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Kettlebell TGU on the minute most sessions

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Oscar

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There seems to be a concensus that doing the swings in 5 minutes every session is not a good idea, and is actually not what S&S program prescribes. But what about the Turkish get ups? This is not frequently discussed.

I read a few things lately that got me thinking about doing the TGU on the minute on most sessions. First, @Brett Jones article to reach Sinister. Then, a few posts that said that doing the TGU to the time standards was not a challenge, but doing the TGU after the swings in 5 minutes was completely different. I think there is even an old post by @aciampa that he could achieve Sinister, as long as he did TGU before swings.

What are your experiences with this? I have been doing many sessions starting the TGU 1 minute after completing the swings, and doing them OTM. in particular, I do this when I use my normal working weight. If I'm including a few reps with a heavier weight, I take longer rests. So far I have enjoyed it, it keeps the HR higher and steady, and makes the session a bit more challenging.
 
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Speaking for myself I never have any problems to do the 10 TGUs in 10min and usually end up finishing them in 6-8min. This is all without rushing and during my usual practice when I don't even try to make the time standard.
I usually do my swings with 1-2min rest between sets and another 2-3min rest between swings and TGUs.
When I test for the time standards the TGUs become much harder after the swings and only 1min rest between the two exercises. Because of this I go back to the "1 TGU EMOM"-version for the test days.
TGU gains come easy to me though. During almost 2 years of S&S I don't think that I ever went above 13min for the TGUs and this includes the phases of transitioning to a heavier bell.
 
I wonder...
If someone is really having trouble to make progress with TGU and getup is pulling way ahead, maybe doing getups first could be worthwhile? Would TGUs really sap that much lower body explosiveness, or is it more of a CNS effect?
Kind of like how in Greyskull, upper body comes first since the author felt that lower body takes more out of you for following upper body exercise than the other way around.
 
maybe doing getups first could be worthwhile?
Have a try.
Swings come first, because they are used to train for power and generally power is trained before strength.
I think there are exceptions though. For example I always pulled my best power cleans after deadlifts.
Common wisdom would say that the heavy DLs will sap away power for my cleans, but in reality it was not the case. After heavy DLs the cleans felt super light, which made it much easier to move more weight. And that wasn't a single event on a particularly good day, but something that's very consistent for me.
There's also the common advise to work on your weaknesses first. So if TGUs are your weakness why not prioritize them.
 
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There's also the common advise to work on your weaknesses first. So if TGUs are your weakness why not prioritize them.
I think this makes perfect sense. And I think at times some of us try to do too much 'by the book' for our own good.
Using proven methods is worthwhile of course, but so is experimentation, and situational adjustments.
 
I do my getups 90 seconds, and swings on the minute. I like to pause at each getup stage up and down.
But still lots of rest between getups.
To speed up the getups for a test, I just stop the long pauses between each stage.
What's the average time to do the getup once? Is it like 30 seconds?
Funny I know my 10 swings take me 17 to 18 seconds, But I've never timed my getups. (cause I'm on the floor?)

Al
 
Do you guys rest between each arm or do the whole TGU session in one go without rest? I see "BCman" saying "But still lots of rest between getups".
I didn't see it in the book about any rest (maybe I missed it) during each get up rep. I have been doing all my reps without break until the 5 sets per arm are fully completed with the heaviest weight possible. Even when I feel I have master the move with that particular weight and slowly introduce a heavier weight for maybe 1 or 2 of the reps......I still complete the whole exercise in one continuous flow. Is this correct?o_O
 
Sound Sean (y).....I was overworking myself so!ROFL :confused:

btw....do you count the seconds of rest, or do you just wait till you "feel" that your good to go again?....and do you stay on the deck or get up and take your rest?
I use a Gymboss timer but set the intervals "biologically", if that makes sense.

So I know for me that for 32kg getups, a rep (one side) every 2:30 is enough rest, as it takes me 45-50 seconds for a heavy rep, leaving about 90-105 seconds for rest. So I set my timer for 10 x 2:50/2:50, do my rep with then timer goes off, and do OS-style rocking, cat/cow, pacing, etc. between beeps. I try to avoid being sprawled out on the deck panting like a wounded animal (though I often feel like one!).

For 24kg or 16kg getups (which I do 2/side), I set the timer to 5 x 3:00 and do all work at the beep and rest until the next beep.

I pause the timer if I need more rest, but that's rare - if anything I'm erring on the side of too much rest.
 
@Patrick O'Keeffe if you jump to the get-up section of this video, you can see how I normally do the get-up portion of S&S. Each one takes about 30 seconds, and about 30 seconds of active rest between each one. That session represents a "test" session to the time standards. In daily practice I would take much more rest between sets of swings -- maybe 10-12 minutes total for the swings portion -- but not a whole lot different for the get-ups, unless I am doing a very challenging weight for 5 reps (as Sean describes above); then the get-up portion may take much longer, like up to 20 minutes.
 
I use a Gymboss timer but set the intervals "biologically", if that makes sense.

So I know for me that for 32kg getups, a rep (one side) every 2:30 is enough rest, as it takes me 45-50 seconds for a heavy rep, leaving about 90-105 seconds for rest. So I set my timer for 10 x 2:50/2:50, do my rep with then timer goes off, and do OS-style rocking, cat/cow, pacing, etc. between beeps. I try to avoid being sprawled out on the deck panting like a wounded animal (though I often feel like one!).

For 24kg or 16kg getups (which I do 2/side), I set the timer to 5 x 3:00 and do all work at the beep and rest until the next beep.

I pause the timer if I need more rest, but that's rare - if anything I'm erring on the side of too much rest.

Thanks for clarifying what works for you. I'll give myself some rest in between from now on! (y)
 
@Patrick O'Keeffe if you jump to the get-up section of this video, you can see how I normally do the get-up portion of S&S. Each one takes about 30 seconds, and about 30 seconds of active rest between each one. That session represents a "test" session to the time standards. In daily practice I would take much more rest between sets of swings -- maybe 10-12 minutes total for the swings portion -- but not a whole lot different for the get-ups, unless I am doing a very challenging weight for 5 reps (as Sean describes above); then the get-up portion may take much longer, like up to 20 minutes.

Anna.....

I must be losing my marbles! :confused: I was only looking at your video the other day!! You were so solid out through out the whole session and I probably was so glued into on how bad a#@ you were doing those exercises and how good your technique was.....that I didn't take any notice of you resting in between the TGUs!! :rolleyes:

Thanks for sharing and clarifying along with Steve. It makes sense....if Pavel was emphasising that rest was important for swings, then obviously I should have concluded that it was equally important for the TGU too even if I missed it in the book.
 
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