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Kettlebell S&S During Work From Home Isolation

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Gmgarymac

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I have been on S&S for 3 months now but wondering since Covid-19 has many of us working from home do you think you would get the same results splitting the sets up over a day as you get doing them consecutively?

For example instead of 10 sets of KB Swings and 10 TGUs consecutively if I were to use this as an excuse to take a break from my desk and do 1 set of KB Swings and 1 Set of TGU on the hour every hour. Or do you think this is too long a break between sets.
 
As a broad generalization, I think it's OK to split up planned sets and reps over the course of a day. One downside would be the need to warmup before work sets - if that's not you in this situation, then it's not a concern.

Another thing we could think about is that, if we have one heavy day per week, or even only one session per week on an individual lift, then our model is just that, one heavy day per week. We wouldn't want to spread out that volume too much. The other end of the spectrum is exercising, far from failure, and at all hours and on most days, which we call "Grease The Groove." S&S, by the book, is between those things, with a daily, sub-maximal training session. Switching to a more GTG approach should work just fine.

-S-
 
I have been on S&S for 3 months now but wondering since Covid-19 has many of us working from home do you think you would get the same results splitting the sets up over a day as you get doing them consecutively?

For example instead of 10 sets of KB Swings and 10 TGUs consecutively if I were to use this as an excuse to take a break from my desk and do 1 set of KB Swings and 1 Set of TGU on the hour every hour. Or do you think this is too long a break between sets.
Have a look at Geoff Neupert’s Strenght Shortcuts. It’s based on what you’re assuming.

 
Will you get the same results? I believe so..

I wouldn't stress too much unless you're chasing a timed standard for a given weight.

Simply working up to owning a timeless standard for a given weight will cover most of your bases
 
I have been on S&S for 3 months now but wondering since Covid-19 has many of us working from home do you think you would get the same results splitting the sets up over a day as you get doing them consecutively?

For example instead of 10 sets of KB Swings and 10 TGUs consecutively if I were to use this as an excuse to take a break from my desk and do 1 set of KB Swings and 1 Set of TGU on the hour every hour. Or do you think this is too long a break between sets.
one thing to consider is: how much of a warmup do you need for max power production?

What's more, a GTG approach will likely diminish conditioning and hypertrophy effects and favor neural strength and power development. There is a passage in S&S 2.0 about it, when discussing the talk test.

Personally I would do the swings in one or two blocks to get more conditioning in. GTG Getups work very well for me, combined with some OS resets (esp. dead bugs, cross crawls, rolling).
 
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Swings are 10 minutes, a quick 2 minute warm up (halo, goblet squats and glute bridge). All in all, 12 minutes and done :cool:

You could then GTG with TGU, using a heavier weight than 10 straight off....
 
I have been on S&S for 3 months now but wondering since Covid-19 has many of us working from home do you think you would get the same results splitting the sets up over a day as you get doing them consecutively?

For example instead of 10 sets of KB Swings and 10 TGUs consecutively if I were to use this as an excuse to take a break from my desk and do 1 set of KB Swings and 1 Set of TGU on the hour every hour. Or do you think this is too long a break between sets.
I think this would lead to better improvements in strength/power, but less development in endurance.
The primary determinant for strength and power development is how much high quality volume you can accumulate. If you are taking super long rests between sets, you will likely see even better development of strength and power because you'll be totally fresh for each set.
The primary driver for endurance development is the amount of time spent in a state of increased metabolic demand. The catch is, it takes a few minutes for the metabolic machinery to really get spun up. If you're only training for 2-3 minutes at a time, then resting a while, that metabolic machinery never really gets a chance to get going (unless you have a 5-10 minute warm up before each set).

My advice would be to split up you sets exactly like you suggested, and then go for a 30 minute walk (or a similar low-intensity aerobic effort) during lunch or after work. Get the best of both worlds while you have a flexible schedule.

EDIT: I'm assuming that you live somewhere that it's ok to walk around outside. If that's not the case, you could do some easy crawling, step-ups, pacing up and down the hall while you listen to music, etc.
 
I'm working on S&S myself, but I've been concerned about my lack of pressing strength. So my COVID-WFH approach has been this:

S&S in the morning, then take a kettlebell into my office. I do GTG with that about every hour.

Too early to report on results, but I'm hoping to get more pressing improvement than I would get from S&S alone, without adding time to my morning routine. If your goal is just S&S, this doesn't help you, but if you have a particular movement that you want to improve, this might be a good option.
 
@Eric Wilson, do you press the bell to the start position with one arm or two? Some folks have had a good result from incorporating presses _into_ their getups, and the floor press is a good way to start doing that.

-S-
 
Do you have a pressing rep max or 1rm in mind?

We will be able to give you more helpful ideas if we have a baseline to work with
 
@Eric Wilson, do you press the bell to the start position with one arm or two? Some folks have had a good result from incorporating presses _into_ their getups, and the floor press is a good way to start doing that.

-S-

Well, most of my TGUs (8/10) are with 24kg, and I'm currently unable to floor press 24kg with one arm. #sad

I try to help with the other arm as little as I can.
 
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