Tim Randolph
Level 7 Valued Member
Ooops. Shouldn't post from my phone. Fixed and thank you.
Kettlebell I'm a rule breaker!
- Thread starter BCman
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I never tested. I always checked the time (using a HR monitor, it is easy), but only after the session was finished, and it never governed my training.
When I felt confident with a weight, I started to introduce the heavier one. Doing 8 kg jumps forced me to be confident with a given weight to start the next one! But there was no connexion to how long it took me.
Introducing the heavier bell always made the lighter one better. I noticed things with the heavier one that I did not with the lighter one, especially in getups. I would have progressed a lot more slowly if I had waited to reach the exact time limit every time.
Nevertheless, introducing the heavy bell does not mean using the big bell all the time.
I would do one set at 32 kg, but kept most of the other ones at 24kg for a long time, and sometimes even regressed to 16kg.
When I felt confident with a weight, I started to introduce the heavier one. Doing 8 kg jumps forced me to be confident with a given weight to start the next one! But there was no connexion to how long it took me.
Introducing the heavier bell always made the lighter one better. I noticed things with the heavier one that I did not with the lighter one, especially in getups. I would have progressed a lot more slowly if I had waited to reach the exact time limit every time.
Nevertheless, introducing the heavy bell does not mean using the big bell all the time.
I would do one set at 32 kg, but kept most of the other ones at 24kg for a long time, and sometimes even regressed to 16kg.
Michael Scott
Level 7 Valued Member
This concept makes sense. When you are training to run a 5K, you don't just run that distance, and try to go faster. You run longer distances to increase your cardiovascular endurance, then you can run the shorter distance faster. When I was in the Marine Corps, we regularly ran 5 miles or more in our training, to prepare for the 3 mile run in our fitness test.
You aren't a rule breaker @BCman, at least not to me and a few others.....sorry.
You aren't a rule breaker @BCman, at least not to me and a few others.....sorry.
Manuel Fortin
Level 6 Valued Member
I had a similar experience. I was stuck to a little over 5 minutes for the swings with the 32kg. I stopped S&S as it was really hard on my hands. Grip strength was probably too weak for the 32kg bell and I had to grip it really hard, which resulted in torn calluses every few weeks. Not fun. After stopping S&S, I got stronger in the barbell deadlift and did minimal conditioning. Definitively less than while I was doing S&S. This was confirmed by a resting heart rate that was about 5BPM more after a few months of stopping S&S than it was right after. I did swings sparingly, probably about one 100 swings session every 7-14 days.
Surprise: when I retested the swings after a while (I am too lazy to go through my training logs to know how many months that was), I nailed the swings in less than 5 minutes. I wasn't expecting that. The name says it all: Strongfirst. Why didn't I achieve the goal with the swings only? I may have had technical deficiencies, or tried to go heavy too quickly, or simply lacked patience. However, my guess is that grip strength was lacking, which put the brake on my force production during the swings, which stopped progress. After deadlifting for a while, not only did my grip go up, but my body was overall stronger, and the swings got easier.
Surprise: when I retested the swings after a while (I am too lazy to go through my training logs to know how many months that was), I nailed the swings in less than 5 minutes. I wasn't expecting that. The name says it all: Strongfirst. Why didn't I achieve the goal with the swings only? I may have had technical deficiencies, or tried to go heavy too quickly, or simply lacked patience. However, my guess is that grip strength was lacking, which put the brake on my force production during the swings, which stopped progress. After deadlifting for a while, not only did my grip go up, but my body was overall stronger, and the swings got easier.
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