Kettlebell OS Bulletproofing-inspired summer training ideas

[watchnerd]

Read the book/books. They are cheap and worth every cent.
Tim (the Author) gives 10min continouos crawling as one goal, because he thinks if you can make 10min easy, you can go for 20, 30 or 40min, which is serious work capacity.
Just read what John Odden (achieved Beast Tamer & Sinister and holds world records in Highland Games events) and @Pavel Macek (Master SFG) have to say about crawling:

Crawling like a Baby: How to Break Records and Restore Your Body. | Empowered Strength

By John Odden, Owner & Head Coach of Empowered Strength — When was the last time you crawled on the ground? Now, you’re probably thinking: “Crawling … seriously? That’s for babies!” Yes, crawling is for babies. And, it may be one of the best things you can ever do for your bodily health and...

www.empoweredstrength.com

Okay, what the heck...

Today is my "light" day. Instead of my planned loaded carry, I'll try crawling around my driveway loop as a finisher.

I might need gloves, though. That asphalt is rough.

 

[Training for Life]

Today is my "light" day. Instead of my planned loaded carry, I'll try crawling around my driveway loop as a finisher.

Giving your neighbors something to talk about in the process. Respect ?

 

[watchnerd]

Giving your neighbors something to talk about in the process. Respect ✌?

Or, worse, given the young male bears prowling around now looking for girlfriends.

 

[Alan Mackey]

I'll agree on a fair amount of that.

I'll also agree that squats don't map to real life, but, in my case, they do map to my sport (weightlifting).

But I still don't get the point of 10 minutes of loaded crawling vs other options.

I mean, yeah, it's exercise.

But what's it training you for?

If y'all like loaded crawling, that's cool, I just don't quite get the destination it's leading you towards.

Crawling and carries for time have had a tremendous impact on my performance on the mat.

I've also noticed a significant improvement in my front squat, press and posture. It has made me stronger "all over the place" in the same way girevoy sport competitors eventually become athletes with android work capacity.

 

[Alan Mackey]

Well, movement variety is good.

That's why I have 'variety' days to do whatever I feel like - rowing, yoga, clubs, gymnastic skills, whatever the season / weather / mood calls for.

How do you progress crawling?

Or do you not worry about progressing it?

(I don't worry about progressing most of my variety activities very much....if it happens, it happens)

You can increase the amount of time you crawl, decrease the amount of time you rest, or both.

You can use several progressions and regressions: six point crawling is no that hard, lizard crawling is HARD.



Imagine doing that for five minutes straight.

And if that seems "easy"...



And you can use external resistance: dragging a kettlebell, a sandbag...

 

[Training for Life]

Such great advice on this thread! I modified the original post to include some of it:

- Heavier carry days with rest for more strength gains. I actually tried this yesterday with total 1/2 of my bw spread unevenly to two hands, but I feel that was not enough weight. I had to take rest breaks, but still it felt a bit light. Time to shop for heavier bells I suppose.

- Loaded crawling by dragging a load instead of backpacks etc. to prevent back issues

- If crawling takes 20min or more, then skip carries for that day

 

[Training for Life]

Imagine doing that for five minutes straight.

And if that seems "easy"...

View attachment 10685

Oh boy this looks fun. There is actually a video of Shaolin monks training where they run and squat jump up a huge flight of stairs and then come down like this. Must be brutal, but they make it look easy.

Also, if you don’t have a harness, maybe you could drag the load like in the video below (see 1:59 and 2:10). Probably does not give you all the benefits of constantly having to crawl with a load when something heavy is attached to you, but still looks like a good challenge.

 

[pet']

Hello,

How do you progress crawling?

Maybe we can extend the crawling concept to any locomotion drills.

You can get extremely hard practice sessions using certain kind of locomotion drills, such as animal walks. Lizzard crawl, inchworm crawl, etc... Ido Portal and Eero Westerberg (from Vahva Finess) have good videos considering this.

As far as the the "progress" if you maintain the same version (let say the regular crawling), you can:
- go up and down stairs
- use a weight vest or pulling something

I remember an Aleks Salkin's article where he said that weighted crawl were one of his best "full body builder".

He claimed the crawling to make his kb OVH press to the next level.

Kind regards,

Pet'

 

[watchnerd]

It took a really long time to crawl the circumference of my driveway last night.

16 minutes, actually.

I wore gardening gloves and some old weightlifting knee sleeves, which are now tore up because of the rough asphalt.

 

[Training for Life]

It took a really long time to crawl the circumference of my driveway last night.

16 minutes, actually.

I wore gardening gloves and some old weightlifting knee sleeves, which are now tore up because of the rough asphalt.

Did you leopard crawl for 16 continuous minutes?

 

[watchnerd]

Did you leopard crawl for 16 continuous minutes?

I alternated between bear crawls, leopard crawls, spider crawls, and basic baby crawls.

Bear crawls were the fastest, took me back to my football days 30+ years ago.

 

[Bauer]

Hi,

Might not be the right forum for this, but kettlebells are included, so...

This is especially for the crew who have read ”Becoming Bulletproof”, which is a book in the Original Strength-series, but even if you have not please give your thoughts.

For most of this year I have been training S&S combined with working on fixing mobility and activation issues, and have gotten to the point where I can do 2H Swings and some Get-ups & 1H Swings with a 28kg bell. Recently I (re-)read ETK and the aforementioned Becoming Bulletproof-book, which incorporates building strength and work capacity by mostly doing things for a duration of time. The same type of idea as with Program Minimum. This got me thinking about a program around this idea for the summer, mainly because of the variety it brings:


D1. A
D2. B
D3. C
D4. A
D5. B
D6. C
D7. -

A
- 10min OS Resets
- 10min Swings
- 10min Carry

B
- 10min OS Resets
- 10min Get-ups
- 10min Carry

C
- 10min OS Resets
- 10min Crawling
- 10min Carry


For the Swings and Get-ups, you do as many heavy sets as possible in the time period with proper rest periods. Some days you go heavier, some days you go more sets.

Crawling is done 10 sustained minutes, meaning when you need to rest, you stop the clock until you can go again. When you can do 10 minutes of Leopard Crawl non-stop, then change to a harder variation or add load (drag something attached to you, do not use a weighted backpack as that leads to back problems as stated by Tim Anderson and Geoff Neupert). If this takes more than 20min to complete, then skip carries for the day.

Some days carries are done 10 minutes non-stop, where you pick up the bell, walk for 10 meters, put the bell down, turn around and repeat. Other days you do heavier carries and take rest breaks. Go by feel. Cycling of different carries is done from session to session (suitcase, farmers, chest carry, overhead, rack).

What do you think of a program like this? Would one get stronger and move to heavier bells over time? Would there be enough work? Or too much?

Edit 19th of June: Modified to match some excellent advice received from this thread.

I've just revisited this thread. How did it go?

 

[Training for Life]

I've just revisited this thread. How did it go?

All in all it went well and I will continue to train in this manner. Had to take a step back from kettlebells due to mobility issues, but soon I will be back at it again.

I continued the aforementioned program for roughly 8 weeks and:

- It was fun! Very fun, actually. Not counting sets or reps feels more natural to me personally. Maybe I am just a p@#$y and did less reps/sets which made it feel easier.

- I quickly increased from 10 to 12 mins of swings because I felt I needed the extra time.

- Went up from 28kg two-handed swings, single TGUs and zero push presses to one-handed swings, two consecutive TGUs and a bunch of push presses.

- For me doing carries six times a week was too much recovery-wise. Besides the training I also had light morning ”mobility” sessions which probably took a toll as well. I dropped the carries from crawling-sessions and did stretching instead. About half of the carry-sessions were heavy (for me) with rest and half were lighter without rest.

- I felt strong after the sessions. Also seemingly looked like I put on some muscle and definitely lost fat. Was doing Warrior Diet at the same time, ate like a caveman every evening. Stuffing in over 2000 kcal in one sitting is exciting. Fun times, lots of constipation. Felt like a jetpack.

- My endurance went up, I went hiking for six days with 20kg+ of gear. Climbed fells, hills and hiked in different terrains, did not gas once. Doing S&S too had the same effect for me, though.

 

[Bauer]

All in all it went well and I will continue to train in this manner. Had to take a step back from kettlebells due to mobility issues, but soon I will be back at it again.

I continued the aforementioned program for roughly 8 weeks and:

- It was fun! Very fun, actually. Not counting sets or reps feels more natural to me personally. Maybe I am just a p@#$y and did less reps/sets which made it feel easier.

- I quickly increased from 10 to 12 mins of swings because I felt I needed the extra time.

- Went up from 28kg two-handed swings, single TGUs and zero push presses to one-handed swings, two consecutive TGUs and a bunch of push presses.

- For me doing carries six times a week was too much recovery-wise. Besides the training I also had light morning ”mobility” sessions which probably took a toll as well. I dropped the carries from crawling-sessions and did stretching instead. About half of the carry-sessions were heavy (for me) with rest and half were lighter without rest.

- I felt strong after the sessions. Also seemingly looked like I put on some muscle and definitely lost fat. Was doing Warrior Diet at the same time, ate like a caveman every evening. Stuffing in over 2000 kcal in one sitting is exciting. Fun times, lots of constipation. Felt like a jetpack.

- My endurance went up, I went hiking for six days with 20kg+ of gear. Climbed fells, hills and hiked in different terrains, did not gas once. Doing S&S too had the same effect for me, though.

Thanks a lot for the report!

So what you actually ended up doing was about this?
D1. A
D2. B
D3. C
D4. A
D5. B
D6. C
D7. -

A
- 10min OS Resets
- 12min Swings
- 10min Carry (lighter/continuous)

B
- 10min OS Resets
- 10min Get-ups
- 10min Carry (heavier)

C
- 10min OS Resets
- 10min accumulated Crawling (within 20 minutes)
- Stretching

With rest as needed within the block?

 

[Training for Life]

Thanks a lot for the report!

So what you actually ended up doing was about this?
...

With rest as needed within the block?

Yes that’s it. Crawling was 10 accumulated minutes of work or 20 total minutes including rest time, whichever came first.

I kind of organically waved the load and intensity from day to day based on feel. Some days I went heavier, some days lighter. Some days I took more time to rest, some days less. Some days I did more demanding progressions of resets (rolling in the air, four-point rocking), some days I did easier variations.