lostscaredme
New member
While I’m a former SFG, I’m also a physical therapist and kettlebells have become a staple to my training. I had various injuries over my 30+ years of training and feel very healthy and solid, although I will need surgery to correct a hip deformity in the next month so I can avoid a total replacement later. I also had a pec tear from a fall out of a tree a few years ago, but that’s what I get for climbing trees at 45. I’m 6’1” and 213 lbs today. I’ve been as heavy as 220 and as light as 180 at some point in the last 10 years.
I can’t imagine a time when I won’t incorporate kbs somehow, but there are so many long programs using them and I get bored easily, so I came up with a mix that supports me personally and my goals. YMMV but I’ve realized that rushing towards gainz only brings me painz. Here goes:
-Workout 1: S&S; currently using 24 for swings and 28 for TGU
-Day off or light ex(e.g yoga, Indian clubs, walking, assault bike, swimming)
-Workout 2: Assault bike x 10 min. DB bench press and trap bar dead lifts (BP1, DL1, BP2, DL2, etc). Finish with pull-up/neutral/ chin-up wide to narrow “mechanical advantage” set. 70 lbs DB and 320 lbs DL top sets (explanation of progression below)
-Day off or light ex
-Workout 3: S&S
-Day off or light ex
-Workout 4: Double clean and presses and double front squats (progressions below)
-1 day off
Progressions:
S&S: this is very intuitive for me. I’ve passed the SFG test with 24 as my snatch test weight and have done 100 1H swings with the 32 and a 36 kg max press both sides, but this was 7 years ago. If I never get able to do that again I’m fine with it, but I use S&S as a tonic. I’m not that focused on the numbers and I like to wave my swings from EMOM to every :55, :50, and :45 seconds. I’m usually struggling by the 4th cycle so I know I need a break for a few days. TGUs are always heavier than swings except when I “test” myself. I may skip a weight and go heavier but only do 2 or 3 reps a side depending on how I’m feeling. On most days I will add some kind of rowing complex using the TRX at the end. Happy to share that if anyone’s interested.
For workout 2: One warmup set of 10 for BPs, one set of heavy swings 36kg for DL warm up. Work sets (3) are all the same rep count and each is progressively heavier. For example, say I start at 4 reps for BP. My sets are: Warmup: 35s x 10, 45s x 4, 55s x 4, 65s x 4. If I make all sets, next workout will be sets of 6(45x6, 55x6,etc). I always go up two reps every workout until I can’t make the rep count on the top set or earlier. Then I’ll keep repeating the same reps and sets until I make all the reps for all sets and there’s a max of 12 reps on bench. Once I hit 12, then I add the next increment of weight possible. I have the adjustable dumbbells that go up from 30 to 35, to 37.5, to 40 and they go up to 90, so I have a while. So in the above example, I would progress to sets of 37.5,47.5,57.5,67.5.
For trap DL, my sets start with 2x1(two singles) and I add 10% of of an estimated max. I’ve been doing 260,290,320 this past week. I go up to a max of 6 reps and I may break that up into 3 doubles or 2 triples, but I won’t go up in weight the following week unless I’ve hit those 6 reps and it feels solid. For the pull-ups I do AMRAP wide pull-ups, then AMRAP wide neutral grip pull-ups, then AMRAP wide chin-ups. The next round I do the narrow versions of the above.
For workout 4 Dbl C&P, I start with a weight at 3 sets of 2 then start adding sets to get to 10 sets. Then I start adding reps to the top set as in the Enter the Kettlebell style: reps progress workout to workout 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3. Then 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3,3, etc.
Note: I have also used more of a wavy approach where I focus on volume but I still use 20 reps as my initial benchmark because 20-24 total reps is the lower end of hypertrophy training. So with 10 sets of 2(20 total reps) I may wave to increasing intensity but keeping similar total rep count by going to 7 sets of 3. Then I’ll add sets until I get back up to 10. Then I’ll wave up the intensity so I’ll go from 10 sets of 3(30) to 7 sets of 4 or 8 sets of 4 depending on how I’m feeling.
Regardless of which progression method I’ve chosen, if my form breaks down by the last set then I keep my sets and reps as they are. I keep progressing until I get to 10 sets of 5 and then I go up in weight. I have KB pairs in 4 kg increments so my next increase will be to 28s. Then I finish with 3 sets of double front squats with whatever weight I’m using for C&Ps using the same rep number. I only do 3 sets because I’m beat by this point and the C&Ps take a long time. With all of these I’ll sometimes play with the rest between sets depending on how I’m feeling. Sometimes 90 seconds, sometimes as much as 3 minutes.
Extras: I had forgotten about this but it’s worth mentioning. I do some additional work for pecs and biceps. One, because I’m vain and two, because of my injury history (pec tear and shoulder labrum tear on same side). For chest I will sometimes add crush bench presses, where dumbbells are pressed together while pressing. I use very light dumbbells for this and it’s only supplemental after bench press day. For my biceps, I will alternate days between 1) curls doing 2-3 heavy sets of 5 or 6 followed by higher reps at lighter weight, 2) 1 or 2 sets of fat grips ez curls of 8-10 reps followed by curls without the fat grips but also 8-10 reps and 3) blast off curls: bar curls including bands, then bar only, then band only.
Whew! So that was a lot of information and it fits what I like and the equipment Ive got and should certainly last me a long time. As you can tell, I’m not in a terrible rush to get anywhere. I’m getting stronger, I’ve certainly put on more muscle in the last year and I feel good. At this age, I don’t need to progress any faster and risk an injury that would set me back. Also, this is the program that I’ve chosen and I’m sharing so you can see there are plenty of ways to incorporate training with KBs. Please let me know if you have any questions.
I can’t imagine a time when I won’t incorporate kbs somehow, but there are so many long programs using them and I get bored easily, so I came up with a mix that supports me personally and my goals. YMMV but I’ve realized that rushing towards gainz only brings me painz. Here goes:
-Workout 1: S&S; currently using 24 for swings and 28 for TGU
-Day off or light ex(e.g yoga, Indian clubs, walking, assault bike, swimming)
-Workout 2: Assault bike x 10 min. DB bench press and trap bar dead lifts (BP1, DL1, BP2, DL2, etc). Finish with pull-up/neutral/ chin-up wide to narrow “mechanical advantage” set. 70 lbs DB and 320 lbs DL top sets (explanation of progression below)
-Day off or light ex
-Workout 3: S&S
-Day off or light ex
-Workout 4: Double clean and presses and double front squats (progressions below)
-1 day off
- Day off or light ex
Progressions:
S&S: this is very intuitive for me. I’ve passed the SFG test with 24 as my snatch test weight and have done 100 1H swings with the 32 and a 36 kg max press both sides, but this was 7 years ago. If I never get able to do that again I’m fine with it, but I use S&S as a tonic. I’m not that focused on the numbers and I like to wave my swings from EMOM to every :55, :50, and :45 seconds. I’m usually struggling by the 4th cycle so I know I need a break for a few days. TGUs are always heavier than swings except when I “test” myself. I may skip a weight and go heavier but only do 2 or 3 reps a side depending on how I’m feeling. On most days I will add some kind of rowing complex using the TRX at the end. Happy to share that if anyone’s interested.
For workout 2: One warmup set of 10 for BPs, one set of heavy swings 36kg for DL warm up. Work sets (3) are all the same rep count and each is progressively heavier. For example, say I start at 4 reps for BP. My sets are: Warmup: 35s x 10, 45s x 4, 55s x 4, 65s x 4. If I make all sets, next workout will be sets of 6(45x6, 55x6,etc). I always go up two reps every workout until I can’t make the rep count on the top set or earlier. Then I’ll keep repeating the same reps and sets until I make all the reps for all sets and there’s a max of 12 reps on bench. Once I hit 12, then I add the next increment of weight possible. I have the adjustable dumbbells that go up from 30 to 35, to 37.5, to 40 and they go up to 90, so I have a while. So in the above example, I would progress to sets of 37.5,47.5,57.5,67.5.
For trap DL, my sets start with 2x1(two singles) and I add 10% of of an estimated max. I’ve been doing 260,290,320 this past week. I go up to a max of 6 reps and I may break that up into 3 doubles or 2 triples, but I won’t go up in weight the following week unless I’ve hit those 6 reps and it feels solid. For the pull-ups I do AMRAP wide pull-ups, then AMRAP wide neutral grip pull-ups, then AMRAP wide chin-ups. The next round I do the narrow versions of the above.
For workout 4 Dbl C&P, I start with a weight at 3 sets of 2 then start adding sets to get to 10 sets. Then I start adding reps to the top set as in the Enter the Kettlebell style: reps progress workout to workout 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3. Then 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3,3, etc.
Note: I have also used more of a wavy approach where I focus on volume but I still use 20 reps as my initial benchmark because 20-24 total reps is the lower end of hypertrophy training. So with 10 sets of 2(20 total reps) I may wave to increasing intensity but keeping similar total rep count by going to 7 sets of 3. Then I’ll add sets until I get back up to 10. Then I’ll wave up the intensity so I’ll go from 10 sets of 3(30) to 7 sets of 4 or 8 sets of 4 depending on how I’m feeling.
Regardless of which progression method I’ve chosen, if my form breaks down by the last set then I keep my sets and reps as they are. I keep progressing until I get to 10 sets of 5 and then I go up in weight. I have KB pairs in 4 kg increments so my next increase will be to 28s. Then I finish with 3 sets of double front squats with whatever weight I’m using for C&Ps using the same rep number. I only do 3 sets because I’m beat by this point and the C&Ps take a long time. With all of these I’ll sometimes play with the rest between sets depending on how I’m feeling. Sometimes 90 seconds, sometimes as much as 3 minutes.
Extras: I had forgotten about this but it’s worth mentioning. I do some additional work for pecs and biceps. One, because I’m vain and two, because of my injury history (pec tear and shoulder labrum tear on same side). For chest I will sometimes add crush bench presses, where dumbbells are pressed together while pressing. I use very light dumbbells for this and it’s only supplemental after bench press day. For my biceps, I will alternate days between 1) curls doing 2-3 heavy sets of 5 or 6 followed by higher reps at lighter weight, 2) 1 or 2 sets of fat grips ez curls of 8-10 reps followed by curls without the fat grips but also 8-10 reps and 3) blast off curls: bar curls including bands, then bar only, then band only.
Whew! So that was a lot of information and it fits what I like and the equipment Ive got and should certainly last me a long time. As you can tell, I’m not in a terrible rush to get anywhere. I’m getting stronger, I’ve certainly put on more muscle in the last year and I feel good. At this age, I don’t need to progress any faster and risk an injury that would set me back. Also, this is the program that I’ve chosen and I’m sharing so you can see there are plenty of ways to incorporate training with KBs. Please let me know if you have any questions.