Made up a program, followed for 8 weeks - Calisthenics and a 24 kg kettlebell. Here's how it went

[hannahmarie313]

What the title says. I had fun doing it, and will likely run a version of it again for my upper body and fit in my new 60 kg strongman sandbag I just bought (hasn't even arrived yet) for my lower body. I'd love to know what you guys think of the progress and how you'd incorporate the sandbag. Now, some info.

PRE-PROGRAM:

• Bodyweight of 82 kg.
• Stuck at 5 weighted neutral grip pull-ups with the kettlebell as my rep max for a long time since I had COVID last year - previous max was 7.
• Max snatch per hand was 10, still figuring it out.
• Max 1H OHP reps were at 10.

POST-PROGRAM:

• Bodyweight of 86-7 kg. I look burlier, fill the top of my shirts more, belly not looking different tbh.
• Max reps of Neutral grip weighted pull-up with the bell went up to 7 even though I gained 4-5 kg.
  • total reps of this in a session went from 18 at the start to 33 at the end.
• Max snatch per hand is 21, and I maybe could have pushed a bit harder when testing, but a soft max will do.
  • total reps of this in a session went from 30 at the start to 72 at the end. Joe Daniel's video on the hand transition - the slo mo with commentary - helped me a TON.
• Max reps of 1H OHP per hand: 14 (based on weaker side)
  • total reps of this (per hand) in a session went from 30 at the start to 45 at the end.

THE PROGRAM TEMPLATE​

8 weeks - 6 pushing hard, 1 deload, 1 testing maxes

MON

☉ Down waving superset 3x

Super Wide pull-ups (pronated, thumb over, big chest) 5, 1, 4, 2, 3

1H Kettlebell push-press 5, 1, 4, 2, 3

☉Superset 3x

6-12 Ab wheel rollouts

16-30 suitcase walking lunges

WED

☉ 1H snatch 3x5-15(+) each side


☉ Superset 3x

Ring rows, rear delt bias 10-20

Ring push-ups, RTO at the top 10-20

☉ Superset 3x

Kettlebell goblet pivot lunges 8-20 (each leg)

Knee raises 10-20

FRI

☉ Waving Ladders 3x, w/ 24 kg kettlebell

Weighted N pull up, shoulder-width 3, 1, 2

1H Kb CP 2, 5, 3

☉ AMRAPs 1x

Unweighted pull up same grip

1H kb push-press

1H kb cleans

☉ Sit-ups 3x15-20

In the last 3 weeks I added an arm-focused session on saturday, that will carry on to the next iteration:

☉Super set 3x

Ring Face pulls 8-12(+)

Ring support holds 3x10-30s, progress to RTO once 30s, which will carry on to the next iteration:

☉Super set 3x

Kettlebell rope curls 8-15

Floor triceps extension 8-15

☉Super set 3x myorep match

Ring curls 8-15

Ring triceps extension 8-15

WHAT'S NEXT​

Change pull-up variations (super wide pronated to wide neutral for unweighted, medium neutral to supinated for weighted), focus on ring dips but keep a day of OHP work. Sandbag for lower body - learn the tool first, later start working on shouldering -but still a little kettlebelling (wanna do snatch emoms). Flexibility on off-days.

 

[premier3092]

@hannahmarie313 Very nice program man, gonna take inspiration. And congrats for your progress!

 

[hannahmarie313]

@premier3092 Thanks! I'd love to see what you do with it later, too. Might post my next iteration here as well

 

[hannahmarie313]

both my upper body lifts reps went up by 40% after me working them exactly the same way. 40% increase would be wild on a 1RM but I don't know how good it is as a rep max increase

 

[wezo777]

@hannahmarie313 I would probably be happy with the snatch and pullup improvement, I would not be happy with the OHP improvement (especially with the ~5kg weight gain).

 

[hannahmarie313]

@wezo777 I somehow mistyped 10 for 12 and only noticed it later, so I went 10 to 14, but I still agree with you tbh. Was expecting 16 based on my pre COVID PR

 

[hannahmarie313]

Maybe it's because I mainly did clean and press rather than just press?

 

[wezo777]

@hannahmarie313 You can definitely improve press with c&p, but if you can already press greater than 10 reps then sets of 5 or less aren’t particularly stimulating.

 

[hannahmarie313]

@wezo777 I figured the sheer volume accumulation from the laddering and waving would be more helpful

 

[ant0099]

@hannahmarie313 Intensity > Volume

Intensity + Volume > everything

 

[hannahmarie313]

@ant0099 It's gonna take me a while to get a heavier bell, so I hope the ring dips are sufficiently intense for my pushing hehehe

Getting nice looking clean reps with RTO at the top for big volume should take some time. Then I can fuck with pauses