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Kettlebell S&S Total Workout Time

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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.
That's AWESOME! Thank you! I wouldn't have thought of that even though it ought to seem obvious!
 
@Kozushi I don't want to go offtopic here, but...


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.


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.
Oh! So I ought to go then from 1h with the 32 to 1h with the 40. Okay. Yes. Something tells me the 40 is a bit on the heavy side at the moment. Interesting. Thank you. I'll go back to the 32 for a while and then progress back from there! Thank you! I had assumed that it was the same 2h for a while and then 1h all the way to the 48. I was getting a bit frustrated with things because I don't think the 2h swing is as good of an exercise as the 1h, but it seemed I was doing a lot of 2h swings trying to move up in weight. Your post makes everything fit together a lot better. Thank you.
 
I found the audiobook version of S&S much clearer than the text version when it was discussing moving up in weight and some of the other things in this thread. Think I will go listen to it right now actually...
 
I found the audiobook version of S&S much clearer than the text version when it was discussing moving up in weight and some of the other things in this thread. Think I will go listen to it right now actually...

I found myself hearing things that I didn't remember reading - even thought the words were there plain as day. Something about the message coming into the brain via a different doorway.
 
I did the S&S routine with the 32 yesterday, and it was very easy. It also took only about 15 minutes to complete, and the getups were more of a cardio workout than the swings, which I wonder whether should be the case or not.
 
I did the S&S routine with the 32 yesterday, and it was very easy. It also took only about 15 minutes to complete, and the getups were more of a cardio workout than the swings, which I wonder whether should be the case or not.

I know for myself I find swings harder to progress on than getups actually.

How are you breathing during getups? Staying tight and taking a breath just when you feel you need one? I found I felt so winded in getups when trying a heavier weight. When working with a SFG instructor one thing we worked on was taking strategic breaths at set places...eg breathe then press bell up and go to tripod position (when hand and knee are in alignment just before you get upright and turn leg and get into lunge position), take breath in this position and repressurize, and that breath lasts me to standing up, etc. Felt a lot less running out of air that way.
 
I know for myself I find swings harder to progress on than getups actually.

How are you breathing during getups? Staying tight and taking a breath just when you feel you need one? I found I felt so winded in getups when trying a heavier weight. When working with a SFG instructor one thing we worked on was taking strategic breaths at set places...eg breathe then press bell up and go to tripod position (when hand and knee are in alignment just before you get upright and turn leg and get into lunge position), take breath in this position and repressurize, and that breath lasts me to standing up, etc. Felt a lot less running out of air that way.
I use that "breathing under the shield" concept that I was made aware of on the Bodweight forum. I actually skipped the breathing sections of the Pavel books because he wrote that they can be dangerous as they overpressurize the bowels. I didn't realize, however, that you don't have a choice. I actually might have given up doing some exercises thinking I had weak lungs or a head disease or something had not someone told me it was the fact I wasn't breathing that I was feeling faint! It makes sense - hahaha!
Honestly, the S&S workout with the 32 yesterday, while it did perk me up a bit, felt like a little mini resistance cardio workout rather than a real "day's worth" workout. I'm moving back to the 40 today, but I'll try to do a few single handed swings mixed in with it. I really think in any case that you get more exercise with an 8kg heavier bell going at it two handed than one handed with an 8kg lighter bell.
Another thing I've come to think differently about than some of the wisdom on the forums here is the relative importance of the swings to the getups in the S&S programme. I read somewhere that swings are 80% of it and the getups only 20% of it. I don't think so. Maybe this is true for lower weights, but when you get to the higher weights, even to the 32kg bell, the getups are very intense and they take I think more out of you than the swings do; they also take longer! They've also got lots of exercises hidden in them like half squats and lunges, windmills, side planks, floor press. The book even mentions a knowledgeable weightlifter who sees the getup as the ideal all-round exercise. It definitely makes the clean and press (from ROP) look like a walk in the park compared with it. To me the getups are 50% of S&S. While the swings handle the back chain of muscles and the anti-rotation ones, the getups cover the front and up chain of muscles. Altogether, everything is covered to deliver nice strength-endurance and strength-mobility to the whole body. It's sure an efficient effective way of achieving these!!!
 
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.
That was in a blog I wrote here:

http://www.strongfirst.com/simple-sinister-progressing-from-two-to-one-handed-swings

-S-
 
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