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Kettlebell Minimum effective dose of S&S per week ?

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Méné

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Hello,

I'm wondering what is the minimum training sessions of S&S per week to keep it effective. Or is there a program i can do only 2 to 3 times a week ?
 
As long as you are making progress you should be alright. I have done only 3 workouts/week when I was busy moving and it felt fine. The thing with S&S is that it is very minimalist with not a lot of volume. So if you are only training 3 times a week you will make better progress if you do something a bit more ambitious because you will be able to recover better. More volume. Or throw in some chin ups. Some leg work. Some presses or push ups.
Or you could give RoP C&P ladders a go. Supersets with Chin Ups. Finish with 10-15 minutes of swings.
 
Rop = rite of passage

What is the reason you can only train 2-3x a week? Time constraints? If you could do multiple micro sessions in a day, would that be better for you?
 
I'm wondering what is the minimum training sessions of S&S per week to keep it effective.

? not to offend you but please read the book. Then everything will be crystal clear to you .. and it is a great read.
In a good way Pavel Tsatsouline answers your question in the latest edition of the S&S book (paper/e-book)

My advice to you: If you are busy at the moment - thats all right - then wait till you're ready to follow the program.

S&S is a journey where you will experience something in yourself and about yourself. S&S is not the typical
"8 week Operator Fit 3000 Program" (insert sarcasm here) and it takes time reaching the benchmarks [Timeless Simple - Simple - Sinister]

/Martin Joe
 
Well, beyond Timeless Simple the minimal version is 3x per week, 2x per week if you are following a "serious strength program". In a lot of Pavel's plans there are only 2-3 conditioning days (Occam's Razor, Total Package, RoP, PM, ETK+, Q&D, Long Rests TSC plan, Men's Health swing plan ...), so I guess you can work with that. This might slow down your progress somewhat, which is not that big a deal if you are in it for the long run anyway.

Q&D is designed to be very time efficient, also for phases when you don't have much time but want to maintain your strength and conditioning. But it is for more advanced trainees.

ROP is the flagship plan in "Enter the Kettlebell" (ETK), known for its C&P ladders.
 
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I did S&S 2.0 for eight months and rarely worked out more than 3x/week before reaching Timeless Simple.
 
Hello,

It depends.

If you are beyond Timeless Simple, 3x a week tend to be the sweet spot to keep progressing.

When you reach the 40, 2-3. Over 40, 2x is often said to be nice.

Below Simple, if you do not want to keep progressing and just maintain, then 2 or 3.

All the above also depends on your daily / weekly level of activity: a brick layer usually has a more physically demanding job than a desk guy.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
To quote the book: customize the rate of progression..

It's a personal journey to strength but listen to your body..

If you make progress 2x a week, great.. 5-6x a week, still great .

Do what you can given your situation
 
I'm nowhere near as qualified to pass on advice as the people above. But I am following S+S to the book. My personal experience is that dependant on where you are in the program will determine how many days you can carry out effectively. Personally, my recovery time affects the number of sessions per week. For instance when I moved over to the TGU with the 32, I had to drop from 5 or 6 sessions a week with the 24 back to 3 or 4 even when incorporating it only for a few sets as I could feel the technique going if I was doing too many sessions, knowing my own body I knew it was fatigue. As you adapt though the number of sessions creep back up. So I guess I would say if you are doing it exclusively, aim for 6 a week, but don't be disheartened if you have to dial it back a bit when a variable is introduced. If you only want to use S+S 3 times a week and are aiming for Simple, then you'll get there but more slowly than with more sessions.
 
Bearing in mind that I'm not a trainer or anywhere near as qualified as the other people on this forum and that I achieved timeless simple by the book (4-6 sessions per week), you could also try adding a couple more sets to each session to build up the volume. For the last couple of months I've been doing a session every third day and just adding in one extra set on each side for the swings and getups. That works out to 2.5 sessions per week, but the equivalent reps of 3 times per week. Recovery is not a problem and I'm progressing fine. You likely wouldn't progress much doing this before reaching Simple.

My wife's employing a similar strategy but doing 2 days on, one day off as she works up to timeless simple. Is this by the book? Nope. But in my case it gives me an extra day or so per week to strength train and do some endurance work. For my wife it gives her a little extra time to pursue other activities that she enjoys.

I'm actually curious about other people's opinions on this strategy. Perhaps every other day or two on, two off with the extra sets? That's 3.5 sessions per week but 420 swings and 42 getups. I realize that probably not exactly the equivalent of 4.2 sessions due to diminishing returns, but maybe similar to 4?
 
Hello,

I'm wondering what is the minimum training sessions of S&S per week to keep it effective. Or is there a program i can do only 2 to 3 times a week ?

Seems that s&s does note that the progressions are easiest when you get volume daily. But if you're looking to maintain, it seems that the 2.0 book suggests that if you've reached simple, for example, and you're happy at that level, then maybe just 2 workouts per week would be a reasonable maintenance program.
 
Something that may be useful for you...

I unlocked timeless sinister swings twice a week when my main training was 3x a week of double kettlebell work..

So it depends if you're looking to do s and s as a standalone program or on top of other things.

You didn't mention which of the two was your current choice
 
Something that may be useful for you...

I unlocked timeless sinister swings twice a week when my main training was 3x a week of double kettlebell work..

So it depends if you're looking to do s and s as a standalone program or on top of other things.

You didn't mention which of the two was your current choice
Thanks for your input Mark,

I intend to do it as a standalone program
 
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