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Kettlebell Increase strength at 60.

Guy

Level 4 Valued Member
Good afternoon,
I trust you are all well. As I approach 60 ( in 3 months) I have decided to follow a more strength based program.
I am in good shape but follow a more relaxed schedule- I may do press ups and swings one day, hill runs the next or some medicine ball slams and so on.
However I would like to get stronger.
I want to use KBs as my primary tool.
I have several I can use. I can train most days .
Yet there are so many programs out there!
I realise that there is not one superior program but I wondered if there are any members who have benefited from a particular one and have my profile.
Regards
Guy
 
@Guy, welcome to the StrongFirst forum. (This is his first post.)

I am 9 years older than you. I recommend you buy, read, and follow Kettlebell Simple and Sinister. You can find a link on this website by clicking on SHOP then BOOKS then Kettlebell Simple and Sinister.

Guy said:
I would like to get stronger.
Click to expand...

Pavel's "Power To The People!" is an excellent read for anyone interested in getting stronger and I recommend you read that now, too. Although most of my training students don't follow PTTP's program - they follow S&S or Kettlebell AXE for the most part - many deadlift a barbell while they're here once a week or so, and it's a fine thing to do along with your swings and getups from S&S.

-S-
 
Welcome...

What type of training do you enjoy??

That will serve as a good guide what you can try out to see if you enjoy it
 
Thanks for the advice. I am abit of a generalist. The S and S looks interesting. Simple. As a matter of interest how long has anyone maintained this as a stand alone project. I know that it is a highly personal decision but has anyone seen excellent results from doing it over several months- I.e body composition, endurance , surprising effects etc?
 
Guy said:
Thanks for the advice. I am abit of a generalist. The S and S looks interesting. Simple. As a matter of interest how long has anyone maintained this as a stand alone project. I know that it is a highly personal decision but has anyone seen excellent results from doing it over several months- I.e body composition, endurance , surprising effects etc?
Click to expand...
Have a look at this thread:

Kettlebell - "I Achieved S & S Simple! Here's My Story"

If you've achieved the Simple goal from Pavel's, "Kettlebell: Simple & Sinister," we loved to hear about it! We'll keep this thread visible near the top of the Kettlebell forum. Please tell us a little about yourself, when you started and when you achieved Simple - and whatever else you like...
www.strongfirst.com

It should answer your question.

-S-
 
Guy said:
Thanks for the advice. I am abit of a generalist. The S and S looks interesting. Simple. As a matter of interest how long has anyone maintained this as a stand alone project. I know that it is a highly personal decision but has anyone seen excellent results from doing it over several months- I.e body composition, endurance , surprising effects etc?
Click to expand...
A few years back, I started doing it 2+3x a week as I was also pursuing other goals.

Ate sensibly and managed to get fairly lean (abs were revealing themselves) at the young age of 43
 
There are a lot of folks your age and older here. S&S is great for the structure, including the warmups, and those two movements - Swing and TGU - will do wonderful things for you and will also show you areas you need to work on.

Personally, my into to kettlebells was through S&S. The first time i ever was exposed to an organized program around my own athletic pursuits. That was eye opening by itself. I spent the better part of a year on that - although i myself struggled with TGUs due to some weaknesses (and also space limitations at home...).
I also was introduced here to Original Strength resets for mobility work. You'll be well served to look into that, or alternates, as well.

One note - S&S is built as 6 days a week. That was too much for me, i learned the hard way. Do pay close attention to feeling tired - because once you start on a structured program, you'll need to pay attention to your recovery capacity. I never thought about that at all, until i was forced to. I scaled back to 3 days a week and life has been good since...
 
Mark Limbaga said:
A few years back, I started doing it 2+3x a week as I was also pursuing other goals.

Ate sensibly and managed to get fairly lean (abs were revealing themselves) at the young age of 43
Click to expand...
:) Gotta tell, you look a lot younger than 43! (Remember seeing one of your videos back a year or so ago) this shows that it works :))
 
Soon to be 65 here and started somewhere around your age as a very weak individual who just focused on endurance training and no strength training. My journey was Simple & Sinister for about 22 months to timeless simple. After 22 months of that I had to try something other than Getups and Swings so from there I learned the clean and press and jumped into Geoff Nueperts Giant and Strong series. I am now doing AXE (A&A) snatches 3 times a week and one to 2 days a week of Clean and push press. I have found that at my age, grinds (straight presses) take alot more out of me than snatches and push presses so you may want to consider that as well. I would definately take a look at Geoff's programs after you have built a strength foundation via S&S. The main thing is to find the workouts you enjoy and stay within yourself as consistency beats intensity. Learn the technique and remember its a marathon not a sprint. Hope this helps.
 
Guy said:
However I would like to get stronger.
I want to use KBs as my primary tool.
I have several I can use. I can train most days .
Click to expand...
I suggest ROP, plus reading PttP like Steve's recommend to understand about generating tension and strength.
 
Racing toward 59 and I do S&S one day and 10K (zone 2) erg on next day. Works great. I’ll add some on water rowing in a couple of weeks. Progress is slow, but there is progress. I want to be stronger at 70 than 60. Highly recommend S&S.
 
I am 60. I find too much of any good thing leads to problems.
I am currently swinging again (AXE swings plus S&S TGUs) after a year's hiatus.
I'd recommend cycling your training programs to avoid pattern overload, which I seem more susceptible to as I get older.
I've just come off 3+ months of The Giant. Worked great until it didn't and I picked up a few injuries.
Highly explosive programs like Q&D are also approached with caution.
I strength train 2 to 3 for days a week for 20 to 30 minutes, interspersed with walking and surfski paddling, mostly zone 1 and 2 LISS.
I stick to the big 6 but am cautious with snatches as they tend to aggravate my high mileage shoulders.
Plenty of restoration work helps. I use Geoff Neupert's Sore Joint Solution.
 
Ege said:
:) Gotta tell, you look a lot younger than 43! (Remember seeing one of your videos back a year or so ago) this shows that it works :))
Click to expand...
I'll let you in on a secret, I stopped counting birthdays after 25 ;)
 
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Sir, I was working with resistance bands, calisthenics, and dumbbells before I gave a try to S&S. And recognized very quickly a hidden and undervalued value of the program for sedentary people.

I figured out that, I can’t raise my arms over my head, I have recognized that I can’t squat due to ankle and hip mobility, I have recognized that I can’t fully open my hips nor bend reasonably, leave a side that I can’t touch my toes.

With different tools, modalities , I was successfully training my muscles by not addressing the fundamental issues that I have and I was kind of surprised why my strength gains don’t transfer to my daily life that much. It was because simply I was able to avoid most of the natural human movements. So strength gains were not being transferred to real life.

S&S turned out to be a longer journey for me than I expected, some of the reasons are my structural issues in my body as well, not only range of motion.

But I am improving in every aspect. I did not even start the program officially. I am getting prepared. Indeed book is enough to get started however when one sats read the book and do what it exactly says is deeper than you think. For example it suggests doing naked get ups until your are comfortable. I did lets say 10 of them. Indeed for some it might be enough, but for me I indeed needed thousands of them due to Range of Motion problems.

So I suggest you take a class from an SFG certified coach or find a solid beginner program which there are abundant of them including SF online S&S course . My choice of programs are Kate’s dojo KB fundamentals and Brett Jones Mind The GAP.

Do start S&S. Don’t look back. Don’t hop in between programs and enjoy your gains.

There are other programs that will give you more muscle or more strength or more endurance or more range of motion than S&S, but S&S gives them all while keeping everything less complex.

Only a person who lived a long sedentary life can really conceptualize this value of S&S.

Once you hit Simple standard. You will be much better than everyone around you in terms of fitness in all aspects unless you live in a few selected areas in the world, including much younger individuals than you. Very few programs can give you this (Most of them will excel in one or two areas but fail in others that is being covered in S&S).

If you are engaged with other form of activities then it is still a great program because if you are already active you are fit enough not to be drained from S&S and you can keep on your existing activities.

As you might see I am a fan of S&S and probably biased. Nevertheless, Pick any SF program, execute it as written and you will thrive.

Strength to you.
 
These all sound good. I will start the S&S. Get ups with maybe a shoe or can of beans!
As some other people have said the key is finding a program that delivers but is relatively low on the injury potential!
Recovery is slower at a certain vintage!
 
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Guy said:
These all sound good. I will start the S&S. Get ups with maybe a shoe or can of beans!
As some other people have said the key is finding a program that delivers but is relatively low on the injury potential!
Recovery is slower at a certain vintage!
Click to expand...
Well, SF has stop signs that I believe key to prevent injuries as well as advices and programs against training to failure and an approach focused on good form etc. so SF is among the top thoughts of schools that promotes safe exercise. In this manner all programs that follow SF principles are low risk injury to the same extend in my opinion. I would not classify S&S to be “safer” than other SF programs. Kettlebell is not a forgiving modality of exercise….

I got my most serious injury on a non SF calisthenics program that prescribes training to failure and ended up with meniscus operation. But I try to keep in mind that I can kill my self with a KB if I do stupid stuff.
 
Steve Freides said:
Pavel's "Power To The People!" is an excellent read for anyone interested in getting stronger and I recommend you read that now, too. Although most of my training students don't follow PTTP's program - they follow S&S or Kettlebell AXE for the most part - many deadlift a barbell while they're here once a week or so, and it's a fine thing to do along with your swings and getups from S&S.

-S-
Click to expand...

Steve,

I like the idea of throwing in barbell deadlifts once a week along with S&S. Do you advise your students to do a certain number of reps or sets, or just get a few good lifts in and call it a day? Just curious how you tend to organize that idea.

Cheers!
 
mvalenti said:
Steve,

I like the idea of throwing in barbell deadlifts once a week along with S&S. Do you advise your students to do a certain number of reps or sets, or just get a few good lifts in and call it a day? Just curious how you tend to organize that idea.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
We usually just do a few deadlifts at the end of a session that’s been kettlebell stuff. Start light, add weight doing double or triples, stop when form looks like it’s starting to break down. One student got his own barbell and does the same on his own once or twice a week at home.

-S-
 
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