S&S Newbie Training Log

[JoeVarden]

I am starting this training log for 3 reasons:

1. To keep motivated and to motivate others
2. To keep track of my progress
3. And most importantly, to embed my self in this amazing community even further!

Background

I am a 24 year old, 6ft 5inch Male from Manchester, England. I currently do MMA and am looking to compete in the near future (once Coronavirus decides to stop ruining everybody’s year). I have wanted to learn more about kettlebell training for a while and after seeing Pavel’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast, it forced me to delve a bit deeper into the world of kettlebells and StrongFirst.

I have spent the last two weeks reading the forum and the S&S ebook as well as watching countless YouTube videos. I also spent last week doing S&S and I loved it! I can really see how the swings and TGU’s will transfer over to my MMA.

Goals

Like anybody else, I want to OWN simple, move onto sinister and hopefully start to incorporate some presses, cleans and snatches etc, similar to the Viktor Pesta program.

I’m also spending this time in isolation to improve my boxing and kickboxing specifically. Jiu Jitsu will have to wait until the gym is able to reopen. In addition to S&S, boxing and kickboxing, I will be doing hill runs/sprints between one or two times per week depending on how I feel.

So.. let’s do it! Tomorrow, 25/05/2020 is Day 1 of my new journey. I can’t wait! I will try my best to post detailed and thoughtful descriptions of my daily training with a bit of diet information also.

NOTE*
I currently only have a 16kg kettlebell which I feel is perfect for now whilst I master technique. A 24kg bell is on order and should be here in a couple of weeks!

 

[Tim Randolph]

So.. let’s do it! Tomorrow, 25/05/2020 is Day 1 of my new journey.

Yeah! Welcome to the logs, Joe! Very much looking forward to seeing your progress and comments. S&S is a great program and will serve you well. There are a lot of resources in these logs and on the site for S&S and for combining it with martial arts. Good luck on your journey!

 

[JoeVarden]

Yeah! Welcome to the logs, Joe! Very much looking forward to seeing your progress and comments. S&S is a great program and will serve you well. There are a lot of resources in these logs and on the site for S&S and for combining it with martial arts. Good luck on your journey!

Thank you Tim! Welcoming people in this community are starting to motivate me more each day. Stay safe!

 

[JoeVarden]

Day 1

I started the day with a green smoothie (handful spinach, lump of ginger, two carrots, pineapple and spirulina) then done my S&S session:

Goblet squats w/ prying and pauses 3x5
Hip bridges 3x5
Halos 3x10

10x10 two-handed KB swings (16kg)
5x5 Turkish Get Ups each arm

Then it was breakfast time, I won’t bore you with the details of my diet!

At around 8pm I done my boxing session, for those interested:

Squat/Push Up/Burpee flowing warm up, 5 reps each exercise for two rounds
Shadow boxing x2 minute round
Light round on the bag x3 minute round
5x2 minute rounds
6 powerful hooks each side, 20 sec tapping bag, repeat for x3 minutes

*I rested for 1 minute between each round.

Now, to fuel up for tomorrow’s S&S and recovery sessions! Happy Monday to everybody.

 

[JoeVarden]

Day 2

Today was an easier day with a large focus on recovery and preparation for tomorrow. I started the day with some Himalayan pink salt and lime in some water before trying out Qigong for the first time ever! I actually loved it and preferred it to yoga.

Mid day I did my ELDOA routine. If you’re unfamiliar with this and have any niggles in your back or want to improve your posture, I’d highly recommend trying it or at least researching it!

Then, better late than never, my S&S session.

1 arm KB swings 10x10
5x1 Turkish get ups each arm

Followed by some light kicking practice on the heavy bag.

Tomorrow is sprint training in the AM and some technical boxing work in the PM so a break from the kettlebells for a day.

Also, my new 24kg kettlebell is officially out for delivery! I’m not ready for get ups with a heavier weight just yet, but I will use the step loading procedure with my swings once it arrives!

 

[JoeVarden]

Day 3

I was up bright and early for breakfast today and my intentions were to head to the golf course behind my house and do some sprints first thing. It turns out a bridge collapsed so the footpath leading to it had been closed off! So this resulted in more of a hike/trail run adventure, it was quite fun but nothing major.

I got home, refuelled and done some technical boxing work in the evening. I crammed it into a 35 minute session because I wanted to get a good view of the SpaceX rocket launch which turned out to be delayed until Saturday!

Tomorrow, I’m starting my day off with some Wim Hof breathing exercises and Qigong. The plan is to do some form of cardio in the AM and in the evening time I will do my S&S work