Sinister Swing Ladder Cycle

Before I get into this swing workout let me preface this training post with a couple of things.

#1 This particular Sinister routine is designed for advanced kettlebell athletes, but in no way is it NOT scalable to any and every level.  I would never suggest anyone do this before establishing an "equal work to equal rest" ratio of interval training using the kettlebell swing.  AND once established I encourage training the Sinister routine with only one bell multiple times before moving on to a ladder, especially a ladder that includes this kind of increase in weights.

#2  Being at an advanced level you should know how to scale it!  Although these are my exact numbers doesn't mean they are your exact numbers!  In fact, I may change the routine slightly as the weeks go by, paying attention to the total workloads of my other training and schedule.  This is a template.

#3 I trained for my 20kg snatch test using a heavy swing program, not a heavy snatch program.  My ultimate goal is to do the snatch test with the 24kg (there, I said it), but beforehand I need to lay some serious groundwork.  I need to test the 20kg multiple times before moving forward.  Once I finish this cycle, and maybe one more 4-6 week cycle, I will test the 20kg again.  From that point I will test it more often, maybe every 8-10 weeks, before seriously setting my site on the 24kg.

#4 I did NOT use my Sinister swing routine to train for the 20kg snatch test and I have yet to journal and post my training that lead up to the success with the 20kg, so before I do I wanted to train for it one more time using this protocol as part of the progressive strength and endurance build up so here goes, on to the workout....

For the details of my Sinister routine here is the original blog post where I first introduce this protocol.

http://tracysfoodandthought.blogspot.com/2012/09/if-you-went-through-this-years-san-jose.html

Sinister is basically an "equal work to rest" ratio, BUT reorganized in a much more difficult, should I say 'Sinister' way?  Most of the work piles up in the last two sets challenging your grip and cardio endurance before granting you a full 30 seconds to recover for the next round!  50 reps in total are completed in 2.5 minutes.  Sure you could do 5 sets of 10, but that wouldn't be as hard...I mean as fun!

Each set is started "on the 30 seconds"

5 reps
10 reps
15 reps
20 reps
30 sec rest

All reps are done with 2 hands, OR double bells at an advanced level.  Here is how I made it super advanced without making it super duper advanced!  lol

Using 5 progressively heavier bells, 32kg, 28kg, 24kg, 20kg, I used an uphill and downhill ladder alternating with a medium difficulty weight, 16kg for each "round" of Sinister.  A total of 8 rounds before scaling back to the last 4 rounds using one more difficult weight, but not THE most difficult weight!  That's coming!  Don't be in such a hurry!  lol

Ladder down

32kg 5 reps
28kg 10 reps
24kg 15 reps
20kg 20 reps

16kg, 5, 10, 15, 20 reps

Ladder up

20 kg 5 reps
24kg 10 reps
28kg 15 reps
32kg 20 reps

16kg, 5, 10, 15, 20 reps

repeat one more time

400 reps, 20 minutes

24kg, and dbl 16kg's (intermediate heavy weight, and now I've forgotten the exact distribution..yikes!)
4 rounds, 5, 10, 15, 20

200 reps, 10 minutes

A total of 30 minutes

This was the exact routine I shared with one of my training partners, Brenda.  My other Thursday morning partner, Maribel, used:

24kg
22kg
20kg
18kg
uphill and downhill
alternating w14kg for a full round

She finished her last 4 rounds w/20kg and dbl 10kgs (I think!)

Next Thursday we will pick up where we left off and for the next 5-6 weeks I will design the program that will end with mostly 32kg, 24kg and 16kg reps, eliminating the 20kg and 28kg, still only training 30 minutes.

If you are a strong male the weights I would suggest are

48kg
40kg
36kg
32kg
alternating the 24kg for an entire round of Sinister

OR

36kg
32kg
28kg
24kg
alternating 20kg for an entire round

Next Thursday, and potential progressions

#2 No downhill ladder, only uphill!  alternating with the intermediate weight, 16kg for the first 8 rounds.  The 4 final rounds yet to be determined.
#3 Back to uphill and downhill ladder, replacing the intermediate weight with the 20kg instead of the 16kg
#4 no downhill ladder
#5 Uphill and downhill ladder, geting rid of the alternating intermediate heavy rounds altogether.
#6 Uphill ladders.  Ouch!

This is just "theory".  I have not tested it so I'm completely open to the plan changing.  As long as the cycle climbs upwards over the set amount of weeks is all I care about.  I'm not training for the Sinister Olympics!  I simply want to challenge myself every week, increasing workloads based on what I did the previous week.  Once it's completed I will take a full week to 10 days off, training much lighter until the next cycle.  I may choose to test my 20kg, 5 min test again, or I may wait to train another heavy swing cycle, I haven't yet decided.