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Kettlebell Supplementary Work for S&S

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Brandon Zeck

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Hi StrongFirst Forum,

First time poster here and recent Kettlebell acolyte. I got my first 16kg bell yesterday and am excited to begin training. I read through S&S and understand that it should be done daily, when possible and when no other strength training is taking place. However, would there be anything you might add, maybe, 2 or 3 days a week for supplementary work (i.e. for legs - pistols, hack squats, Bulgarian split squats, etc)? I think I remember reading elsewhere that the Russian Pull-Up Ladder is a good supplement for back and grip work.

Current Goals are:
1) currently quite thin - 83kg at 194cm, I would like to put on some lean mass and go up to between 88kg-90kg as a maintenance weight. Symmetry is not incredibly important, but I want my torso and legs to match :)

2) No current athletic goals besides achieving simple and at some point in the future, Sinister. Also interested in attempting the Secret Service Snatch Test of 200 reps in under 10 minutes with the 1.5 pood bell sometime in the future.

3) increasing work capacity and overall mobility - the warm ups in S&S and some of Pavel's other work I imagine will take me across the threshold I am striving for.

That is about all, if you wonderful folks have any questions or suggestions I would love to hear it!

Brandon
 
Welcome! I would advise sticking to S&S "by the book" until you are doing all swings and getups with the 32. While working on getting the rest period down, if other work beyond S&S does not detract from reaching the Simple goal, that's where it would go. But in my experience, addition was subtraction.

The exception (in my experience) was 50%RM sets of chin-ups/pull-ups scattered throughout the day ("greasing the groove"), and once a week heavy (75% body weight across both arms) farmers walks. Those helped my strength progress. But I only did them regularly once I was at all sets with the 32.
 
First of all welcome.

I see S&S as the base to build on for anything else you want to do or good enough as a program in itself. It is designed so that you could deadlift a couple times a week or run or whatever you want but still keep it up as many days a week as possible. It is not meant to exhaust you or prevent you from pursuing other goals.

Having said that, since you are new to kettlebells, I suggest you just do S&S for a few months to build a base for whatever other kettlebell or other workouts you want to do in the future. You won't regret it. The way to make real progress is by pushing the edge of boredom! I mean do as few things as you can stand again and again but really focus. I have only two workouts and four to six exercises total in my program at a given time.

I recommend reading up on the concept of grease the groove. You could use that approach to do pushups and pullups in addition to S&S and you would have a complete balanced workout with a bit more hypertrophy. The goblet squat and press are two other fundamental exercises you can do if you want more weight exercises to add muscle.

The reason to start with S&S is that it is the base that will help you with all of the above. I can't emphasize that enough. Others will as well.

The number one problem is trying to do to much at the cost of consistency, which is the real key to progress. It is normal to have a number of goals but if you just rotate them every couple of months or so, you will get better results. Like a stove where you are cooking with four pots but three of them are on the backburner while you are using the first one. Then switch and when you are done everything comes together eventually.
 
To add what others have said already......the great benefit of almost daily s&s practice is that it instils an almost daily practice habit. That's the most effective supplementary bonus to s&s. Get to simple, or at least to the point where your swings and get ups are honed and you understand the many layers of s&s, and evaluate then.
Many people have benefitted from adding some easy aerobic work to s&s.
 
Brandon Zeck said:
Hi StrongFirst Forum,

First time poster here and recent Kettlebell acolyte. I got my first 16kg bell yesterday and am excited to begin training. I read through S&S and understand that it should be done daily, when possible and when no other strength training is taking place. However, would there be anything you might add, maybe, 2 or 3 days a week for supplementary work (i.e. for legs - pistols, hack squats, Bulgarian split squats, etc)? I think I remember reading elsewhere that the Russian Pull-Up Ladder is a good supplement for back and grip work.

Current Goals are:
1) currently quite thin - 83kg at 194cm, I would like to put on some lean mass and go up to between 88kg-90kg as a maintenance weight. Symmetry is not incredibly important, but I want my torso and legs to match :)

2) No current athletic goals besides achieving simple and at some point in the future, Sinister. Also interested in attempting the Secret Service Snatch Test of 200 reps in under 10 minutes with the 1.5 pood bell sometime in the future.

3) increasing work capacity and overall mobility - the warm ups in S&S and some of Pavel's other work I imagine will take me across the threshold I am striving for.

That is about all, if you wonderful folks have any questions or suggestions I would love to hear it!

Brandon
Click to expand...

@Brandon Zeck welcome to the forum. S&S is a great place to start, and will continually increase your strength with just the PM. If you're just getting started with kettlebells, I, just like the others, suggest you stick strictly to the program for a while before adding anything. It's super Simple (pun intended) and it's nice not having to think about what the days programming looks like. Good luck, and use this Forum regularly, it's a great place to learn and bounce any ideas/questions you may have. Again, welcome and good luck.
 
I do S&S and add grease the groove pull ups during the day at the office, as suggested by @Sean M . Works great for me, the pull ups dont seem to affect recovery for S&S. I only do the pull ups for fun and to keep moving, and keep them easy: I do sets of 2 or 3, which is half what I can do, and I totalize about 10-20 a day.

Some easy aerobics are usually recommended as well, as long as they are slow and dont affect recovery. Slow is usually enphasized a lot, meaning that it should be in the aerobic zone (or below MAF heart rate, calculated 180-age). I enjoy walking to the office a few times a week, which is about 30 min each way. I wont win a marathon doing this, but it doesnt affect recovery of S&S and I helps me stand up straight and reduce the negative effects of sitting all day long.

You can also start a log here at the forum, you´ll get a lot of good feedback from very experienced members here.

Good luck with your practice!
 
Start to learn cleans and snatches. Once you are confident in the swing, 3-5 x 3-5 swings or snatches to the beginning of your practice.

Push-ups are easy to add to the beginning or end of S&S.
 
I have started with S+S about 3 months ago and I have to say that it will be perfect for your goals. Just stick with it.

The legs get a lot of work with Swings or Deadlifts, if you are phasing in slowly. And those Goblet Squats are no piece of cake either! I am about your height and they are a true mobility challenge for me.

Also: S+S will be great for symmetry.

I sometimes do Yoga, Animal Flow or GMB Elements around it, which feels great. And GTG Pullups work really well with it.
 
Brandon,

Welcome to the forum! I am recently back myself. My strong encouragement (as one who has done many things wrong) is to follow S&S as written for many months, to the Simple standard at least. It is thorough and will develop a solid base of fitness. Experimentation can wait until that base is built.

I would also caution you about trying to progress too quickly. Enjoy the ride and realize that progress will come simply through consistency. I have made the impatience mistake so often I've lost count.

You're in a good place. S&S is a rock solid system and these are good people.

Jim
 
@Brandon Zeck : Welcome to the forum :) Beside all the good advice you already got here, try to find an SFG instructor near you. No matter how good the S&S book is, you can't do wrong with 1-to-1 instruction. Happy swinging!
 
The goals 1) to 3) sounds like you can achieve by attending SFG instructor certification. I think it's worth it no matter your profession or status is.
 
Sean M said:
Welcome! I would advise sticking to S&S "by the book" until you are doing all swings and getups with the 32. While working on getting the rest period down, if other work beyond S&S does not detract from reaching the Simple goal, that's where it would go. But in my experience, addition was subtraction.

The exception (in my experience) was 50%RM sets of chin-ups/pull-ups scattered throughout the day ("greasing the groove"), and once a week heavy (75% body weight across both arms) farmers walks. Those helped my strength progress. But I only did them regularly once I was at all sets with the 32.
Click to expand...
Funny because I found myself ending up doing something VERY similar to this!
 
You'll get too sore if you add in other things now. Frankly, the 32kg weight is NOT HEAVY! The fact that our bodies can't do S&S with it until after about 6 months of solid training shows how unnaturally weak we are in the modern sedentary age!

After we hit Simple with the 32 we're ready to explore the other 3 kettlebell moves and anything else we want to try out. You can even leave S&S behind for other things, since you'll continue your strength building process into other moves.

SF has simplified the use of the kettlebell down to 6 dominant moves:

goblet squat
swing (1 and 2 handed)
Turkish getup
clean
press
snatch

These are the ones I play with. In the future I might start playing with SF's advanced moves in the SFG II curriculum, which develop some trickier movements and skills, but everything is already in the basic 6 so I'm not motivated to at the present.
 
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With no specific performance goals, no reason to add to S&S. Do it for a few months and then see where you are unable to perform and then train that. You'll likely find you won't need anything else or at the very least know exactly what you want to train but maybe need help with how.

However, if you want to put on mass, get a barbell and do the Russian Bear program in Power to the People.
 
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