Half-way point in Easy Strength... where to next?

[aondia]

I'm nearing the 20 workout mark of the 40 suggested by Pavel/Dan John and I'm loving kettlebells for being able to strength train at home. Just finished reading Easy Strength and I like it, but I'm wondering if something a bit more intense would support endurance running (half marathon) and cycling (100 to 200k, eventually randonneuring).

No real goals for either for the moment; I think I've plateaued with running/cycling until I get stronger and that's what I want to focus on for the moment. Plus, Neupert's strong enough standards sound like fun as does the GS long cycle. If I progressed to either standard with 24kgs, I'd be stoked.

This is what I've been doing 5x a week (Mo,Tu,We,rest,Fr,Sa,rest).

Gear: one 16kg Walmart bell, a bar to hang from, an ab roller

2x5 goblet squat

2x30s hang or 5x chin ups

2x5 clean and press (R,R,R,R,R,L,L,L,L,L)

2x5 ab roller

2x50m suitcase carries or waiter carries

5x15 swing

I'm rarely, barely sore and the last set of swings is the only thing that gets my heart going around 140-150bpm. I've seen great improvements in my overall fitness, posture, bike fit, and sleep. I'm in decent cardio shape already and have leg strength from running and cycling. My weak points are my core and upper body for sure and I'm glad I've found a fun way to work on them.

For the record, I'm 6'3"(1.90m) and 200lbs(90kg).

The question... What should I do next if I want to pursue Neupert's 24kg strong enough standard long term? (and put running, cycling on the back burner for the moment)

Edit: I know one is never done with Easy Strength. I'll come back to it when I decide to ramp up greater running or cycling specific fitness.

 

[googs]

@aondia Your plateau from endurance work isn't from not being strong enough, it's far more likely from being too big. Go have a look at Kipchoge and see if he looks like he needs to be stronger to run faster? Or, better yet, at about the same as you is David Goggins. Do you look like him? If not, the answer isn't trying to get stronger, it's losing all that heat producing excess weight. (And you never see video of Goggins doing pure strength work, always high reps).

If I were picking a program with running/ cycling in mind, I'd at least pick stuff from author's who were into those things. Neither of those guys has ever run further than across the road to get a cab. (And I say this as someone who actually knows them both in person and has spent a lot of time with them).

 

[aondia]

@googs I guess I buried part of the headline ... I'm also in the trades and need some strength to do the occasional hard day (pulling several hundred feet or more of cable a dozen times all day, lifting rigid conduit, just moving heavy stuff like transformers etc). There's too many guys I work with who need new shoulders or knees by the time they're 50 because they didn't take care of themselves. Now, I don't use tobacco nor am I on the gas station diet, but still, I'd like to make the hard days easier when they rear their ugly head once every few months.

Those guys are also elite. I'm sure I could learn a lot from them in terms of training but I'm not setting out to be competitive; I want to be well rounded and keep a large aerobic engine because I enjoy those activities.

 

[googs]

@aondia MTNtactical have what you're after.

 

[seekingsalvation9867]

@googs This is great advice, but for your second point, I thought Dan John used to do Triathlon?

 

[aondia]

@seekingsalvation9867 I don't know about the triathlon, but I know he's a track and field guy. He frequently references marathoners needing to deadlift double their body weight and bench their body weight (he cites Cerutty?)

 

[googs]

@aondia LOLOLOL. Again, go look at Kipchoge. Does he look like he has a double bw DL? That myth needs to fuck off and die finally.

The amount of misquoting he does of Cerutty is equally as bad as most of his other stolen material. He takes a single sentence from an entire book and uses it to try to justify his own biases, and in most cases ends up saying the exact opposite of what the author actually was saying.

And DJ was a thrower, not a runner. That's important because a thrower needs to put out fo 1-3s multiple times in a row on big rests, and their base "fitness" is good numbers in big lifts. Everything he writes is looked at through that lens as it's all he's experienced. No one who actually understands running would ever try to get a marathon runner to a 2x bw DL or bw bench. What an utter waste of valuable training time and a guaranteed way to make them slower (through heavier bw and less available time for endurance work).

 

[kands77]

@googs Kipchoge is like 55kg or so, pretty sure he could DL 2x his body weight with very little training. Relative strength is generally higher with lightweight athletes. Whether it would benefit his running is another thing though.

Also deadlifting wouldn't make him heavy. Weight is gained by being in a caloric surplus and I'm pretty sure he has his diet in check to stay at his weight.

 

[googs]

@seekingsalvation9867 LOL no. He has written that he did one once, but in typical Dan John "don't let the truth get in the way of a good story" that's fabricated. The furthest he has ever run is to the front of the buffet line (have literally seen him do this at an event).

 

[monstershouter]

@googs

“don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story”

Isn’t storytelling and embellishment part of the RKC/SFG Level 3 cert?

 

[googs]

@monstershouter I didn't even know there was a L3 as I left teaching for them in 2015. I can name a bunch of other things that were never correct though and proven wrong, but never removed from manuals. One of the big standouts I remember is a quote about a study on cardiac muscle and playing it off as something relevant to skeletal muscle.

 

[monstershouter]

@googs There’s not, to my knowledge. I was just making a crappy joke about how they always seem to embellish content to promote their methods.

 

[evilarm]

@aondia At 6’3” 200lbs I’d say you have plenty of room for improvement increasing the load. Whether that’s easy strength, 531, DFW, a Neupert program, deep water — there are tons and tons of programs and ways to do it. If you like the kettlebells I’d recommend getting two 32kgs adjustables so they can grow with you.

I don’t know the specific 24kgs strong enough standards, I thought GN’s thing was 10x5 clean and press and squat in 10’ or something like that. But if it’s something like that except with 24s I’d say that was a very achievable goal.

 

[aondia]

@evilarm I believe its 10x5 in 20 minutes each for the double clean and press, double squat, and snatch.

I'll look into the adjustables. Space is at a premium at the house

 

[learnandbloom]

@aondia At your size, you’ll probably hit that standard with the 24s in less than a year. Maybe try and run through the Right of Passage progression with the 16kg you have. It’s a total of 75 reps per arm and 75 pull-ups (that’s a popular variation) in one session. Once you have adjustable bells, going back on Easy Strength for a bit might not be a bad idea. You’ll get daily clean and press practice with doubles. That could really set you up for the future.

GS and long cycle is a different animal. I know nothing about it.