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On the Road to Simple

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joven

joven

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Background

I bought a 16kg kettlebell over 7 years ago after a friend of mine introduced me to it. I used it off and on for years but never with any consistency. I had heard of Pavel of course but never read any of his books. That all changed this summer. I'm an avid podcast listener and found an amazing episode of The Tim Ferriss Show (http://bit.ly/1DQjxbB) where Tim and Pavel have a long discussion about strength, philosophy, life, etc. I was so impressed by Pavel's humility and style, I was hooked and immediately went looking for his latest material. That's when I found StrongFirst and S&S. It took me another 6 months to get some life stuff straightened out before I started actively training but over the past month I've been consistently following S&S 4 to 6 days a week.

Where I'm Starting

Tonight, I finally hit my first goal: 100 swings in 5 minutes & 10 getups in 10 minutes! I'm still using the same 16kg bell I bought 7 years ago but I am really excited to see my progress. Just a few weeks ago I could barely breathe after each set of 10 swings. Now I can string almost 40 together without stopping! To celebrate, I had to sign up on this forum and start posting my results.

Next Goal: consistently train 5 to 6 days a week for the next 2 weeks straight. Consistency is my main challenge and before I invest in a 32kg kettlebell, I want to stick with it for a bit. As a secondary goal, I want to perfect the hand to hand switch. Once I'm consistently hitting my training goals, I'm off to the 32kg (something I never thought I would achieve)

Simple here we come!
 
September 27 @ 8:30 PM

- prying goblet squat 5x2
- strong first hip bridge 5x2
- halos 5x2
- 100 1H swings 10x10 w/ 16kg kb (5 minutes)
- 10 tgus 5x1 (10 minutes)
- touchdown dance

Total Time: 23 minutes
Max Heart Rate: 123 bpm
Avg Heart Rate: 91 bpm
 
Welcome to StrongFirst, joven!

Do you mean you intend to go straight from the 16KG to the 32KG? Or getting a 24KG on the way up? Just wondering.
 
Welcome to StrongFirst, @joven, and nice job so far! I'm following @Bonkin here: do you intend to pass from the 16 kg to the 32kg bell straight away without any other weight in between?
 
Also, these are are really nice HR numbers, do you mind me asking if you have any athletic background aside from kettlebells? Hitting time, doing 40 swings unbroken and staying within those digits in just one month is just one rare feat (which I'm applauding, don't get me wrong)!
 
Thanks everyone for the encouragement! I love the community!

Interesting questions on the next step in kettlebell size @Bonkin and @Frank_IT. I'll admit I've only recently considered upgrading. I thought I had read that moving up in increments of 1 pood or 16kg was doable. In general I'd rather give myself a stretch goal and I'm also not interested in collecting kettlebells. I'd love to hear your experience in moving up. Is the 24kg a necessary stepping stone along the way?

@Frank_IT my HR has always been low. When I was a kid I was very active athletically but not so for most of my adult life. I asked my doctor about it once and he suggested its genetic. I'm also concerned about my HR monitor placement during turkish getups. I wear a fitbit and have to turn it to the inside of my wrist to avoid resting the kettlebell on it. While the peak wouldn't be affected, it could be the average is lower as a result though I could be imagining things. Maybe the fitbit handles periods of missing HR data just fine.
 
Most of what I've read suggest that many folks move up in 8KG increments and others in 4KG. When I asked a question about what to move up to from 16KG - all of the responses were whatever you are comfortable with - but with some encourage to try an 8KG increment. I decided on 4KG and purchased a 20KG and will be ordering the 24KG soon. I have no experience in moving up 8KG or even 16KG increments - just had not yet heard of someone doing that (16KG - especially in the beginning) - so I thought I'd ask.

I'm sure others will weigh in with more experience to help you with this. Good luck with whatever you decide.
 
Good luck on simple! I love that program!

I did 8kg increments personally, and trust me it's really tough and I completely understand doing 4kg increments, 16kg increment might be a bit much - I'd recommend trying before buying if possible. Then, on completing simple, you can use your 16kg, 24kg, & 32kg, to master ROP, so you get plenty of use out of each.
 
Thank you for your answer, @joven, I was just really surprised of the numbers, as I said. You are training really hard anyways, the results seem to show that!

As far as progression, as @Bonkin said, I'd be surprised if you could comfortably move the 32 kg kettlebell coming from a 16 kg one and with no other bell in between. My sugestion is to get at least a 24 kg between the two weights. To me, there's not been comparsion between 16/24 kg step to 24/32 kg, they are very different. I'm not completely sure I understand why, even if I may suspect it, but it undoubtedly is. Without going in too much detail, I was able to complete the total session within the time limit with a 24 kg bell after three months (I begun with a 16 kg too), and that inculded a beginner's single bell complex my TGU wrote down for me that took three days of the week (I trained and train S&S 5 day a week). Since then I worked on moving from the 24 kg bell to the 32 kg one: I'm still at it. I reached the Simple standard in swings, but I still do 32x4/24x6 get ups. My goal was to start ROP in January 2017 after "conquering" Simple, but with the progression I laid out it seems near to impossibile.
Me too, I never heard about a 16 to 32 kg progression. My best sugestion would be to try it before you buy it: I don't thinks you would want to find yourself with a piece of iron you can't lift and discover you have to buy another one. The first time I touched a 32 kg bell at the gym, I felt like my gut was going to tear his way out of my body like the Alien. Abdominal contraction was so hard it was impossibile to perform more than 5 two hands swings. After completing the protocol with the 24 kg and never having thouched that monster evere since, during the first one arm swing I remember thinking to myself "where does this freaking thing want to go?": shoulder packing was really challenging.
 
Thanks again for the feedback everyone! I will definitely take a closer look at the 24. Trying before buying sounds great in theory though I'd need access to a gym with a selection of kettlebells.
 
September 28 @ 9:41 PM

- prying goblet squat 5x2
- strong first hip bridge 5x2
- halos 5x2
- 80 1H swings 10x8
- 20 2H swings 10x2
- 10 tgus 5x1

Total Time: 19 minutes
Max Heart Rate: 118 bpm
Avg Heart Rate: 94 bpm
 
joven said:
Thanks again for the feedback everyone! I will definitely take a closer look at the 24. Trying before buying sounds great in theory though I'd need access to a gym with a selection of kettlebells.
Click to expand...

Have you considered meeting up with an SFG in your area? I don't now your technical proficiency and I'm not impling you need coaching, but since you'd have to spend money anyway to enter a gym, taking a few classes with an SFG would catch the proverbial two birds with one stone, as he or she will most likely have a range of kettlebells that you can test to see where you want to go next, and plust you'll get a professional evaluation both on progression and technique (which I assume can't be bad at all, if you've been training for more than 7 years injury free).

EDIT
Oh, also something I forgot to tell you yesterday about the 24 kg kettlebell: it is the "snatch-size" standard for men for the SFG I certification (also II, I think, and I'm sure it is at least for the snatch test repetition), and it's somehow the most recurring weight I hear about: if you can "maneuver" a 24 kg kettlebell in all the lifts, you are strong, if you can go up, you're either really strong or a monster. Get that 24! :D
 
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@Frank_IT thanks! I would love to get feedback from an SFG locally. I did reach out to one a couple weeks ago but never heard back. I'll continue to pursue it; especially as I move up in weight I'm really interested in perfecting the technique. Ordering the 24 tonight!
 
September 29 @ 9:22 PM

- prying goblet squat 5x2
- strong first hip bridge 5x2
- halos 5x2
- 80 1H swings 10x8
- 20 2H swings 10x2
- 6 tgus 3x1

Total Time: 20 minutes
Max Heart Rate: 119 bpm
Avg Heart Rate: 92 bpm

Cut the get ups short tonight due to some pain in right shoulder. This has been recurring issue though much less recently.
 
joven said:
Cut the get ups short tonight due to some pain in right shoulder.
Click to expand...

Smart move, Sir! This is how you progress in training and stay injury free: sometimes regular people forget we're not professional athletes, and therefore it's better to train until is possible and not until said. Props to you and congratulation for your purchase, you'll love that 24 kg! To me, it was the sign that I got serious about kettlebell practice.
 
Sunday October 2 @ 2:05pm

- prying goblet squat 5x2
- strong first hip bridge 5x2
- halos 5x2
- 100 1H swings 10x10
- 10 tgus 5x1

Total Time: 22 minutes
Max Heart Rate: 141 bpm
Avg Heart Rate: 102 bpm

Felt great today after taking 2 days off! Usually I'm shaky by the last 2 sets of swings but today I was going strong right to the end!
 
Rest is underrated, Joven, and glad to see you've gone strong to the end. I hope you enjoy your new 24KG - I also ordered my new 24KG last week and am anxious for it to arrive.
 
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