In other news… I hit another milestone today. After some breakfast post “the Bat”, I headed down to the basement again and got a full set of 16kg 1 handed swings as well as a full set of 12kg TGUs. I’d been on 8x12kg,2x8kg for the last few days but pushed the full 10 home today. I’m pretty happy as maybe 3 weeks ago or something, I had to buy an 8kg bell as I couldn’t get the 12kg up. Anyway, the 8kg is great for the warmup Really happy with how my lunge has improved now also. Used to wobble up with 8kg particularly on my right leg, but now, I can stand up strong loaded with 12. I still make a few mistakes in the TGU on the way down so need to concentrate hard and keep practicing for a few weeks until if feels as easy as the 8kg does. On the swing, around the 70 mark or so, my left grip starts to get a bit troublesome but I’m finishing the sets of 10 so I think that will improve also. 2H swings are easy in comparison.
Have put on 1kg or so though as I’m eating more. One daily life thing that I have noticed so far is that I feel stronger walking up the stairs Sometime in the future, I may even be an average man according to Pavel. I’m gonna call that the 16kg TGU. A good few weeks away from that though I think. Party on
Seems to be an average of 20 seconds for one rep - that’s up and down. Up is a few seconds longer as I tend to hold at the bottom, regroup, move the shoulder, then launch into the rotational force from one side through the core to the palm, forearm, and elbow to extension. Then it’s a few more seconds to rotate up and stand. I hold at the top for a 2 count then start the downward moves. Has to be quick off the floor or 71 lbs isn’t going anywhere.
Wow. That is pretty fast. I can do the 8kg in about 40s. Currently, each rep with the 12kg bell takes me about 1 minute or a little over. Just enjoying the load at each step still and grinding my way through trying to be as solid as I can. Maybe this won’t work for the heavier bells but I believe the book also encourages a slow TGU. Currently the only momentum I have is when going from lying on my side to rolling over onto my back and bringing the bell up at the same time. I’m not resting much between each side.
At 71lbs/32kg, 20 seconds seems like an eternity. My HR is hitting high z3 each single rep. I do them back to back too. So one L/R rep is about 1:30 with transitions to the other side, etc.
I also can’t doddle on my right shoulder as I’m lifting through whatever injury I did about 12 weeks ago. So when I’m going up from the left, or holding it with the right, it’s not an infinite amount of time to single hand hold that weight.
I’ve taken a jump and booked a session with a SFG coach in my area to help me nail my form. I’m pretty sure I could continue on my own also but hopefully this will help me avoid some pitfalls that I’m probably blindly heading into (as usual full steam ahead). I am secretly hoping he says “comrade” a lot during the session
I’ve been playing around with timing. Shorter breaks, seeing how much I can roll 32kg days back to back for singles, etc
Best progress this week is with TGU. I am up to 3 sets at 32kg. For the last 3 weeks I have Also thrown in a 24kg and 28kg warmup set. So technically doing 7 sets of TGU and the results are insane. Almost owning the 32. Fully owning the 24 as I can do 10 TGU in less than 5 minutes. Almost owning the 28. Typically need a minute break after the third back to back set, but can still do all 10 in sub 7 minutes.
Also for the last 6 weeks I have been doing clean and presses working my way up to 4 sets of 5 with the 28kg. That has pushed the TGUs I believe. Shoulder problems that I’ve had for years are almost completely gone. Can’t wait to see what the next 12-16 weeks brings.
My first real race isn’t until April, so I think I don’t need to start transitioning for at least another 10 weeks.
@SirAlexanderLee well you know what I’m up to anyways … but hey, pictures speak a thousand words ….
weights are a foreign concept to me other than a brief foray about 3 decades ago. And my weakling frame doesn’t take well to them …. but progress is being made
Sticking with the simple stuff now and trying not to make any injuries any worse for now … but soon those weights will change a wee bit up. And maybe won’t need the 5kg as a heel lift forever
PS. the gym has had a refurb nearby, before someone asks about the shiny kit
Nice progress team. I’ve cut RIGHT back on the weights this week as have had a HUGE bike week scheduled. So huge that I bonked at 25km on my recovery ride today. Diet has had a big switch up (for the better) but I clearly burned through all my glycogen yesterday and didn’t top it back up enough. Still experimenting with the on bike fueling.
So this week have stuck to the absolute basics for strength, really just balance work. Off on holiday from Thursday and will put the kettlebell in the car. Loving how portable it is!!!
I met my SFG coach on Saturday morning. Used his home gym. He spent 3 hours of his time with me. Awesome dude. We worked on all the basics. I didn’t have the basic hinge right funnily enough so worked on that and the deadlift. Now I have the feeling in my body so that helps a lot. Turns out I have a pretty good swing with 2 hands. My 1H swings need work though on keeping my shoulders packed. I’ve moved down to a lighter 12kg weight again to see if I can sort that out. The important revelation for me in the swing was that my arms don’t do much. Initially, we were using a small weight and I was complaining that it was too light and flying up. Then he showed me how to get aggressive with it and it looked normal. I found that using the lighter weight is a good reminder of this as if the weight flies up, then you are using your arms too much and not your hip hinge.
The TGU was interesting. I had 4+ parts of it wrong. I had somehow misread the section on the sweep in the book and when he showed it to me, that part was immediately more stable. The main part was to fold my extended leg in while sitting so that the sweep is really controlled. I was propping up on my lowered arm, leg extended and doing a full sweep. The next thing was again shoulder packing at the start of the lunge all the way up to create a solid structure. I had the first part wrong also where my knee was bent but it was out instead of inwards. The other thing was strong structure in terms of arm positions and straight arms particularly the lower one which I was not doing right. Then lots of other little things. Amazing how much I had gone astray even watching videos and re-reading the sections several times. The other thing he emphasized was not to rush though any stage of the get up, the elbow, to the arm, the bent leg, the windmill. etc.
I’d already been doing it pretty slowly but had been skipping a little fast on the way down. Ah the other thing was to always raise your other hand up to guide the bell down at the last part of the get up.
Anyway, I learned a lot from him in the short time we had together. I was really exhausted though at the end of it and dying for food. Slept 9 hours that night. Next day, I lowered the weights and practiced looking for the same feelings. Today, I went up to 12kg in the TGU but they were my hardest yet. Concentrating on building structure. I love where my TGU is right now. Next thing is to get my 1H swings up to scratch as that is frustrating me currently. I may just go for another session with him again to concentrate just on swings as well as a check of the other stuff.
Reading what you’ve had to correct and I recall having to correct those same things, however my coach was the heavier weight. You know immediately that something isn’t right as soon as the weight goes up and you don’t want to fight against it. When I would get stuck on a part, I would stop, drop weight, and figure out the right movement. Videoing yourself helps a lot.
I haven’t actually checked what HRZ I hit for swings. It definitely goes up then recovers. My LTHR is normally around 165-168 and my max HR is still around the 192 mark. Have been know to race on the bike for 7 hours at 175 before as well.
For regular gym work (lifts) my HR barely hits zone2. Definitely higher for swings but will check. Have been sick again, so been doing nothing this week.
I’m back at rock bottom on the weights at the moment which is likely the reason. I’m a grinder on the bike too, can climb stupid steep with low cadence and HR barely shifts.
Work dragged me down there for a bit. Got my head above the water again now. Sleep goal didn’t take a hit but I had to change some 15m yoga with some even shorter stretches and the S&S goal took a hit by me skipping the warmup one day and pulling something in my back as a result. Gaghhh! Bed/alarm to swings in 60s is not advisable… I guess I was concentrating hard on that sleep goal a bit too much. So I can’t swing right now or at least I don’t think I should. Concentrating on yoga and riding, although 9 hammers had me questioning things for a bit as it hit the pain smack on. I had to ignore the out of the saddle bits. Last few days, I’ve been doing some griding lifts that don’t hit the back hoping that they will help my TGU when I get back on it. Incidentally, I did video my TGU before this happened and it took me 1 minute 25 for 1 rep. I guess I move as slow as an old man. Video was useful though as I noticed my upper arm/wrist didn’t look beautifully straight so I figured out how to fix that. Dying to get back on it now that I have got my time back again.
I’m about three weeks in the S&S plan.
Just love it, it’s simple to learn hard to master.
I’ve started slow due to a serious case of “cannot lift my anymore” but are now at 16kg swings and 12kg get ups.
As this is the first time doing strength training I’m still finding out how to incorporate it into my swim/bike/run sessions. So far it’s swimming/s&s at high intensity an bike/run low. Seems to work for now.
Nice work. I incorporate heavy weights work by loading a Suf plan and including advanced strength. Then I switch out the Suf Strength for my own weights work
Really happy with how my lunge has improved now also. Used to wobble up with 8kg particularly on my right leg, but now, I can stand up strong loaded with 12. I still make a few mistakes in the TGU on the way down so need to concentrate hard and keep practicing for a few weeks until if feels as easy as the 8kg does. On the swing, around the 70 mark or so, my left grip starts to get a bit troublesome but I’m finishing the sets of 10 so I think that will improve also. 2H swings are easy in comparison.
Sometime in the future, I may even be an average man according to Pavel. I’m gonna call that the 16kg TGU. A good few weeks away from that though I think. Party on 
anymore” but are now at 16kg swings and 12kg get ups.