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Slow and Steady

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Mercury

Mercury

Level 4 Valued Member
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Height: 179cm
Weight: 80kg

Program: S&S
Goal: Simple

Note: Started Indian Club swinging about 6 months ago to help with shoulder mobility and rehab for sub scapularis issues due to being sat at a desk all day. Looked around for a full body strength and flexibility system and here I am....

At 42 I definitely notice an increased requirement to warm up. Therefore I have added some body weight squats and club swinging at the beginning. Therefore my program looks like:

  • Monday - Saturday :
    • 5 mins club swinging
    • 2 x 10 body weight squats
    • Patterning as per the book Intervention 2 x 10 - ( Monday batwings, Tuesday Hinge assessment, Wednesday Farmer’s carry, repeat Thursday - Saturday)
    • Swings
    • TGU
  • Sunday:
    • 20 mins Indian club swinging (2 lbs each)
    • 10 mins Persian meels (4kg each)
    • Preliminaries and progressions from book Taming the Bent Press - 30 mins
Started with 12kg using below progression:
Weeks 1 - 5: week 1 is 2 x 10 two-handed swings and 1 TGU per side. Each week thereafter add 2 more sets of swings and 1 TGU per side. Break between sets as long as needed to ensure not breathing heavily.
Weeks 6-10: week 6 substitute 2 sets of 2-handed swings for 1-handed. Each week thereafter substitute 2 more sets.
Weeks 11-12: start timing breaks and reduce over time.

Then start again on 16kg; where I am now, week 6.
 
Last edited:
Just realised that I missed out the goblet squats, pumps and halos from the above! I do them just prior to the swings and using one weight lighter than my swing weight - though I read somewhere that Pavel said you should use the same weight..

In other news, I had a baby boy 5 days ago. Massively happy and excited and S&S, as a park bench exercise, is great in terms of getting work done without killing myself. Hopefully the lack of sleep won’t cause too much damage to my routine.
 
Half way through week 7 @ 16kg. Am on track to complete 4 days of S&S and a Sunday variety day. I have dropped one day due to being absolutely shattered after a few rough nights with the boy not sleeping and have a lodge meeting on Saturday which will likely preclude me from training. A few notes:
  • i’ve noticed a few comments on some of the forum around 16kg not being heavy enough for building muscle. This may or may not be true but regardless, my mid section is getting tighter and starting to counter my APT. In addition, in conjunction with the Abs365 diet I am starting to see some weight loss. Together there are definitely positive, aesthetic changes. The reduction in APT in particular is worth its weight in gold.
  • I’ve also seen a number of comments about rucking. Having served in the army, where there were a lot of lower limb injuries, bad knees were often put down to tabbing (the British army equivalent). Whilst getting up in the hills with weight and walking slowly very definitely leads to gains, if I do start rucking I need to remember to keep the pace slow and steady.
  • Finally, it’s my birthday on Sunday. Looks like I need to treat myself to that 24kg kettlebell...
 
Ok, so end of the week - 18Mar18. I was away with work for two days so didn’t get to train then but managed Mon, Thurs, Fri and Sat of:

Swings: 10 x 2H, L, R, L, R, 2H, L, R, 2H, 2H
Get up: 5 per side, a mixture of normal speed, doubles and slow (5 sec hold at each stage).

Saturday variety day was a bit of a wash out, tired and not feeling the love. Ten mins of club swinging and a bit of stretching.

My 24kg KB arrived on Friday. At a 50% uplift on my 16kg it doesn’t feel like a small step up! However, I did 1 TGU per side on Friday to see if I could do them, and a few swings. All good and am looking forward to moving onto the 24kb properly in 4 weeks time.
 
Week commencing 19th March was a bit of a write off due to sickness and the young guy not sleeping particularly well. Last week though I managed 4 days of:

16kg swings, 2H, L, R, L, R, 2H, L, R, L, R and 1 TGU per side with the 24kg. Grip was starting to go a little on last couple of sets of swings. TGU feel good, though I actively have to fight the bell a little, it’s a definite step up and i’m enjoying it. I really want to start using the 24kg for swings in the next week or so but I know i’m not ready and so am staying strong and sticking to the 16kg for now!

As an aside, I have picked up a copy of OS and will start using the 10 minute warm down in the book daily. Let’s see how that works.
 
This week has been good!

Monday, thursday and Friday:
10 x 10 1HS, 1 x 24kg TGU on each side and OS warm down each day (the 10 min basic session in the book).

Saturday was mixed. Started with a great session with an SFG II - swings and TGU technique are good - tho general cardio is a bit rubbish - she killed me with a 100 swing challenge (I didn’t even nearly make it). Tomorrow will be a bent press / Indian club day. Stag do after that tho. Am a lightweight. Need more beer training :)
 
W/c 9th April.

Monday - 8 x 10 1HS and 2 x 10 2Hs all at 16kg. 1 x TGU per side with 24kg.

Wednesday- Session with an SFG. 200 swings at 18kg in a mix of reps and grips followed by learning the clean, press and snatch. This session was worth its weight in gold. I’ve been struggling to ‘get’ the snatch for a while but, whilst my form is still pretty poor and I have a bit of bruising, I understand what i’m meant to be doing!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were 2 x 10 2Hs with the 24kg and 1 x TGU per side, again with the 24Kg bell. I’ve been finishing with ten mins or so of OS.
 
W/c 16 April - 6 sessions of
4 x 10 2HS @ 24kg
2 x TGU per side @ 24kg

All felt good.

W/c 23 April

5 sessions of 6 x 10 2HS @ 24kg and 3 x TGU per side at 24kg.
The first day felt tough. I had a day off on Tuesday as my son had been up all night and I was shattered. Wednesday felt great and on Saturday I did the TGU without any rest between reps. I def feel strong enough to up the volume next week to 8x10 swings and 4 TGU per side. Seems unreal that I’m 2 weeks time i’ll Be moving onto 1HS with the 24kg. In a moment of madness I ordered by 32kg today. I’m not scheduled to move onto it for at least 7 weeks...but it will be good to have it there waiting for me.
 
Last week was pretty poor, only managing 2.5 sessions (one day I managed to do just the TGU’s when I had a break). Regardless, today i’ve Started week 5 of my 24kg cycle and am doing:

10 x 2Hs
5 x TGU per side.

Already, today (Tuesday) I managed to do the TGU’s in around 9 mins. Over the next 5 weeks or so i’ll Continue with them to really try and own the weight whilst I start introducing 1HS.
The 32 KG bell is on order though it will be a while before I try and use it. So far i’m Really happy with S&S.
 
Last week was good! 6 sessions of 10x10 2HS and 10 TGU with the 24kg bell.

This week I start the 1HS, just one set of 10 on each side. For TGU’s i’ve Started my variety sets. Yesterday was 2 sets of doubles per side and then a single. Hard but achievable. Hopefully i’ll be in a position to start on the 32kg in five weeks.

I still have a bit of pain in my left elbow - particularly during the TGU. I’m doing 3x10 finger extensions per hand using rubber bands every day. I’m not seeing much of an improvement at the moment but it’s early days..
 
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