S&S - how long did it take you to do the 100 swings in 5 min w/ 24 kg?

[pearlgrl13]

Howdy y'all. Long time lurker, first time poster here. Seeing all your posts gives me so much motivation. This is genuinely the most wholesome community on Reddit.

For reference, I'm 30M, 80 kg.

After several rounds nds of DFW, ROP, and the wolf at 12 kg, I came back to S&S in May. Started at 16 kg, and quickly progressed to the 24 kg at beginning of June. I have an adjustable bell, so I worked up in 2 kg increments each week after starting with 16 kg.

I've been going at the 24 kg for about 3 months now, with 3 sessions of S&S/wk. After I've done S&S, I'll usually run 5x5 double c&p with 16s and farmer carries as a finisher. On off days I'm doing 5x5-8 pull ups, dips, and squats. I also cycle, jump rope, Ruck, and play tennis at least 2-3x/wk for additional cardio.

I feel like I'm stuck on hitting the 100 swings in 5 mins. Right now I'm timing out at about 6.5 mins and am gassed. Grip and form feels pretty sloppy reps 60-100 if I'm really pushing for time. Surprisingly, the get ups are no problem.

Feel like it is taking an eternity to hit 5 mins on the 100 swings with 24 kg. How long did it take you? What were things you incorporated into your training that helped you break through an S&S platuea? Any suggestions to refocus my training to break through this plateau?

Thank you all for the suggestions and happy swinging!

Edit: typos

 

[navyservant53]

@pearlgrl13 In the latest version, you don’t do the timed test until you are comfortable doing all sets with the 32.

 

[pearlgrl13]

@navyservant53 Interesting! Honestly, my heaviest bell is a 24 kg and I don't intend to get a 32 kg anytime soon. Just wanted to hit time at the 24 kg and move back to more C&P centric programs. Will keep this in mind for when I eventually get that 32 and go for simple though

 

[villianmade]

@pearlgrl13 The target time is 5 minutes. 10 swings normally take 15 seconds. Thus, for timed intervals, you could do each set on the half-minute.

 

[jackier293]

@pearlgrl13 I did S&S for several months when I first got into kettlebell training and I never timed my sessions. I would rest until I felt ready to go with the next set.

At the end I was doing all 100 swings one handed and 10 getups with the 40 kg. I did 3-4 sessions a week. Timeless is the way to go.

 

[tutorman]

@pearlgrl13 You're only supposed to push 1 workout every week or 2 weeks before you hit Timeless Simple, this is called a jolt. If your grip and form are feeling sloppy, you probably simply need more practice while pretty closely to fully rested (talk test or even longer). To me it doesn't sound like it would be a cardio issue, but an efficiency issue currently. For me it didn't take long at all to achieve, but I had a previous background in lifting, so 24kg as a hinge is very light.

TL;DR: practice while having more rest, and you'll probably improve faster.

 

[pearlgrl13]

@tutorman I think this might be the ticket. I started really pushing for time and keeping a clock running the past month and a half and feel like I've made little progress. Reflecting back on it now, I feel like when I was just taking my time and resting between sets I made greater progress. Thanks for the thought!

 

[samkruger]

@pearlgrl13 I seem to remember someone saying that they would work up to a higher weight timeless before attempting timed Simple.

 

[ngie]

@pearlgrl13 That’s great progress so far! In our experience with completing the sinister challenge, we didn’t actually train that layout. It’s a great option for many reasons, but if you’re looking to hit the benchmark of simple and/or sinister there’s lots of ways to get there.

We found a short block of 8-12 weeks of higher volume sets can be very helpful.

We’d do up to 300 reps per session in sets of 15-30 reps. However the rest is long (3-5mins) between sets to limit fatigue. We’d also only do this a maximum of twice a week.

Strength work would be on separate days and relatively low volume.

Perhaps it could help you hit that next milestone!

 

[pearlgrl13]

@ngie Holy cow that's a lot of volume! This is a great idea though, and something I haven't tried. I've been pretty religious about sticking to the 100 reps/workout, but maybe I ought to give this a try for a while.

I'm curious, what do you consider 'relatively low volume' for strength work on off days?

 

[ngie]

@pearlgrl13 It is higher volume but if you’re used to swinging the 24/32kg for up to 300 reps in a session then doing 100 doesn’t seem as bad. Even if the rest becomes extremely compressed for the test. If the goal is simple or sinister, you can keep strength in a maintenance phase for the time being. Doing 10-20 hard sets per week of 3-4 strength exercises will keep you strong yet you shouldn’t get too tired and have it take away from your other training.

 

[ant0099]

@pearlgrl13 I honestly doubt you're doing too much. You're probably just undereating. I've been competing in Strongman, do a significant amount of strength work 6 days a week, do 3 conditoning sessions a week, 3 Strongman events a week & BJJ 2x a week & my recovery & strength are both going well.

But I eat a lot. Doing 'too much' is really hard to do, but not eating enough is very easy.

 

[soldierofgod1988]

@ant0099 And maybe undersleeping?

 

[ant0099]

@soldierofgod1988 Potentially but honestly at the level of strength he's at, strength gains should come very fast with proper eating. Sleep of course is a factor but you can Def just out eat bad sleep as a beginner. Then you get stronger & you still kinda can but your body hurts & progress slows a lot haha

 

[pearlgrl13]

@ant0099 Yeah you are doing a ton! Compared to that, I feel like I'm doing nothing. I definitely think eating isn't a strong point for me. I usually don't even have an appetite until noon. What are the kinds of things you're eating to keep up that kind of work? Maybe I'll discover something I haven't thought of!

 

[jaseobae]

@pearlgrl13 Rest like the others have said- if your technique is to over grip the bell, that could also be something to work on. overgripping is a thing. there are times during the swing at the float where you can relax your grip slightly. it takes some time to learn-give yourself time to practice and maybe even try waving the weight- there are times I practice with a 20, 24,28 and even a 32. I also incorporate 2 weights in the same session or just switch up and practice 2 handed swings with a heavier bell. Btw I'm a 62yo female so my max 1H swings right now are 32 with TGUs at 22- it takes time-enjoy the practice!

 

[joyfilled]

@pearlgrl13 If I ever do an S&S workout, like you I usually add more stuff after as it feels a bit light but what I found was do not worry too much about the time for now. It will come.

I would focus on getting some crisp good quality swings in, I say this because you mention you feel sloppy. I think you will get better value and feedback from better swings so take longer rest, perform better swings and it will probably come down naturally!!

I tend to do 10 swings right 10 swings left sometimes finish with 10 swings double hands for a bonus , then set the bell down. (this is with my 24). Realistically those 20-30 swings takes about 30-40 seconds? so you could do you left and then right hand set the bell down wait until you are ready and then go again..

How are you trying to complete them?

After your S&S, try some long cycle with alternating hands or a few reps per hand and switch.

 

[godisrealjd]

@pearlgrl13 I started playing around with kettlebells 6 months ago after little over 3 years of inactivity caused by two surgeries on my right arm. Got kinda fat. I have about 10 years of boxing background, but not alot of weight lifting. Thus I have trained alot of explosiveness, as that is the nature of boxing.

When I started training KBs I was in awful shape. 20 two handed swings of 16kg made me take a break. I played around with alot of different stuff (didnt follow a program), but what really helped my swings were the clean and jerk/long cycle (single bell, im broke).

I can do about 75 reps of 24kg hand to hand swings before I need a little break to complete the 100, where as before I started doing long cycle, I could do probably 30, maybe 40 in one go.

I do some halos, windmill, lateral squats and 50-100 hand to hand swings as a warmup (in that order), then 5 rep EMOM for 10-15 min on the C&J right now incase you were curious.

TLDR: Long cycle helped me personally.

 

[lostscaredme]

@pearlgrl13 You’re doing too much volume. I’d switch to only doing S&S every day or every other for a few weeks, following the “talk test” guidance. You will see quick results if you focus. You’re strong enough but you’re burning yourself with finishers and extras. I’m also a big fan of throwing in a set or two of heavy swings once a week as you get stronger, making the work feel easier when you go back down. The 5 minutes is an all out test day and you shouldn’t be close in regular training.

 

[pearlgrl13]

@lostscaredme This is great advice, thank you! How much heavier do you typically go for those heavy sets?