This one is for the lurkers - what are you working on and what do you need help with right now?

[username1234]

@ngie • ⁠What are you working on right now?
Finding the right weight for kettlebell(s) and a routine that I could do at home after kid goes to bed.
Good thing is that I have access to some kettlebells at the work gym to try out.

• ⁠What’s going well?
According to the trainer at that same gym, my swing form is decent.

• ⁠What challenges are you running into?
Recovering from an elbow injury due to a bike fall in October. Stitches are healed up but still some pain at the joint when pressing down in a certain way. Which is why I started to swing kettlebells because it does not hurt my elbow.

• ⁠How can we (or the subreddit) help you?
I’ll find the courage to post form check videos here soon.

 

[ngie]

@username1234 Thanks for sharing! Glad you're finding swings to be something accessible right now. I think that's the name of the game when dealing with an injury - finding the things that ARE doable so that you can just keep going.

Look forward to your future form checks!

 

[peterlindner]

@ngie Currently looking at my 16kg I got a couple years ago but never really used.

Dont really know where to start. I just want to gain strength and maybe look a little better while doing it.

I dont know if I should just do SS or something else. I do BJJ, is there a program thats known to be good for BJJ practitioners?

 

[kruise]

@peterlindner Depending on your tech, a swing heavy focus is definitely the direction to take. Mark wildman on YouTube has loads of great vids on how too start

 

[peterlindner]

@kruise Thank you for the help! I'll look into that direction

 

[ngie]

@peterlindner Hey! Thanks for sharing!

I think for any sport it's important to cover the basics of strength training first before moving into specialized strength work.

When it comes to kettlebells, that's going to be your swings, cleans, squats, presses and rows.

If you're new to those skills, we put together a 14 Day video series to help you learn the basics.

From there, a program like the DFW Remix is an excellent choice because it will cover all of the strength skills mentioned above.

I know our students who do BJJ have commented that the TGU is fantastic for their sport and watching our kids do it, it's easy to see why. You could do TGUs in the beginning of your DFW sessions.

Either way, the best thing you can do is get started and then adjust along the way. Better to have had 100 mediocre training sessions over the course of a year versus none at all!

 

[peterlindner]

@ngie Well said. That last paragraph really hits the spot for me as I think that's my main problem. I need to get it done. I'll look into the 14 day video series and possibly post some form checks or something on the sub to keep me accountable.
Thank you for your advice!!

 

[ngie]

@peterlindner Awesome! I look forward to your future form checks

 

[ajoyfulsound]

@ngie I'm 44, 170lbs and I want to retain tone, gain strength and gain/retain muscle. Legs, back, and shoulders still not where I need them to be.

I've got 16 kg, 20 kg, 24 kg, 28 kg & I use them all

Right now I am consistently doing 100 two handed swings a day with either the 24kg or 28 kg. That is my bare minimum.

Sometimes I will throw in like 5 cleans per side or switch to one handed swings depending on how I feel but I will always get in the 100 swings no matter what

I was doing 200 a day for a while and actually did 500 yesterday b/c I saw someone post on here about it.

( I broke it down into 200 - long rest - 200 - long rest - 100 )

So maybe I will look into specific challenges and focus on those as I seem to respond better to that kind of goal

Is there a thread for KB challenges?

I will throw in a few cleans in there but presses and snatches make me nervous about injury - even with the 16kg

( I am also dealing with an annoying impingement with my left shoulder that is getting better over time )

I also just did a timed jerk set today with the 16kg and I could not make it past 2 minutes per side.

I'm going to do another round later today that will start with a warm up of 1 set of KB lunges followed by the jerk set and ending with another 200 swings

I don't have matching sets of KB - can I do a jerk set or any double set with imbalanced weights?

Like a 16kg left and 20kg on right? Or is that asking for trouble?

Also would like opinions on if I'm over training - I do the 100 - 200 swings in the morning/early afternoon.

Then later in the day I will do a short super set ( maybe 40 mins ) on a specific muscle group - Kettlebells are not usually involved with that workout

I feel "good" but I get really self conscious about taking a rest day b/c I have adhd brain and I don't want to break the habit of exercising

 

[ngie]

@ajoyfulsound Thanks for sharing! That's awesome that you're doing swings so frequently!

I haven't seen a stickied thread or list of KB challenges but it's a cool idea. Maybe we could piece something like that together to bring them all into one place.

You can definitely do movements with offset weights, you would just switch them on the next set.

I think it's doubtful that you're overtraining with the 100-200 swings. As long as you feel good it's a reasonable amount of reps. Don't worry too much about rest days, you can train as often as you can recover from it and in the end you're right, it's best to keep the habit going even if some days are "small" sessions.

Let us know if we can help out further!

 

[ngie]

@youngman4god When you ran it were you recleaning between each press? That can definitely be a challenge if you then are trying to do max reps of presses with 2x28kg.

Sometimes it helps to be doing other movements with the bells you want to build your press on. Squatting 2x28kg throughout the week will get you more comfortable with 2x28kg in the rack, eventually setting up a better foundation for the press.

Perhaps you could run ROP but with one day of push presses with the 28s and the other days with 24s.

There's lots of options and we can definitely help you find the right one!

 

[jalop]

@ngie Ok, well here goes. I just don’t get it. Aside from not understanding what the names of the movements are, I don’t understand “why kettlebell?” I see post from the same people everyday. And I see no advice from the principles of weightlifting. So are they the same? Different? I see people here, some have a bodybuilder physique, and other have a power lifters physique. And they all are throwing it around live a tennis ball. I have three bells. And they sit on the boney corner of my radius. Which is insanely painful. So I started using a dumbbell for TGU’s. But I quit all together, because I don’t understand the purpose or the frequency. I guess I’m trying to understand what kettlebell training does to the body that is different from anything else. Thanks.

 

[ngie]

@jalop Hey! Thanks for your comment.

These are really interesting perspectives and I think super valuable for the community to hear - we definitely seem like a bunch of crazies sometimes.

Kettlebells are not that different from any other strength training implement. You can employ the exact same tactics as with other objects to build strength, power, endurance, or elicit hypertrophy.

Most of the movements derive their names from weightlifting - squat, press, clean, snatch, and jerk, are all Olympic Weightlifting movements as well. This might give you some direction on learning the movements. We also put together a Skills Guide that covers a lot of the basic movements.

One benefit they have over barbells and dumbbells is that they are very easy to "cycle" movements. It is often much easier to cycle a kettlebell snatch for repetitions than a barbell snatch. This is particularly the case for longer durations because you can take a break in the rack. This doesn't mean you **can't** cycle barbells and dumbbells, it's just a little clunkier.

The primary benefit I think is that the equipment can be conveniently used to tackle lots of different aspects of fitness without needing to load or unload like a barbell. Want to work on hip power? Swing your bell. Want to build hip strength? Squat your bells.

As far as the issues with your forearm - that's super common. It either has to do with the shape of your bells or the current technique you're using to hold them. Some bells are just awful to hold, it may help if you share a photo so folks can see what you're working with. With respect to the technique - this video might help.

At the end of the day, I think most here just find them fun, which ultimately means you're more likely to train!

 

[jalop]

@ngie Alright. Thank you.

 

[faithinmet]

@ngie Recovering from an elbow tweak (golfer's elbow? not sure) back in August. I was on a roll doing Mark Wildman's "tetris of training" framework since Oct. 2021, alternating between Swing/TGU Day and Squat/C&P Day, with heavy club training in between. Had to take a break from training for a whole month (which absolutely sucked), and now I'm working it back in to see which lifts don't aggravate the elbow. So far, no problems with 2H heavy club, squats or getups; not sure if cleans or 1H swings were the culprit.

 

[ngie]

@faithinmet Oh man that sucks!

I think cleans or other skills with full hand insertion can really aggravate it. When we first started gym climbing I had a ton of trouble with golfers elbow. Snatches and presses (lifts with hand insertion) would really piss it off.

Obviously there’s the obligatory see your doctor part but what helped me the most was these couple things:

• Improving the deeper hand insertion (GS style) to make my rack position more passive and less demanding on the grip
• Neutral grip or ring pull ups with feet on the ground
• Ironically, bicep curls lol

The key for me was rebuilding wrist flexor strength while also reducing the irritants (demanding hand insertion).

Haven’t had any issues since incorporating those items and I’m getting hundreds of reps overhead per week.

But again, I’m not your doctor and your mileage may vary

 

[ngie]

• What are you working on right now?
• What’s going well?
• What challenges are you running into?
• How can we (or the subreddit) help you?

 

[horsta]

@ngie - What are you working on right now?

Just learning all the main lifts and paying lots of attention to technique, as coming from calisthenics I really know how important it is

- What’s going well?

Progressing fast on swing and getup

- What challenges are you running into?

Clean and swing but I guess it's just practice, in general, I fail to understand the order of progression, aka when to learn what. Also, I only have adjustable bells, and I really struggle to figure out how to structure a "long-life" program for my goals likewise I can do for Bodyweight/Gym: I don't like to follow strange programs and hop from one to another, I want to know how to design my own. I came to KB to reduce the time of workouts maybe increasing frequency but really don't trust/like minimalist programs. I'd like to know how to program for Hypertrophy or "Fat Loss"(I know it doesn't exist such a thing but I mean kinda metabolic and more active workouts), but can't find anything "scientific" or proven about it.

- How can we (or the subreddit) help you?

A serious "progressive" program with follow-along workouts (really like live cues) slowly building skills and competence without having to pay an arm and a leg and without dogmatic teachings is what I am currently searching for. Alternatively some do-it-yourself resources would be appreciated for programming that are not "just do S&S".

 

[ngie]

@horsta Hey there!

Thanks for sharing!

As far as learning the moves. There's not necessarily an order, but if I could put together a rough progression it would be:

• Basic: Swing / Goblet Squat / Turkish Get Up, Clean / Front Squat, Press / Snatch
• Intermediate: Push Press, Jerk, Windmill, Double Snatch, Bent Press

The thing is, you don't need to learn much more than Swing, Goblet Squat, Clean, and Press. You could train those movements forever and make progress.

The key to that progress is the "life-long" programming you mentioned. The main items you need to pay attention to are "Intensity" and "Volume". This old post of ours can walk you through that stuff.

As far as hypertrophy - you need high volume and surplus calories.

For fat loss - you just need training that you love doing and a calorie deficit.

We send all of our clients 2 strength and 2 conditioning video sessions every week. They also get lifetime access to our program library which totally covers all the do-it-yourself items you mentioned. You can check out our most basic membership here. It sounds like it would be a great fit for you right now!

Either way, if we can help, just shoot us a note!

 

[horsta]

@ngie thank you for the answer, to be honest, your subscription look really good, but at the moment it's out of my budget, maybe I will consider the program library even if it involves a bit more "studying"