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Kettlebell Three Day A Week Programs. What Are You Doing On Your Off-Days?

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BrianCF

BrianCF

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I'm looking at all The Giant/Kettlebell Muscle/More Kettlebell Muscle/Kettlebell Burn participants.

Are you taking the days off and following the program as written? Or.....Not following the program and adding things on your off days?

Come to the confessional booth....

As I stated, I'm doing the Wolf as written. And day 3 in week 4 was such a nasty 8 minutes and 30 seconds, when I finished, I gasped to myself, "I can't wait to take the next two days off." And that's what I've done. Yesterday, nada, nil and my legs were still fatigued climbing stairs. Today 30 minutes of slow flow yoga to stretch and an hour walk, with the dog. Week 5 starts tomorrow.

Here's my advice to those who want to throw in some BJJ the other 3 days, or something else, DON'T. Active recovery is great, but don't add. After 2 weeks, you'll really enjoy your off-days and will be like a caged animal on your workout days. I slept 9 hours and 20 minutes last night.

The Minimum Effective Dose can be a beautiful thing. If you're running the Long Haul. You HAVE to take the 4 days off. Especially as the program escalates. 150 seconds of a complex is a LONG time.
 
haha learned that lesson.
Off days are nothing more strenuous than a walk, stretching, or resets when doing those types of programs. If you do want to keep up with strenuous activity outside of training, there are certainly programs that allow for that type of thing (tactical barbell or S&S are fantastic for this. Yeah it won't be as fast of progress as a hard program, but at least you won't die on an unscheduled 1am ruck up a mountain.)
 
I remember years ago filtering programs out because they were 3 day programs. That was one of the reasons I liked Burn 2.0 extreme as it was on a high frequency cycle. As I become older (44) I cannot run 5/6 day programs along with BJJ. I have run the Wolf in the past and I definitely needed rest days. Those intense kettlebell complexes don’t produce Doms but create a response where as Pavel would say “I am dragging my tail.. “ I just want to eat and then sleep.
In a lot of Geoff’s recent emails he pushes back against people wanting to adjust/ add to his programs. As to why people don’t follow programs I imagine the reasons are many and varied. For me it used to be because I conflated more volume with better results. More recently I would have added in additional workouts to blow off steam, me time, bad day at work etc. I found with this approach I invariably ended up dropping off the program and chasing a new shiny object. Currently running a 3 day swing/ TGU program and it fits great with BJJ. Off days I try to focus on pushing up step count.. and mobility.
The Long Haul is a brutal program. If I was running it I doubt I would even be tempted to add anything beyond eating and breathing
Good luck in your training…
 
I think this all depends upon your work capacity and age. When I was grappling full time, I was lifting three times a week and on the mats 10-12 times. It was fine because I had the work capacity to handle it. A decade later and I was able to do CrossFit five days a week and grapple three without issue. Yeah if you are coming from a sedentary lifestyle and/or are older, you can’t immediately hop in and be fine.

Even now, I’m running Giant and Hal Higdon Novice Base Building without issue.
 
Hrungnir said:
I think this all depends upon your work capacity and age. When I was grappling full time, I was lifting three times a week and on the mats 10-12 times. It was fine because I had the work capacity to handle it. A decade later and I was able to do CrossFit five days a week and grapple three without issue. Yeah if you are coming from a sedentary lifestyle and/or are older, you can’t immediately hop in and be fine.

Even now, I’m running Giant and Hal Higdon Novice Base Building without issue.
Click to expand...
I think you make a good point about current work capacity. Mines not great, so I stick to my 3 days and only walk on off days, or at least keep things light/technique practice at low volume. Progress slowly rolls in. I’m almost finished KB Strong. Getting close to 10 sets of 3 C&P. It’s a lot for me, but it’s been 8 or so weeks of slowly increasing the reps, and it’s been awesome to do volume I didn’t think I was capable of weeks ago.
 
Air
BrianCF said:
I'm looking at all The Giant/Kettlebell Muscle/More Kettlebell Muscle/Kettlebell Burn participants.

Are you taking the days off and following the program as written? Or.....Not following the program and adding things on your off days?

Come to the confessional booth....

As I stated, I'm doing the Wolf as written. And day 3 in week 4 was such a nasty 8 minutes and 30 seconds, when I finished, I gasped to myself, "I can't wait to take the next two days off." And that's what I've done. Yesterday, nada, nil and my legs were still fatigued climbing stairs. Today 30 minutes of slow flow yoga to stretch and an hour walk, with the dog. Week 5 starts tomorrow.

Here's my advice to those who want to throw in some BJJ the other 3 days, or something else, DON'T. Active recovery is great, but don't add. After 2 weeks, you'll really enjoy your off-days and will be like a caged animal on your workout days. I slept 9 hours and 20 minutes last night.

The Minimum Effective Dose can be a beautiful thing. If you're running the Long Haul. You HAVE to take the 4 days off. Especially as the program escalates. 150 seconds of a complex is a LONG time.
Click to expand...
Air bike and stretching on some days. The air bike is only enough to get my muscles all limber, warm, and pliable. Also been doing some rucking a few times a week to prepare for hunting season. Nothing too crazy just 20lbs in the sack 3-5 miles.
 
BrianCF said:
I'm looking at all The Giant/Kettlebell Muscle/More Kettlebell Muscle/Kettlebell Burn participants.

Are you taking the days off and following the program as written? Or.....Not following the program and adding things on your off days?

Come to the confessional booth....

As I stated, I'm doing the Wolf as written. And day 3 in week 4 was such a nasty 8 minutes and 30 seconds, when I finished, I gasped to myself, "I can't wait to take the next two days off." And that's what I've done. Yesterday, nada, nil and my legs were still fatigued climbing stairs. Today 30 minutes of slow flow yoga to stretch and an hour walk, with the dog. Week 5 starts tomorrow.

Here's my advice to those who want to throw in some BJJ the other 3 days, or something else, DON'T. Active recovery is great, but don't add. After 2 weeks, you'll really enjoy your off-days and will be like a caged animal on your workout days. I slept 9 hours and 20 minutes last night.

The Minimum Effective Dose can be a beautiful thing. If you're running the Long Haul. You HAVE to take the 4 days off. Especially as the program escalates. 150 seconds of a complex is a LONG time.
Click to expand...
Hey Brian. What was your experience with the long haul. Did you use the same weight for all rounds or say use 2x20 for 2 or 3 rounds then drop to 16’s when tired. Also wich complex set would you say is the best to do to prep for the long haul?
 
During 1.0 I foam rolled, stretched, walked, not much.

During 1.1 I did nothing.

Lately, doing my own Row,Press and Squat program (using sets of 5 and 25 min sessions), I’ve been using off days to do Aleks Salkin’s 9Min Crawling program. It’s perfect for off days. Never realized how difficult it was to simply march and crawl for 3 minutes each. Core has ‘woken up’ and helps me on training days.
 
I'm noticing as I age that I just need more breaks. I've taken to long walks on off days and find them refreshing/invigorating. This time through Strong I need the extra recovery. Last time I used the 36s through Strong I was 7 years younger and stronger. I get pretty beaten up! I have definitely gotten stronger but oh man!! I'm actually thinking of dropping back to Mondays and Thursdays to finish out the slow and steady and take like three long walks on three off days.
 
Got the running bug big style. 3x 8 miles on the off days and 2 judo days squeezed in. I’m currently on week 2 of 1.0. As for the actual program I still dip, weighted dip, ring dip and do chins and pull-ups and grip work as an add on. Bit of neck work too.
 
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When I ran the Up and Over, admittedly I did do some EMOM work on some off days. Never really felt fatigued or anything, felt good and lost weight.

The Wolf.... Is another story. I took your advice and stopped doing extra workouts on days off. I wasn't doing much but once or twice a week I'd throw a workout in. After a couple weeks things really start to set in for The Wolf. Especially after Day 3, extra workouts isn't even a thought, especially after the 4 & 5 sets days. The fatigue and need for recovery really set in. Currently on Week 5 and all I've been doing is walking and Original Strength mobility work on the off days.
 
Denis L said:
Hey Brian. What was your experience with the long haul. Did you use the same weight for all rounds or say use 2x20 for 2 or 3 rounds then drop to 16’s when tired. Also wich complex set would you say is the best to do to prep for the long haul?
Click to expand...
Hi Denis,

I would start with the Basic, so you know what you're getting into. Then Oh Row You Don't 2.0. That heavy day is 2:20.

I have a love/hate relationship with the 1:2 work:rest ratio doing the Long Haul. The 5 minutes gives you a long time to dread and have angst about the misery of the next set.

I've run The Long Haul 4 times. Last 3 weeks are Horrible.
 
Walking and mobility work is quite enough for me when running Geoff's programs, thank you very much. But then I am 56 and have a desk job, so I don't feel any need to "crush" anything any more.

However, I have really enjoyed this program on off days, from this thread:

Recommendations/Reviews/FS/WTB - AleksSalkin 9 min challenge

Hi all; I couldn’t find a thread about Aleks Salkin’s 9 minute KB and BW challenge. It is a free challenge with a nice documentation especially for a free content. Aleks Salkin - Aleks Salkin I have no correlation w Aleks Salkin, most probably we will never meet w him in person or even ever...
www.strongfirst.com
As far as I know from an email notification, it is fully Geoff-approved when running his programs, and its a nice change of pace, too.
 
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