all posts post new thread

S&S+, Judo, Kendo, Historical & Modern Fencing, Walking.

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
I miss my trainings of karate Kyokushin. I belive that one day I'll back to them mayby when my children grow up? Good luck with Your training end goals as well.
 
aciampa said:
Very strong! I see nothing "unsafe" but recommend you get to an SFG or user course.
Click to expand...
Oh, you think so? Thanks!
It's good to read that you see nothing unsafe. That's very good news!
I could only do that stuff with a 16kg bell just 10 months ago. Now it's a 40kg. Strongfirst is amazing!

One frustration with being Canadian looking in on the USA is that we just don't have the population mass you do to support so many niche interest activities like kettlebell seminars etc. There are SFG trainers within driving distance however, albeit not in my city or in the neighbouring towns. This also is an apology for my verbosity on these forums. By bothering you guys over the past two months I was able to solve dozens of problems.
 
mikhael said:
I miss my trainings of karate Kyokushin. I belive that one day I'll back to them mayby when my children grow up? Good luck with Your training end goals as well.
Click to expand...
You can train Karate completely alone and even in a small room. Of course it's much better with others at a dojo, but I always thought the point of Karate was that it's like the Naked Warrior programme - you can do it anywhere, anytime, with no equipment whatsoever.

In my case, I took a year of karate as a teenager, and then as an adult one summer of lessons. Then, on my own I learned 8 katas from Funakoshi's textbook (and he says that you can learn them from his book - so I took him at his word!) and did them everyday for a few years. I ended up switching over to kettlebells since I think the kettlebells are better if we're talking about overall health and strength and time-effectiveness of exercise, but Karate is other things too. I still do some Karate practice by myself from time to time to refresh my memory.
 
I just discovered Pavel Tsatsouline's online blog full of awesome articles! Okay, that's going to keep me busy reading for a while!!!
 
I am going to aim for SFG I and bodyweight certification. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in teaching this stuff for pay as I already have a terrifically busy career, but I want to learn the secrets of Strong First science and spirit through the certifications. Until I learn it from someone face to face I doubt I can fully learn it.

I'll need to get a second 24kg bell to match my first one.

My plan is to continue my S&S journey as it has become my exercise religion. Added to it, I will train in the testable movements:

  • Swing (10 repetitions each side)
  • Double Clean (5 repetitions)
  • Press (5 repetitions each side)
  • Double Front Squat (5 repetitions)
  • Snatch (5 repetitions each side)
  • Get up (1 repetition each side)
  • Snatch Test (100 repetitions in 5 minutes)
I'll figure out exactly what my routine will be for this, but I think I'll base some of it on one cycle the ROP programme, which I was training to very good effect for the past month or so on top of S&S. This involves pullups.

Also, I'll maintain and improve my one arm one legged pushup as this is the tsar of bodyweight exercises in the Strongfirst system, which is also the one test for the certification. Thus I'll have two additional exercises I'll work on in addition to those above:
  • One Arm One Leg Pushup
  • Pullup
I'm pretty physically apt due to a lifetime of judo, hiking and similar things.

This is all terrifically interesting and exciting! Strength is a big deal in life - at the very least it fights disease and keeps you alive longer, taking away real and imagined health worries!
 
Just thought I'd put up something about one armed pushups. I found the trick for me, given that there are LOTS of tricks to choose from in the Naked Warrior book, was to start by simply holding the one arm pushup position at the top as an isometric exercise, and then over time to gradually bend my arm and straighten it more and more, doing progressively deeper but still shallow one arm pushups, until eventually I could go all the way down no problem when my muscles had adapted all through my body to the exercise. I used the same method for the pistols. It's actually "easy" - it's just about doing it bit by bit!
 
Bonkin said:
That's a good goal, Kozushi. Have you seen the SFG Certification Prep Guide? It may help as a base for you to build a program off of.
Click to expand...
No I hadn't!

THANK YOU!!!

Why doesn't someone link that page from the SFG Certifications page?

Anyhow, I think through Strongfirst I've found a very nice replacement for judo / martial arts in my life! They even have "black belt" testing, and "secrets" to impart! I LOVE IT!!!
 
Very welcome. Glad to be able to help. You might search for forum threads on the same. I seem to remember people discussing the article/topic when I went through all the old threads when I first arrived at the site.
 
I wonder if anyone takes the test with two 32s instead of two 24s. Other than the snatch, the exercises are too easy for me with 24s. It's more like fitness stuff instead of weightlifting with the 24s.
 
This question was answered today - the testing is ONLY with the 24 (or whatever your designated snatch test weight is.)

Still, I am going to train with the double 32s. When my second 32 arrives, I'll do double clean and presses, and double squats with them, I guess the double squats before S&S and the double clean and presses at another time. Therefore my workout would look like this (over a day):

1. 3X5 Double squats with the 32s
2. 10X10 swings
3. 5X2 Turkish getups
***BREAK***
4. 5X5 (ideally) Double clean and presses with the 32s
Plus maintenance work on my Warrior Pushups (SO MUCH easier to write than "One arm one leg pushups"!!!) and my pullups and pistols.

When getting close to the test date, I'll make sure I do the right testable stuff with the 24s but this plan seems to cover all the skills tested (less the snatch).
 
I used a scale yesterday to find out how much of my weight is going onto my arms in pushups. I weighed 101kg at that time. The two handed pushups read 68kg but the one handed pushup read 63. That's weird. Either way, pushups evidently get between 60 to 70 percent of our weight onto our arms.
 
What I like the most about Strongfirst is the minimalist approach - minimum equipment and minimum variety. Minimum equipment means I can get super fit without a huge monetary investment or taking up any living space. Minimum variety means I don't have to think too hard - I just have to get very good at two or three movements (really just 2 are needed for the programmes.) I notice these benefits indeed every day I do S&S. The Turkish getup can kill you, but I am so practiced in it, for 8 months now, that I can do it with mental ease - no stress on my mind. The same for the swings - my mind is accustomed to them, so they cause no stress whatsoever.

I get the point (well, I EVENTUALLY got the point) that Strongfirst does not claim these are ultimate weightlifting programmes, but rather that they are very effective at getting very all-round fit, healthy and strong. Although, that's pretty "ultimate" in my books. Just to think about it, doing the moves with a 16kg bell was hard 10 months ago, and now with a 40kg bell it's just moderately challenging - i.e. the right weight at the moment! I am obviously getting much stronger and more fit. My heart health must be spectacular now, and my lower back is not going to get injured like it was several times in the past! S&S is my preventative medicine! I am not kidding at all!

Steve Freid's recent posts comparing the four major programmes were very helpful to me. I didn't realize that the swings are 80% of S&S and the getups only 20%. This knowledge inspired me to put more power into my swings, as the swings are the main goal of the programme. Also, as he wrote, S&S can be scaled back for other things, and it is minimalist, but it can also be scaled up to be used as a "stand alone" programme - I am assuming if one uses heavier weights for it, which I am doing. The "Simple" level of the programme, using the 32kg bell I found to be extremely good for overall health and strength, but with the 40 I feel like a real athlete and not just a regular fit civilian.

His posts also helped to reassure me that it is indeed S&S that I want in my life and not ROP instead. As explained, ROP is 60% presses and 40% working up to lots of snatches. In my own myopic opinion, being of course biased in favour of my beloved S&S programme and its awesome beautiful book that filled my need for solo home martial arts and strength training (my favourite picture is the guys doing the getups outside on the grass - that's just awesome - naturalistic and all, and the pictures of the outdoors swinging adventures!) heavy swings are better than light snatches, and it's hard to snatch as heavy as we can swing, and the "big pull" is more important than the "big push" in life. Lifting, shoveling, carrying things - these are all "big pull" and not pushes. Also, the getup is a better exercise than the press as you can use a heavier weight for it, and it exercises lots of different muscles and lots of different movements, which is very healthy! It also feels more heroic, as it's more dangerous.

I love the S&S book and I love S&S!!!
 
This is a great post Kozushi! I've learned a lot following along with your questions. I'm also glad that you've come along to this point - not only with your strength - as it serves to show us beginners where we can go if we keep after it - but also that you've come to this point in your learning about the programs. We all get to learn together.

Power to you Kozushi!

And special thanks to you for sharing your Judo wisdom with me. (Long distance bow to Kozushi from Texas).
 
Bonkin said:
This is a great post Kozushi! I've learned a lot following along with your questions. I'm also glad that you've come along to this point - not only with your strength - as it serves to show us beginners where we can go if we keep after it - but also that you've come to this point in your learning about the programs. We all get to learn together.

Power to you Kozushi!

And special thanks to you for sharing your Judo wisdom with me. (Long distance bow to Kozushi from Texas).
Click to expand...
Well hey, I'm a beginner too! I started lifting kettlebells only about a year ago. I am still figuring them out. Evidently they do not grant as much raw strength as barbells as they are simply not as heavy as barbells, but they do I think have a lot to offer in terms of:
  1. strength-endurance, which is different than raw strength, as it's how long you can go on moving a fairly heavy weight. I think this is more important for real life as it's more important that I can shovel my snow every day for 30 minutes than that I can pick up a massive boulder blocking my driveway and throw it away!
  2. multi-directional-strength: the swing and Turkish getup both pull and push your strength in quite a vast range of directions. This again is more realistic strength than just picking something straight up and putting it back straight down again. Of course, moving through so many angles means that you can only lift as strong as your weakest direction, and this limits the load you can handle, but still, heck, handling 40kg as I am now is nothing to shake a stick at! A guy I know who benches and deadlifts over 300kg does not think he can do a Turkish getup with 40kg, and I'll have to ask him if he thinks he can swing a 40kg bell 100 times in 5 minutes.
I'll throw onto this (again) that the real difference between the ROP and S&S is that S&S emphasizes the pull over the push, and I personally think that the pull is much more important than the pull. Shovelling snow, wrestling/judoing with people, picking up groceries or supplies (or children!) these are all PULLS. When do we need to push in real life??? I can't even think of when - I guess when lifting something up overhead, which we don't do often. And, the getup is much more multi directional than the clean and press, so it is superior to it in my mind as a "bread and butter" exercise. Having said all this, I GTG double presses.

I have a strong suspicion that pullups can speed up our progress through S&S as they improve our grip strength. I weigh 100kg. Doing a pullup puts 50kg of pressure on each hand's grip. The heaviest kettlebell in S&S is the 48 (Sinister) kg bell. Thus, pullups are a way to improve grip strength for S&S, and the lat development they give also benefits us for our getups, as the getup is helped with strong lats.
 
Last edited:
Felt utterly knackered yesterday after work. I lay around and eventually fell asleep for a very long time. I did no exercise at all.
 
I hope the store gets my second 32 and my 48 in pretty soon. I want to start double pressing the 32s as the 24s are just a total joke for me - cleaning them is a bit of an exercise but pressing them is an utter joke.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom