Kettlebell S&S with SUF

Ouch, hope your hands heal up soon!!!

And NICE progress

Silly question perhaps but I’ve noticed over time that somedays I workout and my muscles feel large and hard afterwards. Other days, I do the exact same workout and they don’t feel quite as bulky. I’m not talking about feeling pumped. I know what that feels like. I don’t think you are supposed to get pumped with following the S&S as its more of a daily practice than a workout, but it’s interesting to notice these kind of differences from one day to the next.

Feeling pretty tired today so having a day off. Did a ramp test yesterday and S&S in the afternoon. I did manage to gain 10W since my last FTP test (early March). This is the highest number I have had since 2018. So pretty happy with that. Looking forward to see if I can maintain and drag it it up further.

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40 up 6x in singles in debut.

Easy as 1…

2…

3…

4…

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Nice one!!! That thing is terrifyingly big tho! Am relieved I’m female now ahahahaha.

I also realised today on my Left GU that I’m getting back down the wrong way round, aka the same way as I get down when I do the right side. It’s going to take so much work to fix that little gremlin. Ah well.

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I ain’t gonna lie, it intimated me a bit.

Muscle memory is an amazing thing. It’s hard to move with two hands from one spot on the floor to another.

To put it up as I did was actually surprising- even though it’s only 8lbs heavier than what I’ve been doing in sub 10 minutes for the last few weeks.

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Nice going. Already up to 6x? I guess that is why you are progressing faster if you can manage that :slight_smile: Well done!

My plan is to increase by 2 sets (left and right) every 2 weeks until I reach the 10. My initial goal was to get to average man status (16kg) and the dream was to get to 24kg. The 16 is starting to feel lighter now that I’m mixing it with the 20kg so I know I have the 24kg in me. Just gotta keep plugging away.

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Officially tested Simple today.

That was insane.

Final time was 14:32.

Took 5:00 exact on swings - 20/10/10/15/10/15/20. Had to lay on the floor as HR went Z5 and my heart doesn’t like jumping from Z1 to 5 like that. Owned TGU in less than 5:30. Did 6 back to back, paused and did the last 4.

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Well done. That’s pretty amazing. 5 minutes for swings is fast. I am mostly doing untimed but I do have a stop watch going. I do it in about 7 or 8 minutes currently, sometimes longer. I have found a new skill because of this though. Going up a staircase doesn’t put me out of breath like it used to. My train arrives 5 levels down and walking up the stairs briskly would often leave me breathing harder… Got much more resilience there now. I can only attribute it to this. If you are doing 10x TGU in 5:30, you are obviously skipping the bit where you kiss the bell before hand and pat it afterwards telling it what a good bell it was.

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Ok that is super helpful thanks!

I am doing
4 sets of:
5 Goblet squats
5 bridges (weighted)
5 halos (alternating L or R on alternate sets)
Above all with 10kg

Was re-reading this… What is a weighted bridge? Or where do you put the weight? I presume it is a kettlebell? Or is this a different bridge to the hip bridge in the S&S book? Curious as the hip bridge is the easiest part of the warmup currently.

@tpodowd Hold the kettlebell on your lower abs while doing the bridge. You can also use plates, a dumbbell or even a barbell.

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I’ve always done bridges and get zero out of doing them without a weight, so I hold a weight plate or a KB on my hips while I do them so I am lifting a weight.

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My trainer doesn’t usually add weight, but asks me to focus on using my hamstrings to lift up and then to contract my glutes (and whatever else I have to contract to stay stable) as hard as I can for 20 or 30 seconds at the top. Striking how exhausting isometric contractions can be.

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Yeah, now that that’s done, I think I’m going to go back to a more normal routine working in KB on shoulders on specific days.

At the weight I’m at now, it’s unsustainable to keep this volume up.

Going to kick S&S back to 2 days a week - one light day and one heavy day.

Also putting in snatches and cleans on specific shoulders day.

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I’m up to 8 sets of 20kg now. Taking 3 weeks to add 2 sets, but felt strong enough to go from 6 to 8 in 2 weeks. The single hand swing is the hardest part up to now but I think I have the full 10 within my grasp. Building up the bells does seem to impact workouts now and again though so need to schedule in full days off. I did 2 days of outside riding last weekend along with 2 days of bells and I probably should have skipped the bells as when you are down on power in the swing, I feel that your form can break down and a possible injury might be a swing away. Have to remember that for the next time. My fastest TGU is still around 40s. Just can’t get up and down faster safely. How is everyone else progressing? I’ll probably hang out with 20kg over the summer before trying to introduce the 24kg I think. No rush and that 20kg is still fecking heavy (I’d swear it must weight something like 20kg! :thinking: )

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Well done that is epic progress!

I had just progressed to my full workout with the 12kg and was starting to bring in the 16 and then finally got hit with Covid. And am battling with tight chest and huge fatigue so haven’t touched a KB in over 3 weeks. :cry: feel like I can start to reintroduce the 8kg and just do the warmups as a first step to getting back into it.

agghhh. sorry to hear that you got the big Covid (fixed - so sorry for that.). That sucks. Wishing you a speedy full recovery. You’ll get back to where you were pretty quick I’m sure. Keep fighting!

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Where I come from, that would mean something else and I had to do a double-take of @DameLisa message :scream:

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Hahaha

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I’m glad you can see the humour in it but I had genuine concern for a moment :face_with_peeking_eye::+1:

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I keep a regular eye out for it given it took my mum and my Dad has had 2 bouts with it.

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