TL;DR - solid, free program with significant strength gains. Eat better if you want to actually lose weight.
Here's another DFW review. Unlike many of the other reviews here, I did a bad job of tracking progress in any sort of visual way.
What I did
Used 2x32kg kettlebells
Trained fasted most of the time
Trained BJJ 2-4x per week
Also did a fair amount of lunges and other stuff
Gains
+2lbs of bodyweight, but about 4lbs of lean bodymass (calipers estimated 16% before and 15% after), but I'm skeptical about this
Went from 5RM on double press to 10RM with 2x32kg
Time to do 400 lunges dropped about five minutes
Self-corrected some shoulder and back issues (bracing for presses and front squats)
Solid conditioning for BJJ
Final thoughts and what's next
I ate like garbage during this time period which is not conducive to fat loss. Definitely going to rein this in.
Probably going to do The Giant 1.0 and up BJJ to a consistent 3x/week
Definitely going to keep doing Double KB Front Squats because WOW so great for durability
Numbers
1.1 (e.g.) means week 1, day 1
I ended up doing the same number of presses and squats each time
1.1
4x1,2,3 plus 1,2 = 27 reps
1.2
31x1 = 31 reps
1.3
17x2 = 34 reps
2.1
6x1-2-3, 1-2 = 39 reps
2.2
31x1 = 31 reps
2.3
19x2 = 38 reps
3.1
3x1,2,3,4 plus 1,2 = 33 reps
3.2
15x2 = 30 reps
3.3
12x3 = 36 reps
4.1
2x1-2-3-4-5 + 1x1-2-3-4 = 40 reps
4.2
17x2 = 34 reps
4.3
5x(3-4), 3 = 38 reps
5.1
3x3, = 9 reps
5.2
new RM on double KB press = 10
Edit: I forgot to say that I used a heart rate monitor chest strap. I liked it a lot because it helped me remember not to turn it into a MetCon, although there were times that I pushed it some by not resting between CP and FS.
2nd Edit:Heart rate graph from Day 4.3 (alternating sets of 3 and 4) - 38 total reps of C&P and FS
@nhope Great work! Thanks for also showing the reps per workout. I always tend to screw up the ladder at least once per workout- how do you keep note of which step of the ladder you’re on? Especially once 4 reps come into play.
@isaiah15689 Thanks! And great question - I used chalk to tally after each set of front squats. For ladders I tallied each rep, but for days with only one set size I tallied sets.
"Definitely going to keep doing Double KB Front Squats because WOW so great for durability"
What did you notice in terms of durability? Whenever I have done DFW workouts (haven't done the whole thing as a program yet), I feel like the squats are almost like active rest, and have wondered if there is much benefit squatting a weight I can press (I squat more than 2x my press with a barbell), but would love to hear more about your experience.
@seekingsalvation9867 Sure. I was dealing with an SI joint (lower back) sprain and have had a bunch of knee surgeries and one shoulder surgery. This is completely subjective, but over time all of those problems “felt better” - especially the back and shoulder. I noticed this tracked with my ability to stabilize the front squats.
At first, I would sometimes have technical failure when my torso would rotate forward on the side of my bad shoulder. Eventually that stopped happening and my shoulder and back both felt better, meaning no pain.
The squats were relatively light for me too, but I definitely got stronger. I often do 400 lunges when I just need to do something and I found that it was way easier. I don’t know if my squat max went up, but my strength endurance certainly did.
@seekingsalvation9867 For sure. I actually think I’m going to do this from the StrongFirst website since it has the option for 2KBFS, but I might just f around with different combos. Really happy with the gains in my ability to stabilize though if that’s something you’re looking for.
@panterapatty That’s my way of denoting a ladder. The whole program consists of clean and press, then rest, then front squat, then rest in different rep schemes. So for that day, it was 1 each, then 2 each, and so on.
@nhope The reps are interesting, especially that days 1 and 3 competing for the highest number of reps. And confirms my thinking that day 2 is the light day.
Your schedule seems pretty similar to mine at the moment (BJJ & DFW).
One issue that I am having is that as soon as I returned to BJJ (a month ago) after almost a year of absence (due to covid), I noticed that I can hardly progress in DFW, repeating the first two weeks again and again at an average of 30 reps per session. Did you have any similar experience? Any advice?
@katylou I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. Progress can be deceiving depending on how you measure it. Adding BJJ increases your overall training volume, which is progress. Doing the same reps with greater speed or tension is progress.
Sometimes I run into conflict between my S&C practice and BJJ, and then I remember I’m mostly doing S&C to be able to do more BJJ (in terms of work capacity and durability).
@nhope I think DFW really benefits from adding pull-ups, reps being the same as whatever rung you're on. Seems to really stretch out the shoulders and torso for me anyway.
When you say 400 lunges, what kind of lunges do you mean? I dread them so I'm interested in what your goal was in terms of time etc to see if I can introduce something into my own regime.
@dawn16 I do a couple of max sets of reverse pull-ups a couple of times per week which seems to help. Did you add them in before/after/on off days? I usually warmed up with mace swings which felt pretty good.
And I just mean 400 deep, walking lunges. I like it because you can do them anywhere, takes about fifteen minutes (without pushing too hard), makes my knees feel good, and has a very low CNS load. They are tough at first (and will make you sore) but get a lot easier. They are great conditioning in that they are a cardio load but also just make your legs feel good. Check out Cory Gregory for more
@nhope Hmm, that's interesting. I'll look him up. I have a straight run in the garage I often do loaded carries in for 100 paces back and forth so could do walking lunges.
The pull-ups I do during so say 3 C+P, 3 FSQ and then 3 pull-ups. It decreases the amount of reps of course over the half an hour but feels like a more complete workout.
@dawn16 That makes sense, but I didn’t personally experience any loss in upper body pull strength over the course of the five weeks.
I think my max pull-ups actually went up, for what it’s worth, based on the max set I do occasionally when I walk my dog to a park with a pull-up bar. But, of course, YMMV.
