many sets as possible then rest 3 minutes followed by 15 minutes of a superset of reverse lunges 10 each leg then 1 arm rows 10 each arm with a max 45 seconds rest between each superset. Rest 3 minutes and then TGU's for 10 minutes

It's awful in a good way.
@patterner , I have done KBM more than once and I was humbled too at the weight selection I had to use but it delivered tremendously for me. My only advice to anyone is drop any "extras" when doing Geoff's complexes. As the weeks progress you'll be thankful you did! I remember dreading Thursday nights knowing the Friday heavy day was in the morning!
Thanks! Week 12 Heavy was so much worse than I imagined. I was blissfully remembering Week 6 Heavy day (ok, so maybe not blissfully, but with a certain fond nostalgia).

I feel you on dreading Thursday night! Holy smokes
 
I've been running Kettlebell Muscle 6 x a week. So basically fitting 2 weeks into one. Get heavy day week 4 tomorrow. Thank God it's only 4 rounds with 90 seconds rest. Only adjustment I've made is doing the swings, high pulls and double snatches outside the knees. My sacrum doesn't enjoy snatching between the legs.
 
I've been running Kettlebell Muscle 6 x a week. So basically fitting 2 weeks into one. Get heavy day week 4 tomorrow. Thank God it's only 4 rounds with 90 seconds rest. Only adjustment I've made is doing the swings, high pulls and double snatches outside the knees. My sacrum doesn't enjoy snatching between the legs.
Wow! You're way more conditioned than I am. That would have killed me!

I wonder if doing them between the legs contributed to my current pain in my left SI joint. I've never really had an issue before (and I didn't while I was doing KBM) but I've noticed it lately in my S&S practice.
 
Wow! You're way more conditioned than I am. That would have killed me!

I wonder if doing them between the legs contributed to my current pain in my left SI joint. I've never really had an issue before (and I didn't while I was doing KBM) but I've noticed it lately in my S&S practice.

SI joint pop is an automatic visit to the chiropractor for me to get re-adjusted because it needs to get put back in place or it doesn't heal. Thankfully it's been 7 months, and a year previous.

Other things that bother it are, windmills (don't do them anymore), and density training, trying to sneak one more rep than last time. The latter is too bad, because I loved density training, but being 51, it doesn't love me back when I'm tired.

In regard to KM, I have in the past run 2 More Kettlebell Muscle programs at the same time. Until things get gnarly. The Long Haul in weeks 7-9, I needed all the rest I could get. Those workouts are 32 minutes long.

For KM, I just suffer through the 15 minutes.
 
So I finished Kettlebell Muscle today...first, a shout out to @GeoffNeupert for designing an amazing program!

Here are my quick thoughts about the program:
  • Wow, it's HARD. I'd just come off of DFW and Armor Building using a 16 + 24 (no matching 24s), so I thought using paired 16s would be easy....I was as wrong as wrong can be. Especially week 6 and week 12 (the ends of the two phases)
  • Rest is key...I tried to do the hourly swing protocol that Fabio posted, and even on the lighter days it was just about to kill me...including off days!
  • This was my first experience with double snatches, and that was interesting...I think I might be in love!
My results are as follows...not really quantified, but I think good qualitative stuff:
  • Hypertrophy:
    • Lots in the shoulder area, delts, traps, and the rhomboinds
    • Upper arms (maybe from the curls I do as part of the goblet squats I did as a warmup)
    • Upper pecs
    • Not much leg hypertrophy, though I wouldn't expect much given my squat is high 200s, so 70lb wasn't much, though I did see some right around the patella...so, the distal end of the quad
  • Body comp
    • T-shirts are definitely fitting more loosely, except around the shoulders and arms (see hypertrophy above)
    • I was eating at a slight deficit, so this is somewhat expected
  • Strength
    • Harder to quantify since I haven't done any testing, but curling, squatting, and caber tossing my grandkids is certainly easier! :)

Overall, I would heartily recommend the program, it covers all the big movements and will definitely kick your butt. However, it's certainly *NOT* a minimalist program.

Next for me, is probably a month of S&S, then I'm likely going to do the blended Strong! and One! programs from the Geoff's Kettlebell Strong! book using my 16+24 like I did with DFW earlier.

Hope this was helpful!

@patterner,

Sorry, I'm late to the party.

Excellent job! And I appreciate the thorough write up and recommendation.

Looking forward to hearing about your "STRONG!" results once you finish that up.

You made a major point that most people either overlook or dismiss - "REST IS KEY."

Too many people try to do Kettlebell Muscle+... where "+" is whatever it is they want to do, or think it is that they'll be missing on the program. Big, BIG MISTAKE. Glad you figured it out quickly.

Keep up the great work!
 
I've been running Kettlebell Muscle 6 x a week. So basically fitting 2 weeks into one. Get heavy day week 4 tomorrow. Thank God it's only 4 rounds with 90 seconds rest. Only adjustment I've made is doing the swings, high pulls and double snatches outside the knees. My sacrum doesn't enjoy snatching between the legs.
@BrianCF -

You have my attention!

Normally, I'd strongly warn someone against doing this, but since you have a long history of MKM complexes under your belt, I'm very curious to see your results.

I imagine you'll be very hungry, and very tired. So large amounts of white rice and binge watching Amazon Prime will most likely be in order.

If you have not done so yet, I also recommend instituting the recovery work - especially the contrast shower protocol from EXTREME!.

Looking forward to hearing about your results....
 
@patterner,

Sorry, I'm late to the party.

Excellent job! And I appreciate the thorough write up and recommendation.

Looking forward to hearing about your "STRONG!" results once you finish that up.

You made a major point that most people either overlook or dismiss - "REST IS KEY."

Too many people try to do Kettlebell Muscle+... where "+" is whatever it is they want to do, or think it is that they'll be missing on the program. Big, BIG MISTAKE. Glad you figured it out quickly.

Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the kind words, Geoff. I'm really looking forward to starting "STRONG!" (next week!).

I really agree with your calling out of the "REST IS KEY" piece...I really though 12 swings 1/hr wouldn't be an issue, but after the third day of doing it, I just felt run down ALL. DAY. LONG. I quickly just stripped out everything else.
 
@BrianCF -

You have my attention!

Normally, I'd strongly warn someone against doing this, but since you have a long history of MKM complexes under your belt, I'm very curious to see your results.

I imagine you'll be very hungry, and very tired. So large amounts of white rice and binge watching Amazon Prime will most likely be in order.

If you have not done so yet, I also recommend instituting the recovery work - especially the contrast shower protocol from EXTREME!.

Looking forward to hearing about your results....

Thank you Geoff. I ran Kettlebell Burn 2.0 for 16 weeks and although I didn't diet well, it gave me a FANTASTIC conditioning base for Kettlebell Muscle.

I'm running it with. double 45s.

Currently in week 5, took yesterday off and doing easy day. Cutting the rest periods to 90 on 4-6 was programming brilliance. When I did the 4 rounds on heavy day, week 4, I felt it was one of the most COMPLETE workouts I had ever done. My legs and lungs were tired and my rear deltoids had had it. It was that type of feeling that drew me to kettlebells.

When I ran EXTREME, I did both the contrast and straight cold showers. What I noticed was some aches and pains just mysteriously disappeared. I'm taking your advice on that.
 
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Thank you Geoff. I ran Kettlebell Burn 2.0 for 16 weeks and although I didn't diet well, it gave me a FANTASTIC conditioning base for Kettlebell Muscle.

I'm running it with. double 45s.

Currently in week 5, took yesterday off and doing easy day. Cutting the rest periods to 90 on 4-6 was programming brilliance. When I did the 4 rounds on heavy day, week 4, I felt it was one of the most COMPLETE workouts I had ever done. My legs and lungs were tired and my rear deltoids had had it. It was that type of feeling that drew me to kettlebells.

When I ran EXTREME, I did both the contrast and straight cold showers. What I noticed was some aches and pains just mysteriously disappeared. I'm taking your advice on that.

Excellent to hear @BrianCF !

How are your results so far with the "time compressed" version?
 
The good news is I'm making all my reps in good form. I ran KM the normal way 18 months ago and only failed on the last set of the 6th week's heavy day. I had to put the bells down to. shake it out for 30 seconds and finished.

I haven't hit a failed rep yet, I'm eating in a calorie surplus and hanging around 200, which is a little heavy for me, but it's helping get the reps. It was a beautiful Indian summer day here in New England 2 days ago and I had dropped my car off for an oil change, Felt like running post medium day workout and did 5.5 miles on a flat trail. As I stated Burn 2.0 and the metabolic contrasts were a GAMECHANGER. 10 lunges and 10 rows. Brutal.
 
6 weeks in the books

Finished week 5 heavy day, strong. week 6 heavy day, got through the first 4 sets and had to re-strategize as I knew I wasn't going to make it the way the complex is drawn out.

Decided it was going to take me 65 seconds each to do the last 2 sets + 90 seconds rest would equal 220 seconds. With 10 exercises left, I needed to start a next exercise every 22 seconds. I was able to do the clean/press/squat that way, but needed to take a few more seconds rest to do the push presses and squats. Finished set 5, rested for 15 seconds, did the clean press squat, rested 30 seconds an finished with the last 2 exercises.

Figured it would have taken me 65 x 6 = 390 seconds. or 6:30 of work + 5 rest periods of 90 = 450 or 7:30 minutes. of resting.

7:30 + 6:30 is. 14:00. When I finished the 6 sets, the stop watch said 15:30. My heart was racing through the ROOF! Around 180

So from a complex standpoint, I failed the 6 sets, but from a density standpoint I did all the reps with 90 seconds extra
time doing the last 2 sets Rest/Pause style.

I've done this before with the Long Haul and The Basic from MKM at the end of the programs. Reps are better and because rest period are shorter, I'm not tightening up with lactic acid like I would sitting there for 90 seconds.

The lesson learned is, don't. fast the day before and get more carbs than you think you need. pre-workout. Last Friday after a day off on Thursday, I got through the 5 sets pretty easily.
 
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