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Kettlebell S&S Total Workout Time

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Chris Beasley

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I'm just curious how long it is taking other people to complete their S&S routines. When mentioning daily workouts, the book says "you're workout is barely 30 minutes long...", but I'm not finding that to be true at all.

Today, I completed a 5 minute warm-up, then the swings + getups (skipping the stretches), and the total time was 60 minutes. Had I included stretching, push that number t0 an hour and 10 minutes. That's definitely not 30 minutes :) Am I just that out of shape? That is entirely possible...

I am trying to rest until I feel like I can pass the "talk test", but for me, that is a solid 2-3 minutes in between each set. Even then, on the next set of swings my HR will hit 150+ (which is higher than some of the numbers I see thrown around here), so I may need to be resting even more.

So how are you guys looking on total workout time?
 
@Chris Beasley how long have you been on S&S? If it's taking you an hour then perhaps take a step back to the starting advice, beginning with 5 sets of 10 two handed swings and slowly work up from there. My S&S sessions used to hit 30 minutes on a hard day, and I don't count the stretching as I would usually do that just before bed whilst listening to some music.
 
I think you're fine. You just happen to be at the very beginning of your journey. As you get stonger and fitter the sessions will shorten over time.

Mine usually lasted 35-45min. That's with warmup (10-15min) included.

If you think yours is taking to long use a lighter weight or cut something out.
For example my usual warmup is 3 rounds of certain exercises. Normally I'm already warmed up and everything is loose after the first round, but I continue with the other 2 rounds nonetheless.
So on a day I know I have limited time I only do one round of my warm up and instead of my current working weight for S&S I use a KB one size smaller than that. That way I can get through the swings and getups very fast and the total time of my session is only ~25min.
On other days when there's plenty of time use your normal weight and take all the time you need between sets.
The important thing is to just show up and do the work.
 
60 is fine and I think Pavel Macek spends about that long on it if I remember correctly.

In my case I spend about 30 minutes. Most of the time is waiting for my heartbeat to slow back down again. It's like the way an atom is mostly empty space. Keep in mind that I am working with the 40kg "bulldog" kettlebell so I have to be a bit careful particularly with the Turkish Getup which could potentially kill me. I can't do the swings with the 40 single handedly yet so they are two handed swings as yet and those who tell me it isn't S&S until it's one handed... :) The book says you stay at two handed until you are ready for one and I'm not ready yet.

I don't do the haloes any more and only one or two back bridges. I do only one set of 5 reps of goblet squats with the 40kg bell. Actually, the goblet squat is a decent exercise in its own right and I think I'll get back to doing all 3 recommended sets with it.
 
Kozushi said:
I can't do the swings with the 40 single handedly yet so they are two handed swings as yet and those who tell me it isn't S&S until it's one handed... :) The book says you stay at two handed until you are ready for one and I'm not ready yet.
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I believe that the point people are making with it not being S&S if you aren't going 1H is that if you can't do the 40 kg 1H, then why rush to move up? Own the 32 kg with 1H and THEN start working in the 40 kg one set at a time. If you can't do a single set of the 40 kg with 1H, then you shouldn't be rushing to move up. That's just chasing the weight.

Which applies to the OP, @Chris Beasley : You shouldn't be chasing the weights. Own them. As you own them, your time will go down because you won't need as much recovery. If you are at an hour time, then either 1) see if you need to go lighter, or 2) stay the course until the time comes down. Once it is down some, THEN start moving up in weights.

Just my $.02; YMMV.
 
Oh? It's weird because the 100 one arm swings with the 32 are pretty easy for me. Two arms with the 40 are also pretty easy although I prefer not to rush them. I tried one arm with the 40 yesterday and could only swing the bell once safely! Weird! However, I have to add I've been quite ill recently and I've missed a lot of training days, so I maybe regressed a bit. Hmmm...
 
Kozushi said:
Oh? It's weird because the 100 one arm swings with the 32 are pretty easy for me. Two arms with the 40 are also pretty easy although I prefer not to rush them. I tried one arm with the 40 yesterday and could only swing the bell once safely! Weird! However, I have to add I've been quite ill recently and I've missed a lot of training days, so I maybe regressed a bit. Hmmm...
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Without highjacking the thread (and hopefully this will be useful for the OP as well), there was a recommended progression that I saw about moving up in weights if you couldn't do a full set of 1H Swings. It may have been in the S&S book or it may have been elsewhere; I can't check right now. But it was basically this...
Set of 10: 2 reps 2H, 2 reps L, 2 reps 2H, 2 reps R, 2 reps 2H.
Then you start to reduce the 2H reps and increase the 1H reps. I image you could do the same with 1 reps:
2 reps 2H, 1 rep L, 2 reps 2H, 1 rep R, 4 reps 2H. Progress from there.
 
My average for the last 50 S&S sessions is ~33 minutes - that includes WU, Swings, and TGU. I haphazardly do the stretches at other times. I agree with those that said go down a bell size or stay the course and see the time come down.
 
@Kozushi I don't want to go offtopic here, but...

Kozushi said:
I can't do the swings with the 40 single handedly yet so they are two handed swings as yet and those who tell me it isn't S&S until it's one handed... :) The book says you stay at two handed until you are ready for one and I'm not ready yet.
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The book tells you to do 2H-Swings until you own the movement (the hinge) and then switch to 1H-swings. You do that when you start with S&S, so for almost anyone that means swinging the 16, 20 or 24.
You don't hit the time standard with the 16 using 2H-swings, then go to the 24 with 2H-swings, then the 32 etc. (what I can tell by your posts is what you've been doing).
If you're not ready to do 1H-swings you have no business swinging the 40.
You stay with 2h-swinging the 16 until you really own that movement and then work in sets of 1H-swings with the 16. Once all your sets with the 16 are 1H-swings you start to work on the time standard and then increasing the weight.
After that, except for the ocassional 2H-swing session to maybe spice things up a bit, you stay with 1H-swings completely.

Kozushi said:
I do only one set of 5 reps of goblet squats with the 40kg bell. Actually, the goblet squat is a decent exercise in its own right and I think I'll get back to doing all 3 recommended sets with it.
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The GS in the warm-up is a mobility drill. You stay in the bottom position and move around (prying). That should be relatively easy and should last a bit, so you use a light bell (12, 16, 20 maybe 24 if you're really strong).
Using the 40 you turn the GS into a strength move and that's not what's the role of the GS in S&S.
Prove me wrong, but I highly doubt that you can stay in the bottom position, pry around and staying relaxed (including relaxed breathing) for 30-60sec while holding onto the bulldog.
 
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Hello,

If I don't consider the warm up as a part of the training itself:
1H swing @32 : 5 minutes (Simple Standard)
GU @32 : 15 (record) but if I want rest...it is more 20 - 22

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Of the hour or so I spend under tension, 30 minutes or more is rest & recovery. Swings take 10-15 seconds, then a minute or so to recover before starting again. Add in warm ups & stretching, and I am at the 90 minute mark easily.
 
If you want to try a "forced" 27-minute complete S&S session, including full warm-up exercises and prescribed stretches, play this video and follow along with me. Try it with a kettlebell that's pretty easy for you so you can do it within the time limits. Maybe it will help you get the pacing for a more efficient training session. Then add back in some more recovery time (particularly between sets of swings) when you go back to regular daily training.
 
Thanks for all the thoughts.

Looking though Pavel's article (linked above), I saw a further link that led me to an article recommending making sure your heart rate never spikes above 180-age + 5, even at it's peak during your swings. I think mine is hitting beyond that (even with only a 35 lbs bell). I will wear a heart rate monitor tomorrow and double check. If that is the case, I will increase rest times even further to ensure that isn't happening.

This led me to wonder, in order to "own" a bell, do I need to complete the entire 5 minute swing cycle with a heart rate that follows the same formula? (So, during the entire five minutes, HR never spikes above 180-Age + 5)? I previously assumed "owning" a bell just meant you could complete the five minutes without breaking form or falling apart in any way. If I'm trying to keep it at a HR of 150 or so, that changes things, too...
 
My S&S practice usually takes 30-45 minutes. i do the full SAS warm-up, but I skip the stretches and do them as the last thing the evening.

Anyway, it depends. With a light weight(for me), let's say 36 for get-ups and 40 for swings, I can do it right now with (almost) no rest periods. With my current weights (48 for swings, 44 for get-ups), I usually take longer rest periods, and push harder only once a week, and hard once per two weeks or so.
 
Chris Beasley said:
This led me to wonder, in order to "own" a bell, do I need to complete the entire 5 minute swing cycle with a heart rate that follows the same formula? (So, during the entire five minutes, HR never spikes above 180-Age + 5)? I previously assumed "owning" a bell just meant you could complete the five minutes without breaking form or falling apart in any way. If I'm trying to keep it at a HR of 150 or so, that changes things, too...
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It depends.
I can't find the statement anymore, but @aciampa once said that it's possible to a certain weight and that it's different for anybody. I think he said that he could pass the 5min test with the 32 while staying within the maffetone heart rate, but no matter how much S&S he does, he'd never be able to stay out of glycolyctic territory with e.g. the 40 or 48.
For him the "maffetone limit" is the 32, for you it could be a different weight, heavier or lighter.
So don't focus too much on the HR thing. If you test yourself for the 5min and you're able to complete 100 powerful swings with good form, just increase the weight.
 
I'm just getting going with S&S. I started at the beginning of November after doing a program prescribed by my local SFG. I'm doing one hand swinging the 32kg and getups with the 24kg. On Sundays, I do 100 x 2HS with a 40kg just for giggles.

In general, I'd rather go heavy than fast. So, I prioritized the size of the bell and let myself have as much rest as I needed. At the beginning of the month my swing sets were taking 15-19 minutes. I am using a variable mix of HRM and talk test methods. Now the swings are down to 10-12 minutes. My TGU is following a similar pattern. Initially they were taking 15-16 minutes and now they are down to 11-12 minutes. With Warm-up, stretching, rest between exercises, etc my total workout time was 50-60 minutes at the beginning of the month and now it's down to 33-40. (I use an app, Mofit, to track my workouts and collect data).

I hope that my experience helps. Like I said, I decided to maximize the mass that I can move and work on steadily decreasing the rest periods.
 
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