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Kettlebell ROP support group

I have a few ROP questions that have probably been answered before, but so it goes....

1. On the timed sets of swings should I be doing primarily one handed swings or should I be mixing things up?

2. On test day, is there any limit to the time you take for reps in the press? Like is it okay to press the thing and then drop it back into the rack position and wait like ten seconds before re-cleaning and pressing it again?

3. Will my press strength likely increase more quickly if I superset the chins or will the extra work slow down my press adaptions? (being mediocre at many things instead of good at a couple things)

Thanks everyone. This forum and website has been a great resource.
 
Recently back to the RoP after a long stint on S&S/PM up tI the Beast.  I have a crappy press though, but it's getting better.  3 sets of ladders to 5 on my heavy days and I'm feeling like this next heavy day (Monday)  I might just make all of them.  My post is mostly about my swings and snatches, though.  After S&S I have a hard time justifying sets of swings to anything higher than 10 reps.  It has led to me doing some experimentation to get myself at light, medium and heavy effort levels for each respective day.  Tell me what you think.

Heavy: 2 handed swings with the Beast, sets of 10.  Minimal rest between sets.  Basically just trying to get as many sets of powerful 2 handed swings as possible in the time limit.

Light: snatches with the press-weight bell for a comfortable number of reps each side every minute.  Right now it is 8 per side per minute with the 24kg.

Medium:  1 handed swings with a kb one step heavier than the press bell for sets of 10 each side.  I made 200 in 10 minutes my last medium day this way.  Hoping these will build my grip strength and snatching ability.

Does this sound like I am in the right track?
 
Just for clarification, those medium effort numbers were made with a 32kg bell.
 
I was doing it PM style with the Beast.  I made the transition from S&S to the PM when I was building up with the 40kg.  I just like the longer sessions of swings and the flexibility of doing them however I wanted (one or two handed, mostly two handed) in the PM better.  And it fit with my schedule better.
 
My short introduction

HELLO

Back to the pprogramming - I've finished Simple goal in 25th of August 2014. Since then my training was structured around 32 kg One Hand Swings and 40 kg Two Hand Swings and 32/40 kg TGU in S&S style. Between 25 and 26th of October 2014 I had a chance to participate in kettlebell course under Dariusz Waluś (SFG Team Leader in Poland) and after that step back to grease my technique with 32 kg.  Right now I'm trying to fight with my weakness - pressing. Even after 40kg TGU i could not press the 32 even once.  There's this saying overe here - to press a lot you must press a lot.

Since 23.02.2015 I'm doing ROP with 24 kg mixed with Pull Ups with 8kg or without additional load. My training is focused around pressing. I'm sleeping 8h each day and taking naps here and there. Eating a lot more than ever, mostly clean food. One of my mistakes was always eating like for fat loss, i'll deal with additional weight after my goal but right now i must admit that i'm not getting fatter.

Today was the 5th week of ROP with 24 kg kettlebell. Because some crossfit guy was doing some super-omega-cardo workout from hell with 24kg in the gym i had to try the stacked presses (16+8kg).

ROP Easy Day

1,2,3,4,5 x 2 (stacked press 16+8)

1,2,3,4,5 (third rung, with 24)

To keep the tension in my body during the ROP i have to rest a lot but quality of my presses are most important factor for me. Sometimes i'm forcing to stay in the gym, rest 3-4 minutes and complete another rung of presses.  Also during my free time i'm working on my mobility to keep the tension in my lats (i've figured out that's the place of most of my power leaks).  I'm making haste... slowly. and enjoying the journey.

I'll  post another update after 6th week of ROP.

 
 
Jaroslaw, keep up the good work, and ask your gym to purchase a second 24 kg kettlebell.

-S-
 
Today was test day With the 32kg. I did my three c&p reps on my left side, but I wasn't happy completely with the third rep. The clean felt crummy. I don't know if it was fatigue from the previous two reps or if I just screwed it up, but I adjusted to it as best I could, breathed deep and pressed.  It went up bit it looked sloppy. I did my three reps on the right side and they went up fine. Thinking about the stimulation rest intervals that Pavel talked about recently I decided to sit down, clear my head for a while and try again. the bell went up exactly how I wanted it to on each side for three reps!  I feel confident in those reps and like I'm ready for stepping up with the 32.

I wasn't ready for a full ten minutes of snatches so I decided to just try five minutes. 100 reps with the 24kg at the 4:34 mark!

Follow the program and it'll work.
 
JZB,  it sounds like you followed the plan and you're now reaping the rewards - nice going!  Did you do the ROP with a 24 or another weight?

-S-
 
24. It was an ego checking moment going from the PM with the beast to presses with the 24.   Glad I did though and I'm glad I gave it enough time to show how well it works. My goal is multiple presses with the beast, not just a single.
 
Starting using kettlebella 6 months ago with ETK,  started pm with 16 kg, while practicing clean and press and the snatch.  Now I have worked up to working the 24 kg for my presses, swings and snatches.  Variety days I do get ups with a 32 and additional core work. Such a fantastic simple program to follow
 
Welcome back! After another month with 24 kg I've met the standards of this program. 5 rungs of 5 ladders mixed with pullups and today was my test day with 32 kg kettlebell.  I'm able to press 32 three times with my right side and two times with left!! I'm stronger than ever. Maybe those presses weren't perfect but I'll improve them.

Right now I'm planning to do S&S cycle with 32 kg mixed with GTG presses and preparing for PT test on the end of May (running twice a week, sprints, rarely sit ups).

 
 
Hi everyone, I would like to introduce myself. I am a 34 year old former football player, 6’1.5”, 292 lbs (186 cm, 132 kg), and I am currently on my first try at the ROP. I have had shoulder issues in the past, due to the enormous volume and load of bench pressing without ever really trying to put any weight overhead. I stopped bench pressing about 4 years ago and my shoulders have been behaving much better. My goals are strength and decreased body weight.

I have made some slight modifications to the program to deal with the fact that I may occasionally be forced to miss training Friday-Sunday. I go H-L-M with heavy day on Monday, light day on Wednesday, and Medium day on Friday (which, if you were to consider Wednesday the beginning of the week, then the order really hasn’t been altered). I also have been alternating pull ups with chin ups each day on a rolling basis due to pull ups irritating my left elbow. Due to my body weight and a relative lack of strength, pull ups and chin ups are currently kept one rung shorter than the C+P on heavy and medium days.

I am now on the 5th week of ROP using a 32 kg bell for C+P and a 24 kg bell for swings and snatches. Heavy day was yesterday and I easily completed 4x(1,2,3,4) + 1x(1,2,3) for C+P and 4x(1,2,3) + 1x(1,2) for pull ups. I have confidence that I will be able to complete 5x(1,2,3,4,5) with the 32 kg bell, but am not sure what to do after that. I have a long term goal (no end date in mind) of strict barbell pressing 300 lbs (136 kg), so eventually I will return to barbell pressing. Should I look at starting ROP over with a 40 kg bell and trying to take that to 5x(1,2,3,4,5), or would S&S make more sense?

Thanks everybody.
 
Ok, so no one had any input for me... then I will take it that my modifications were acceptable. Alternating pull ups and chin ups to reduce the stress on my left arm allowed me to progress further than I fell I would have just employing pull ups. The week I did my first 5 rung ladder for C&P, I strained something in my left forearm; either an extensor muscle or a some deeper fibers in my brachioradialis. That day I did 34 pull ups, and subsequently had to eliminate them, in favor of chins, from my training. The real negative of this is that, for me, chin ups simply do not stimulate the musculature of the forearms the same as pull ups. No shame for me though, I feel that a workout including 34 strict pull ups at a body weight of 292 lbs was respectable (the pull ups, not the body weight).

That being said, I was looking for advice on how to advance once I progressed to 5 ladders x 5 rungs with my C&P. Well, my summer work/school/family schedule has solved this for me. This week I completed 2 ladders of 5 rungs, and 3 ladders of 4 rungs on C&P using a 32 kg bell. And that is going to be the end of this ROP for me as I simply will not have the recovery and sleep time available for the next 10 weeks to complete the ROP C&P goal. This workout is too taxing to couple with my 40 hour per week job and professional school commitment.

The next 10 weeks will be spent on S&S. I have been sprinkling in a S&S session on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays when I felt good. I decided to try to hit the S&S time goal using a 24 kg bell last week. I completed it in 14:46. This week on Tuesday I tried to accomplish the Simple Goal with a 32 kg bell. I completed it in 13:36. This is encouraging and has me completely convinced that the time has come to make the move to S&S.
 
Daniel, it sounds like you've got a good idea of what you're doing and why.  S&S for now sounds great.

When you return to the ROP, you can go through it faster if you feel up to it - simply do what you're reasonably able to do on each heavy day, which will likely mean you can add more than one rung per week.   Slow down to one additional rung per week when you feel you should and then finish up the 32 kg ROP.

After that, test your max as the book suggests, report your results here, and we can all talk about what's next.

Best of luck to you.

-S-
 
Daniel,

I think you'll enjoy 10 weeks of S+S and the shortness of it should leave you with more free time.

S+S helped me with weight loss enormously (>35 kg) as long as I absolutely obsessed on my diet - I'm prone to poor food choices.

Last thing, 34 pull-ups at a BW of 295 lbs is more than respectable.
 
Hey Daniel,

What were your best strength numbers in the gym? I am curious since you are such a big guy.
For pull ups you could also try gymnastics rings. Probably the most shoulder and elbow friendly way to do pull ups.

Best of luck!
 
i did my first session back with ROP last night, having completed simple and working in the 40kg. I thought I made be able to start with the 32kg, but the 32 showed me who was boss, so I picked up the 24, which felt pretty easy. Swings with 24 felt very strange, especially doing more than 10 reps, that will take a while to get my head round.
 
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