Kettlebelephant
Level 6 Valued Member
I could have named the thread "Escaping the monotony of S&S" or "What to do when S&S gets boring", but thought that title doesn't sound so negative.
Also I didn't know whether to post it into the Kettlebell or S&S FAQ section. @Steve Freides move it to where you think it's more apropriate.
When people talk about S&S they often say how boring or monotonous it is and how they have a hard time following it because of this. The topic came up again in 2 or 3 recent threads regarding S&S and that led me to open up this thread. I want to show you how versatile it can be and how you can add or combine stuff to make it more entertaining while still keeping the essence of the program IMO.
I know there are some hardliners that say a routine only has to produce results and you should do it even though you don't like it just because it works. I agree when it comes to athletes who use a program to improve their performance on the field, track, etc. but for everyone else I think a routine needs to be fun, too.
If your goal is to make a baby you have a much higher chance with things like in vitro fertilization, but doing it the old fashioned way is a lot more fun, won't you agree?
S&S is super flexible, because it doesn't have a fixed schedule. You can do it only 2 or 3 times per week or even up to 7 days. Of course progress will be different, depending on how much time you can afford to put into S&S, but over time you should be able to progress no matter how many days per week you choose.
The default advice is to do S&S as written until Simple. I second this, but on the other hand I recognize that this can be very hard to do and having a bit of variety can help you stay on the course.
For most of the variations you don't need to look further than the article section of the Strongfirst homepage. You can find a lot of gems there.
I didn't test all of them myself, but I feel every one of them ultimately helps to progress on your S&S path. For example you will never see me suggesting a variant that doesn't have a good amount of swings and TGUs in it. You might add other exercises, but those two should always be a part to help advance on S&S, even though they don't necessarily have to be done in the 10x10 & 5x1 L+R format.
Soju & Tuba (Upgrade Your Strength with the Soju and Tuba Press Program)
On some days just replace your TGUs with S&T presses (or whatever you like, the author says it can be done with basically any grind).
The best way to do this would be alternating the days like this:
Mon, Wed, Fri -> S&S swings + S&T presses instead of TGUs
Tue, Thu,(Sat, Sun) -> S&S as written
Note that I put Saturday and Sunday in brackets, because some people can't train on weekends. Overall it's up to you how many days of pure S&S you do, just at least do the minimum of 2.
Strength Aerobics (Strength Aerobics: A Powerful Alternative to HIIT)
In the article Pavel specifically suggests to alternate the Strength Aerobics (SA) routine with S&S from day to day.
It would look very similar to the S&T variant mentioned above, just use SA this time.
Light-Medium-Heavy TGU (How to Properly Program the Get-up for 3 Different Goals)
This version can be done in combination with some of the other variants. You can do it with every version where you do S&S 3x per week.
For those who only have time for 3 S&S sessions per week or choose a variant that has only 3 S&S sessions per week this is a good varation to progress your TGU.
Just use Mike Perrys guidelines for the L-M-H days outlined in his article.
EMOM Volume Swings (A Science-Based Plan to Prepare You for the SFG Level I and SFG Level II)
Use the "Conditioning Program" from that article.
Personally I think it's an awesome fit with Mike Perrys L-M-H TGU routine. Either go for alternating days:
Mon, Wed, Fri -> Swings
Tue, Thu, Sat -> TGUs
or do both on the same days. You can do them in one longer session or spread them out (e.g. morning: swings, evening: TGUs). If you go for the "both on the same day"-option combine however you like, for example heavy swings + heavy TGUs/medium swings + medium TGUs/light swings + lights TGUs or heavy swings + light TGUs/medium + medium/ light + heavy.
Multiple TGUs (How to Get Better at Everything by Training Multiple Get-Ups)
This is perfect for everyone who can train during the week, but not on weekends (e.g. myself).
For some variation to S&S replace your 5x1 L+R TGUs with the guideline from this article.
S&S & A+A
I know @Harald Motz did this or does it right now. Basically do S&S as written, but 1-2x per week replace your session with an A+A swing or snatch session. Harald also added LSD work in the form of running or rowing. I'm sure you can find more in his training log (Cause&Effect)
Daily Dose Deadlift Plan (Daily Dose Deadlift Plan)
Just add this to your regular S&S practice. For example do your S&S session, rest for 5-10min and then go for the DL singles. Or do the DLs in the morning/evening seperately from your S&S sessions.
It doesn't even have to be deadlifts. We have at least one recount of someone doing it with the full Zercher lift and someone doing it with Zercher squats. It probably also works for lifts like back or front squats.
@Steve Freides created a press version based on the DDD principles that can be found on the forum aswell.
2-3x per week strength routines
This is a combination of S&S with another strength program (usually barbell). There are a good amount of 2-3 day strength routines out there. Choose wisely, because not all are a good fit. For example Starting Strength will most likely be too demanding to combine it with anything.
My go-to recommendation would be Tactical Barbell, specifically the Fighter template. I recommended this a few times on the forum already. It would look like this:
Mon + Thu -> TB Fighter
Tue + Fri -> S&S
Wed, Sat, Sun -> optional S&S days
PttP + S&S 2-week blocks (from Easy Strength)
Simple, alternate 2 weeks of Power to the People with 2 weeks of S&S.
You can find my own review of this here:
Deadlift increase rate
Keep in mind that I probably overdid it a bit and my focus was on the DL. Your results may be different.
Fighter Pull-up Program (The Fighter Pull-up Program Revisited)
Like the Daily Dose Deadlift plan you can also chose to add the Fighter Pull-up Program. If the volume/day-to-day progression is too demanding for you reduce it to 3x per week. People still report constant improvement on only 3x per week.
Simply Sinister (The Simply Sinister Training Plan)
You can do this on its own for a couple of weeks, e.g. 3x per week or just add a single day of it into your usual S&S practice, which brings us to my last point...
...One variety day per week
This is one of my absolute favorites.
You do S&S 4-6x per week, but on one day (you might even make it 2 days) per week (e.g. every friday) you do something different just for fun and to break the monotony of S&S. You have a wide variety of WODs to choose from. My only two recommendations would be to make it something that involves Kettlebells and that it is somehow measurable (keyword: benchmark) so over time you can see whether or not your other training improves your benchmarks.
Good options for this day would be:
- Simply Sinister (The Simply Sinister Training Plan)
- The Deep 6 (A Group Lesson Plan for Conquering the Deep 6)
- Dan John WODs found in here: http://danjohn.net/wp-content/uploads/cpkb2.pdf
- KB HIC Sessions from Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning (e.g. "Apex")
- The Crossfit WODs "Helen" and "Eva"
Also remember that S&S has some variety in itself. Reread it and look into the chapters about non-stop swings, shadow swings and "easy" days. Some of those things should only be done after Simple, but still there's variety in the orginal S&S aswell.
I'm sure there are a lot more variants than the ones I posted, for example you could combine the variants. You could combine "Strength Aerobics", "L-M-H TGUs" & "EMOM Volume Swings" into a 6 days per week routine that very likely will boost your S&S progress. Or use "EMOM Volume Swings" together with "Multiple TGUs", you will swing and TGU 3x per week and only do TGUs on the other 2 days.
Adding a form of LSD locomotion (running, walking, rucking, cycling etc.) is also always a good option.
The bottom line is you can add a lot of diversity to S&S without changing the recovery demands too much.
Some of you may argue that it's not S&S anymore and yes that's true, but like I said at the beginning IMO all of those variations keep the essence of the original routine and help to progress on it.
Also I didn't know whether to post it into the Kettlebell or S&S FAQ section. @Steve Freides move it to where you think it's more apropriate.
When people talk about S&S they often say how boring or monotonous it is and how they have a hard time following it because of this. The topic came up again in 2 or 3 recent threads regarding S&S and that led me to open up this thread. I want to show you how versatile it can be and how you can add or combine stuff to make it more entertaining while still keeping the essence of the program IMO.
I know there are some hardliners that say a routine only has to produce results and you should do it even though you don't like it just because it works. I agree when it comes to athletes who use a program to improve their performance on the field, track, etc. but for everyone else I think a routine needs to be fun, too.
If your goal is to make a baby you have a much higher chance with things like in vitro fertilization, but doing it the old fashioned way is a lot more fun, won't you agree?
S&S is super flexible, because it doesn't have a fixed schedule. You can do it only 2 or 3 times per week or even up to 7 days. Of course progress will be different, depending on how much time you can afford to put into S&S, but over time you should be able to progress no matter how many days per week you choose.
The default advice is to do S&S as written until Simple. I second this, but on the other hand I recognize that this can be very hard to do and having a bit of variety can help you stay on the course.
For most of the variations you don't need to look further than the article section of the Strongfirst homepage. You can find a lot of gems there.
I didn't test all of them myself, but I feel every one of them ultimately helps to progress on your S&S path. For example you will never see me suggesting a variant that doesn't have a good amount of swings and TGUs in it. You might add other exercises, but those two should always be a part to help advance on S&S, even though they don't necessarily have to be done in the 10x10 & 5x1 L+R format.
Soju & Tuba (Upgrade Your Strength with the Soju and Tuba Press Program)
On some days just replace your TGUs with S&T presses (or whatever you like, the author says it can be done with basically any grind).
The best way to do this would be alternating the days like this:
Mon, Wed, Fri -> S&S swings + S&T presses instead of TGUs
Tue, Thu,(Sat, Sun) -> S&S as written
Note that I put Saturday and Sunday in brackets, because some people can't train on weekends. Overall it's up to you how many days of pure S&S you do, just at least do the minimum of 2.
Strength Aerobics (Strength Aerobics: A Powerful Alternative to HIIT)
In the article Pavel specifically suggests to alternate the Strength Aerobics (SA) routine with S&S from day to day.
It would look very similar to the S&T variant mentioned above, just use SA this time.
Light-Medium-Heavy TGU (How to Properly Program the Get-up for 3 Different Goals)
This version can be done in combination with some of the other variants. You can do it with every version where you do S&S 3x per week.
For those who only have time for 3 S&S sessions per week or choose a variant that has only 3 S&S sessions per week this is a good varation to progress your TGU.
Just use Mike Perrys guidelines for the L-M-H days outlined in his article.
EMOM Volume Swings (A Science-Based Plan to Prepare You for the SFG Level I and SFG Level II)
Use the "Conditioning Program" from that article.
Personally I think it's an awesome fit with Mike Perrys L-M-H TGU routine. Either go for alternating days:
Mon, Wed, Fri -> Swings
Tue, Thu, Sat -> TGUs
or do both on the same days. You can do them in one longer session or spread them out (e.g. morning: swings, evening: TGUs). If you go for the "both on the same day"-option combine however you like, for example heavy swings + heavy TGUs/medium swings + medium TGUs/light swings + lights TGUs or heavy swings + light TGUs/medium + medium/ light + heavy.
Multiple TGUs (How to Get Better at Everything by Training Multiple Get-Ups)
This is perfect for everyone who can train during the week, but not on weekends (e.g. myself).
For some variation to S&S replace your 5x1 L+R TGUs with the guideline from this article.
S&S & A+A
I know @Harald Motz did this or does it right now. Basically do S&S as written, but 1-2x per week replace your session with an A+A swing or snatch session. Harald also added LSD work in the form of running or rowing. I'm sure you can find more in his training log (Cause&Effect)
Daily Dose Deadlift Plan (Daily Dose Deadlift Plan)
Just add this to your regular S&S practice. For example do your S&S session, rest for 5-10min and then go for the DL singles. Or do the DLs in the morning/evening seperately from your S&S sessions.
It doesn't even have to be deadlifts. We have at least one recount of someone doing it with the full Zercher lift and someone doing it with Zercher squats. It probably also works for lifts like back or front squats.
@Steve Freides created a press version based on the DDD principles that can be found on the forum aswell.
2-3x per week strength routines
This is a combination of S&S with another strength program (usually barbell). There are a good amount of 2-3 day strength routines out there. Choose wisely, because not all are a good fit. For example Starting Strength will most likely be too demanding to combine it with anything.
My go-to recommendation would be Tactical Barbell, specifically the Fighter template. I recommended this a few times on the forum already. It would look like this:
Mon + Thu -> TB Fighter
Tue + Fri -> S&S
Wed, Sat, Sun -> optional S&S days
PttP + S&S 2-week blocks (from Easy Strength)
Simple, alternate 2 weeks of Power to the People with 2 weeks of S&S.
You can find my own review of this here:
Deadlift increase rate
Keep in mind that I probably overdid it a bit and my focus was on the DL. Your results may be different.
Fighter Pull-up Program (The Fighter Pull-up Program Revisited)
Like the Daily Dose Deadlift plan you can also chose to add the Fighter Pull-up Program. If the volume/day-to-day progression is too demanding for you reduce it to 3x per week. People still report constant improvement on only 3x per week.
Simply Sinister (The Simply Sinister Training Plan)
You can do this on its own for a couple of weeks, e.g. 3x per week or just add a single day of it into your usual S&S practice, which brings us to my last point...
...One variety day per week
This is one of my absolute favorites.
You do S&S 4-6x per week, but on one day (you might even make it 2 days) per week (e.g. every friday) you do something different just for fun and to break the monotony of S&S. You have a wide variety of WODs to choose from. My only two recommendations would be to make it something that involves Kettlebells and that it is somehow measurable (keyword: benchmark) so over time you can see whether or not your other training improves your benchmarks.
Good options for this day would be:
- Simply Sinister (The Simply Sinister Training Plan)
- The Deep 6 (A Group Lesson Plan for Conquering the Deep 6)
- Dan John WODs found in here: http://danjohn.net/wp-content/uploads/cpkb2.pdf
- KB HIC Sessions from Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning (e.g. "Apex")
- The Crossfit WODs "Helen" and "Eva"
Also remember that S&S has some variety in itself. Reread it and look into the chapters about non-stop swings, shadow swings and "easy" days. Some of those things should only be done after Simple, but still there's variety in the orginal S&S aswell.
I'm sure there are a lot more variants than the ones I posted, for example you could combine the variants. You could combine "Strength Aerobics", "L-M-H TGUs" & "EMOM Volume Swings" into a 6 days per week routine that very likely will boost your S&S progress. Or use "EMOM Volume Swings" together with "Multiple TGUs", you will swing and TGU 3x per week and only do TGUs on the other 2 days.
Adding a form of LSD locomotion (running, walking, rucking, cycling etc.) is also always a good option.
The bottom line is you can add a lot of diversity to S&S without changing the recovery demands too much.
Some of you may argue that it's not S&S anymore and yes that's true, but like I said at the beginning IMO all of those variations keep the essence of the original routine and help to progress on it.
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