Kettlebell New member - S&S Qs

[Volt]

To be clear, what is your primary goal??

Like most other average joes I am looking to lose fat, build a bit of muscle, get stronger and fitter in general!

First and foremost is fat loss as I’ve had a bit of man boobs and belly for a while that I really want to get rid of.

Thereafter I want to get stronger and fitter for life and work and I want to look strong to compensate a bit for my lack of height! (5’6)...

 

[Tarzan]

Diet is going to be your best tool to lose weight. There's plenty of online nutritional calculators these days, which can be a good starting point if you've never looked into nutrition. Eat a slight calorific deficit until you start seeing results and revise your intake from time to time to keep you on track.

A lot of people here get good results from intermittent fasting where you fast a few days a week and manage your calorific intake over a week rather than tradition approaches where you manage it on a daily basis.

Others are getting good results from the warrior diet. Both approaches are well backed by scientific research.

If you do decide to do Geoff Nuepert's program that you linked, I'd suggest it's probably not optimal to do that at a calorific deficit. For optimal strength and muscle gains you really should be eating at maintenance level or preferably slightly above.

S&S should be a good match for your goals at the moment.

 

[Im out]

First and foremost is fat loss as I’ve had a bit of man boobs and belly for a while that I really want to get rid of.

Count calories

stronger and fitter for life and work

Simple and Sinister....

I want to look strong to compensate a bit for my lack of height! (5’6)...

I am 1.67 m which is about your length or even shorter. To look strong as a short guy, build lats. Forget tiny waists, build lats. Initially I'd say weighted pull ups for a lot of reps... like 10 sets of 3 reps 3 times a week, but then again I've read around here that heavy 1-arm swings build your lats just fine too.

Conclusion: Simple & Sinister with calorie restriction. It's not ideal, because S&S is about loading energy into the body, rather than losing it, but in the first few months a minor kcal deficit won't impede strength gains much. Also you might want to do (heavy) pull ups twice a week, if looking strong really is that important to you.

 

[Oscar]

Various people have said S&S won’t do much for fat loss so I’m thinking what if I work on it for months, feel stronger but don’t ‘see’ any difference. Honestly, that would put me off!

In order to lose weight through exercise you have to be very strong and fit to begin with. If you can run 80 km per week or do one of Geoff Neupert programs, that will help you lose weight. If you can only run 3 km per week... that won't.

So until you become strong, your only tool to lose weight is diet. If you attempt to lose weight with exercise not being strong, bad things can happen.

So my humble recommendation is to get strong and follow a diet. By the time you are strong you will have more alternatives to work with.

 

[Mark Limbaga]

Like most other average joes I am looking to lose fat, build a bit of muscle, get stronger and fitter in general!

First and foremost is fat loss as I’ve had a bit of man boobs and belly for a while that I really want to get rid of.

Thereafter I want to get stronger and fitter for life and work and I want to look strong to compensate a bit for my lack of height! (5’6)...

what I would do..

you can run dry fighting weight and S and S on other days.. I agree with the others in you just dialing in your eating habits to shed fat

 

[conor78]

As has been referenced before on this forum, you can't outsnatch a donut. Diet is the main component to change bodyweight/composition. S/S will do that if you introduce a mild calorie deficit.

 

[Robert Noftz]

Hi. New user here and I may be asking questions which have already been asked so apologies in advance.

I’m 37 years old and an on/off trainer who tends to quit things too quickly. I’ve been on and off weight training (both KBs and BB training) for about 10 years and still feel like a newbie due to lack of consistency in training and lack of goals achieved.

My goals are to drop some fat, build a bit of muscle and generally get stronger and fitter for life and my job which is as a police officer.

I’ve decided to do S&S and am determined to stick with it and be in it for the long haul. I want to progress and meet the standards before moving up and up to RoP and whatever else comes next. Hopefully this will be the right way to do it!

I currently have two 16kg bells which I’m pretty proficient with. I feel they are a challenge to do TGUs which I’ve not done a lot of in the past and less of a challenge doing swings (2 hand swings feel quite light). I have a few questions if you wouldn’t mind advising me...

1) To progress up to 24kg weight on S&S should I keep repeating the same routine with the 16kgs? Will I get stronger with time and patience or won’t this just stall?At what point should I get a 24kg bell and start swinging it?

2) To anyone doing S&S, do you add other exercise practice at the end if you feel like you’re not tired etc? Or should I stick to the basics and make sure I can do it again the next day?

3) From anyone with experience of S&S, after a solid few months of 5 days a week minimum an I likely to ‘see’ a difference. Do you find you look stronger?

4) I also have a doorway pull up bar which has been underused. 3 is my max. Should I follow the fighter pull up program? If so, how often? Or should I just do GTG each day, doing a couple of reps each time I pass the pull up bar?

I’d appreciate you guys input!

Have you read Pavel's Kettlebell Simple and Sinister? If you haven't, I recommend you get a copy and read it a couple of times. It will answer your questions.
I'm 49 years old and I started with kettlebells a few months before my 49th birthday. I have been practicing for about a year now. I had a basic level of conditioning from doing calisthenics and light high rep weight exercises a couple times per week.
The first couple of weeks I used the 16kg for swings and get ups. They felt light but I was getting used to the movements. After moving up to the 24 kg I worked with them for a couple months and then moved up to the 32kg. I achieved the Simple standard and there is no doubt in my mind that my overall strength and conditioning improved a great deal. Now I can do explosive swings and get ups with the 40kg. The first time I tried to swing the 40kg I could barely move it. Now I am doing explosive sets of 10. There is no doubt in my mind that following the plan as outlined in Kettlbell Simple and Sinister gets results.
Now that I have started to swing the 48kg kettlebell I really understand what an incredible overall body exercise the hard style swing really is. The same goes for the get up. When I first started using the 40kg for get ups I could feel that weight pressing into my body. The whole body has to be strong to support that weight in all those different positions.

 

[Volt]

what I would do..

you can run dry fighting weight and S and S on other days.. I agree with the others in you just dialing in your eating habits to shed fat

Thanks for everyone’s replies. I’m thinking the above is the best plan for me. Making sure I progress in all of these exercises while keeping my diet in check.

I’m guessing the double clean and presses and double goblet squats won’t do me any harm in between the s&s days. Cheers folks.

 

[Sauli]

Thanks for everyone’s replies. I’m thinking the above is the best plan for me. Making sure I progress in all of these exercises while keeping my diet in check.

I’m guessing the double clean and presses and double goblet squats won’t do me any harm in between the s&s days. Cheers folks.

Good luck!