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

[ngie]

Cheers r/kettlebell!

This post is for the folks who aren’t ready to make form check videos or don’t want to make a post for just one question. If you’ve ever wanted advice on something, get in here!

We want to help you solve problems and get answers to questions!

• 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?

You can copy these questions from our comment here and then paste them into your own comment.

It’s fun to get these larger dialogue threads going, they are a great opportunity to get to know more of you and for folks to see the common goals and challenges amongst the subreddit.

Oh and you don’t have to be a lurker, anyone can participate and anyone can answer!

Look forward to hearing from you all

 

[shinystar]

@ngie Working on keeping consistent, mainly. Working on specifically improving Double Front Squat rep max, and getting my C&P reps up. Working with only 24kg's makes this a challenge. I was hoping this month would be calm, but it's already looking as busy as last month.

 

[ngie]

@shinystar The holidays are always busy but if you’ve been training through the year it won’t affect your long term progress!

We often take off training for Thanksgiving or Christmas or vacation but the other 48ish weeks we keep it going. In two years you’ll have 96 weeks of training and only 8 weeks off, that’s a good ratio!

Keep it up

 

[dawn16]

@ngie

What are you working on right now?

Getting my form right on a variety of exercises by attending a weekly class. Plan is to increase KB weight once I’m sure I’m not doing things crooked.

What’s going well?

Learning the form makes me more confident in the exercises. I don’t think I’m getting stronger but I can lift heavier just by having learned to recruit my muscles properly.

What challenges are you running into?

I don’t really know what my goal is.

I want to have a stronger back to be able to handle my life (I’m 40) with lots of sitting at a computer interrupted by carrying my kids or heavy luggage without pain or injuries. I also wouldn’t mind looking more muscular but all of this is pretty vague. Can’t really translate into a clear objective.

It’s also pretty clear that it’s unrealistic for me to free the time for 3-5 workouts per week on the long term. I understand this is the only way to get results unfortunately.

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

Gives me perspective, makes me discover new exercises I didn’t know existed, makes me cautious not to injure myself, recs for KB purchase, etc.

 

[ngie]

@dawn16 Thanks for sharing! It's totally ok to not have a clear objective. I think creating the habit of training is a super valuable objective on its own.

Hopefully life will afford you more time to train as things go on. Don't be afraid to train frequent but short sessions. The more practice you get, the better you'll be, even if it's brief!

 

[modesty]

@ngie The only problem I am having right now with kettlebell training is shoulder soreness. My shoulders are sore 24/7. I like to train atleast 6 times a week. Most movements are some or the other way targeting the shoulders especially all the overhead work. Even leg work requires to clean and rack the weights which works the shoulders.I tried to change the intensity but the only think works is taking a whole day or two off with lots of rest to make the soreness go away.My shoulders look better than ever but sometimes I think this much stress on the them might cause problems in the future. I am probably under recovering due to some other stresses in life.
Have you guys run into any shoulder issues?
Any recovery tips except sleep and nutrition.

 

[ngie]

@modesty What’s your training look like during the week?

 

[modesty]

@ngie Kettlebells 3-4 times a week( Pick one or two movements like Snatch, jerk, long cycle) 1 min on 1 min off around 15-20 sets. ABC for more lower body work. On other days I just do like around 500 burpees or yoga.Take a day off a week. I mix it up with other excercises too like TGU, rows etc.

 

[ngie]

@modesty I think the soreness is ultimately just a function of the volume. It’s not necessarily a bad thing if you are maintaining your full ROM and aren’t in pain. We do CARs every day which might help a lot.

If it continues to be an issue you may need to consider reducing the volume somewhere or increasing recovery (sleep and caloric intake) to deal with it.

I know you mentioned recovery methods besides those, but in the end they really are the main things that matter.

Just gotta keep experimenting!

 

[amarie07]

@ngie how to make double cleans work with my short legs and not squashing my fingers at the top.

 

[ngie]

@amarie07 We have a few folks we work with who struggle with double cleans and short legs.

If you’re not training for something specific there’s no harm in doing skiier’s cleans with the bells outside the legs. This can be a great variation that allows you to get more reps in.

Alternatively a wider stance with toes rotated out will encourage your knees to bend “out” and open up a larger space for the bells.

On the rack it might be worth trying to clean the bells to just outside the shoulder versus right in front of the shoulders. (Meaning your thumb is in line with your armpit rather than collarbone)

Hope some of that helps. Always great to see you in the sub!

 

[samoduro]

@ngie I have one kettlebell (53 lbs). Would love to use it for conditioning. Any workout suggestions?

 

[ngie]

@samoduro We’ve been thinking about this one a lot since folks often have one bell.

I think on the strength side you could do 3-10 sets of rows, presses, goblet/front rack squats to near failure (with just a few reps in the tank).

Ladders are a great option too. 1,2,3,4,5 of each skill until tired lol.

On the conditioning side EMOMs alway work well. 5-10 swings/snatches/cleans/jerks/high pulls every 60 seconds.

You could also try doing multiswitch swing/snatch sets for 1-5 minutes or more.

Lots of stuff to play with!

 

[shinystar]

@samoduro A really good compound movement I've been doing has been Goblet Thrusters (Goblet squat followed by an Overhead Press). 3-4 sets at 10-15 reps will leave you gasping.

Throw in some swings, rows, and maybe halos and towel curls, you'll be away to the races.

 

[patriarch28]

@ngie I’ve just finished a round of DFW, and really enjoyed the simplicity of following a program through for the first time!

Then started to work on my snatches, doing some density cycles for two weeks, but it shredded my hands!

Any pointers?

 

[ngie]

@patriarch28 Great work! It's always awesome to have a program you can just pull up and knock out each day. So much less effort than piecing it together one session at a time.

Denis Vasilev's videos are excellent for learning the snatch:

Usually if you're tearing up your hands it's from overgripping. At about 2 minutes in the video he talks about grip! =)

 

[patriarch28]

@ngie That’s a great link, thanks!

And thanks for all of your input on the sub, as a lurker I get a lot out of what you post and advice you give!

 

[robertza]

@ngie

• What are you working on right now?
  
  Simple and Sinister. Just started about 5 weeks ago.
• What’s going well?
  
  I am seeing some quick results. I (M) started with the 16 kg bell, was doing 1 handed swings after 2 weeks, and then started mixing in sets and reps with the 24 kg bell after 3 weeks. Now I'm doing 4 of the 10 swing sets or TGUs with teh 24 kg.
  
  I'm 40, so aches and pains are normal, but I have to say, my bad shoulder, knee, and back feel better now than when I started. I think the movements while difficult in the short term, are good in the long term for me.
• What challenges are you running into?
  
  Mental hurdles. I'm always terrified of hurting my back. I herniated 2 discs several years ago and had some scary sciatica and drop foot. Took almost a year to clear up. When I first started doing S&S my sciatica flared up, but thankfully went away. I'm still scared my back is going to blow out mid swing one day and I'll just be a heap on the ground.
• How can we (or the subreddit) help you?
  
  I think I could use a form check. I hope I am doing things correctly, but you never know, hard to learn physical moves from a book without getting feedback.

 

[ngie]

@robertza Nice job! That’s a great start!

I think posting a form check is always a smart idea. There are tons of people to learn from here and sometimes hearing things differently makes it click.

It may also be valuable to learn Spine CARs and techniques for bracing.

Being mobile through your whole spine and then being able to create tension around it when necessary are great skills to have for long term lifting.

 

[tysa]

@ngie • ⁠What are you working on right now?

Trying to learn all the basic moves

• ⁠What’s going well?

I love swings and TGUs. I’ve been consistent except for this week due to a crash on my mountain bike. Should be back at it soon.

• ⁠What challenges are you running into?

Really struggling with hand insertion on cleans. Feels like it is blocking me from expanding beyond swings and TGU. I can maybe do a good rep one out of 10, and I’ll randomly land the bell across my wrist bones which is a little scary. I feel like I’ve watched every video, including the specific hand insertion drills. Just need it to click I guess.

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

Feels like I should post a form check. Or if there’s any good advice on cleans and the rack.