1000 swing Tuesday; workout "m" plus Sunday Finisher (Tracy's ballistic wildcard!)

Youtube would not let me post workout "m" in it's entirety so I divided it into two parts.  If you repeat part 1 it will give you a 30 min swing workout.  I did this workout for my friend "m" and the intention for her to use a 10kg for part 1, then repeat it with a 12kg and finish the entire workout, part 1 and 2 with the heavier bell.  This may be a good opportunity for you to use this workout to increase your strength for one hand swings (10/10) too :)



(part 1)
10 2 hd sw x 2 sets (15/15)
20 2 hd sw x 1 set
10 tr x 2 sets
20 transfer swings x 1 set
5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets
5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set
10 R x 1 set
10 L x 1 set
10 R/ 10 L x 1 set (part 1 video ends here, repeat these first 12 sets one more time through before moving on for a 30 minute workout)


(part 2)
10 R/ 10 L + 10 R/ 10 L = 40 reps ( 1 min work/1 min rest)
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/5 L
10 R/ 10 L + 20 tr
10 R/ 10 L
10 R
10 L
5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/ 5 L x 1 set
5 R/5 L x 2 sets 
20 transfer swings
10 tr x 2 sets
20 2 hd swings
10 2 hd swings x 2 sets

whew!  440 swings, 22 min (or 600, 30 min if you repeat the part 1)

first 600

same as the start of workout "m"
10 2 hd sw x 2 sets (15/15)
20 2 hd sw x 1 set
10 tr x 2 sets
20 transfer swings x 1 set
5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets 
5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set
10 R x 1 set
10 L x 1 set
10 R/ 10 L x 1 set (160 reps)
now sets of 30 reps
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L
10 R/ 10 L + 10 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 10 2 hd sw (30 x 3 sets = 90 reps)
now sets of 40
10 R/ 10 L + 10 R/ 10 L = 40 reps ( 1 min work/1 min rest)
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L + 5 R/5 L
10 R/ 10 L + 20 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 20 2 hd swings (40 x 4 sets = 160 reps)
back to sets of 30
10 R/ 10 L + 10 2 hd sw
10 R/ 10 L + 10 tr
10 R/ 10 L + 5 R/ 5 L (30 x 3 sets = 90 reps
back to 1 set of 20, two sets of 10 (downhill progressive swing ladder)
10 R/ 10 L x 1 set
10 R x 1 set
10 L x 1 set
5/5 + 5/5 x 1 set
5 R/ 5 L x 2 sets
20 transfer swings x 1 set
10 tr x 1 sets
20 2 hd sw
10 2 hd sw x 1 sets (160 reps)

total 640 swing reps, 32 min

honest mistake....I forgot when we went slightly over 30 min. I made some cuts and only completed one set each of 10 tr and 10 2 hd sw.

Most mornings, as I drive to teach class I start thinking only about the "theme" of our training that day.  This last Tuesday in June the theme was 40 rep sets, so the goal was to work up to one minute long swing sets.  How I get my class there depends on who I know will be in attendance and base the workloads so everybody can scale and successfully complete most, if not all of the work sets.

Tuesday is becoming what I call "1000 swing Tuesday".  So we started out the morning with a 600 + swing rep version of "m"'s workout knowing I would repeat it, or some of it to video tape and post for my friend.  In this workout we worked our way up to sets of 40 but had many sets of 10 (short work to short rest), as well as many sets of of 20 rep (the first workout even had sets of 30 reps), which increase in difficultly on a more progressive level.

I've never done this exact workout, and that's what I so LOVE about my job!  After almost 10 years of teaching and leading classes, with the average of 5-6 groups a week, I can still, and will forever be able to, create brand new and fun workouts using only the kettlebell swing, it's variations and intervals.  Gosh, I'm set for life!

Sunday's workout was a whole different ball game!  7:15 starts out with heavy presses, and some complexes, moves on at 8:00 for GS practice....and these days it's minimal :( ...then ends with my "ballistic wildcard"!  It's a simple and hard way of doing 40-45 minutes of ballistics in half the time!  This past weekend the BW was as follows:

10 - 1 snatch ladder (110 snatches)
10-1 two hand swing/squat ladder (55 swings, 10 squats)
10-1 one hand swing ladder (110 1 hd swings)
x 2 = 220 snatches, 330 swings, 20 squats



I knew I did not want to do two rounds with the 16kg.  I had already pressed earlier in the morning and did a set of 100 snatches with the 16kg comp bell, but the 14kg would have been a little too easy, especially for swings and squats....but not after completing one full round with the 16kg!  So that's what I did. I did the first round with the 16kg, the second with the 14kg and only screwed up the counting a couple of times!  I actually did about 10 more swings in the first round w/16kg....but who's counting?



It took me approx under 5 min to complete the snatch ladders, a little over 2 min for the sw/sqt ladders and the same for the one swing ladders.  Meg used a variety of weights for each set, which is also an option.  You may choose to snatch light, swing and squat heavy, or visa versa...will you try it?  And what's your planned strategy?

Enjoy.

This should take about 10 minutes per round if done continuous, but there are no rules about putting the bell down at any point and as many times as you might need to complete the round.

Thursday 6/11

Currently on Sunday mornings I've been training a heavy single bell press. This past weekend I completed 5 sets of 3 rep , R/L w/18kg.  My goal is 5 x 5 w/18kg, which should not be a problem at the end of this particular cycle which ends for me in 2 weeks.

This morning was my double press maintenance program, 5 sets of 3 16kg double presses, and in between sets I practice my pull ups.  Since this part of the program is not timed using intervals, we take turns completing our presses and help each other with hangs and pull ups for the first 30 minutes.  This time might also include heavy double cleans before moving onto the second 30 minutes of our hour of training.

swings.  heavy.  doubles.

10 2 hd sw x 4 sets 16kg single
10 x 4 sets 16kg double
5 2 hd + 5 R
5 2 hd + 5 L
repeat x 2 = 10 x 4 16kg
10 x 4 dbl 16kg's
5/5 x 4 16kg
10 x 4 dbl 16kg's
10 R
10 L
repeat x 2 = 10 x 4 16kg
10 x 4 dbl 16kg's
repeat the next 8 sets x 3
10 R
10 L
repeat x 2 = 10 x 4 16kg
10 x 4 dbl 14kg's

28 minutes
560 swings
280 single 16kg
120 dbl 16kg's
80 dbl 14kg's

GS practice
TALC, 10kg's
2 sets, 3 min each
14kg snatch
4 min (2/2) and it just about killed me :)

Off to CFPA for 20kg goblet squats, 400m run, 15 burpees x 4 rounds.  6 ring dips (assisted) 12 32kg swings OTM x 6

1:00-2:00 Ruck Walk w/Mark, 15lb pack.

"100 Snatch Transfers" Sunday Finisher

Sunday Workout

My strict press training is moving along, as programmed, and I'm quite happy actually.  In the past I had never had any real goals with my strict press, mostly snatch goals, reps / weight / time, because I tend to enjoy the ballistics, which I'm fairly good at, as opposed to the grinds, which I'm not naturally good at!  (I don't have any video mostly because I train with a couple of other people and it can be awkward and time consuming to set up the camera in the middle of workouts)

Currently I'm alternating my strict press training cycles between a single bell press, and double bell press.  I completed my 5x5 double 16kg program (double presses on Thursday mornings), and so I only train "maintenance" double 16kg reps, 3 x 5 every week, and I increase the loading of my single bell press on Sunday.  Yesterday I completed 3x5 w/18kg, easily on my R, and not so bad on my L.  I'm confident I'll get my 5x5, as scheduled in two weeks time.  Once that goal is completed I'll maintain my 18kg single press (3x3) while increasing my double 18kg press.

I'll program the next double bell press cycle starting with 3 sets, 1 - 3 reps each, and base it on how many I can complete, if any, at about 80-90% effort.  It is never my intention to press /push as hard as possible in any workout, except the last one, the one with the end goal :)

7:15-8:00am
5 min swing warm up
10 minute press warm up
heavy single press, 18kg 3 reps x 5 sets, every 2 minutes = 10 min
heavy double cleans, 20kg's, 5 x 5 OTM = 5 min
goblet squat, front squat/press complex "I go, you go" 10 min (40 squats/30 press total)
swings, 6 sets of 10

My training partner Matt finished his double press cycle w/18kg's yesterday so he'll be moving on to either double 20kg's, or a single bell, his choice.  He's also working toward the Strength Matters Swing Test, so that's the reason we ended the workout with some sets of 10 swings (Matt used the 20kg).  We would have done more, but we simply ran out of time.  I could have cut the squats short, or not done them at all, but I was being selfish! I knew I still had a ton of swings to do during the last part of the morning and this would be my only chance to practice some squat reps. :)

8:00-8:45am GS
double jerk 10kg's 2 min
double jerk 12kg's 2 min
swing snatch 14kg 6 min

I'm playing around with double jerks these days, but I'll write more about that another time.  I haven't been practicing GS regularly for a number of reasons, mostly because I'm lacking in inspiration, therefore I'm not really motivated.  Having that horrible flu for over 3 weeks, then breaking my toe, and  then having one of my training partners gone for almost 3 weeks all didn't help either.  It's no wonder the 6 min14kg swing snatch set felt as difficult as ever, but awesome at the same time because I was still able to do it after weeks and weeks of no practice.

8:45-9:30
740 16kg swings 33 min
16kg snatch transfers, 6 min, 100 snatches, 100 swings (video above)

I started "Skypercising" with my friend Emily on Wednesday mornings, but she missed her workout last week so I tried connecting with her to swing during the last part of our workout.  Unfortunately we lost the connection 1/2 through the swing workout, but she later messaged me to tell me she continued to finish on her own!  The connection in the garage gym is sketchy but I'm happy we were able to get some work done at all :)

I swung really heavy last Sunday so anything above the 16kg was off limits, besides the 16kg for over 700 swings in about 1/2 hour is plenty challenging enough!  All of the swing sets were done in sets of 10 or 20 reps, with equal or less rest than work.

Now the Finisher..... 100 snatches, 100 swings ("snatch transfers")

We had about 12 minutes left on the clock so it had to take less than that, and besides, last Sunday the Finisher took me over 20 minutes, so again, no need to go that long this week.  I needed to snatch "heavy" (snatch test weight), but two hours of training already completed is not the time for hundreds of snatch reps. I knew 100 would be plenty....but how to make them just a wee bit harder?  Do them one at a time!  No more than one rep at a time means that you have to transfer R/L each rep with a swing! 100 snatches, 100 swings, for time!

I finished in 6 minutes exactly.  If I calculate correctly, based on 40 swings per 60 seconds (2.5 min.), that leaves 3.5 min it took me to do 100 snatches.  I'm pretty pleased with that result....could I have gone faster?  Maybe just a little, but I haven't trained specifically to improve that particular goal.  If I were to want to I would guess being able to shave 30 seconds off would be top speed (with that weight).

"snatch transfers" have always been part of my snatch progressions, similar in the same way "swing transfers" are part of my swing progressions.  I've calculated that one can complete 16 snatch transfers (8 R/ 9 L) in 1 min, on average.  Taking that experience into account it would have taken 6 min, 15 seconds at a "normal pace", so I did actually shave off 15 seconds, which ain't bad!

Sunday Finisher 20 x 30 in 20!

I love my Sunday morning workouts!  Sunday is pretty much just for me because I do everything I want to, as long as I want to, and if I'm really lucky a few of my students join me!  The workout is broken up into three 45 minute sessions starting at 7:15am.

The first is focused on heavy presses after a quick warm up, and usually finishes with a much faster paced "I go, you go" swing / clean / squat / press complexes that may or may not be done with double bells.  This workout has the deliberate goal of increasing press strength which is why it's done first.

The second is GS practice.  If there is a competition date on the horizon the sets are programed accordingly, which hasn't been the case of late, so the practice focuses more on maintaining base levels of grip strength and cardio endurance.

The third is a ballistic wild card, and the last chance for me to put the nail in the swing coffin!  Which is why I've started to use the concept of a workout "finisher".  Just swings, or Max Vo2 snatches, a variation of high volume snatch / swing combinations.  If I include squats, it's not for strength so they're mostly done with lighter weights and higher reps, with the focus more about increasing and maintaining hip/glute flexibility.

But to be honest, if and when I have to do this last workout by myself, which is rare but more often lately, it could be a good thing and a not so good thing!  My long time student/training partner Meg is a tough cookie!  She's capable of crazy amounts of work, hard work, and game for anything I could come up with.  A lot of times if I want to "test" how difficult something is, like the Strength Matters Swing Test, I'll have her join me in trying it out because if she thinks it's challenging then I trust it is!  In fact, she did the very first trail run of the SMST with me, 200 24kg one hand swings (10 x 20) in 10 minutes!  And neither one of us would be required to use the 24kg based on body weight, so that goes to show you how powerful regular and consistent high volume swing practice can be!

Recently I've been "testing" more variations of heavy swings, for reps and time.  Yesterday, on my own, when it came down to my last 30 minutes of the morning's training I knew 600 swings was going to be the minimum amount of work left to complete.  I had done plenty of squats earlier in the week, and I want to snatch on Tuesday...that left only swings (lol, "only"!)  Well, being alone, and without the energy of at least one other person, and already almost 2 hours of training completed, I could barely get excited about another 30 full minutes of swings!  So I decided to stay with the 600 reps, but get them done as quickly as possible.

I knew I wanted to do some 24kg one hand swings, but not kill myself, because it had been a while since I last did them.  I knew I didn't want to do all 600 swings with the 24kg because Thursday mornings are my heavy double swing training and there's just no need to do that much heavy training in the same week.  100 wasn't enough, 600 way too many, so I settled on 200 reps, 1/3 of the total.  It made sense to break up the total into thirds, heavy, moderately heavy and moderate weights since the goal was to complete them in less time, much less time, than "equal work to rest", which would have taken 30 minutes.

I wanted to do one hand swings for half of my 24kg 200 reps, and two hand swings for the other 100 reps and so I decided to do that with all three weights.  I also know that most times, for me,  the longer the set is in continuous reps the "easier" it feels (the more times I put the bell down = the more I haev to pick it up again!), so I would limit the number of reps in each set to only 20, and the rest period would not be timed, instead, random.  In my head I was hoping to finish around 20 minutes....it took me 22 min 40 seconds.  But this turned out to be a good thing because now I know I could have done it, if I would have paid attention, and this first result was me not pushing myself too hard.  So you know what that means, don't you?  Yep, I gotta do it again in 20 minutes or less (probably not less!).  So I'll wait a few weeks and repeat it with this new goal in mind.  And then....I'll try it in reverse!  Starting with the lightest bell, the 16kg, and ending with the heaviest, the 24kg!  I love testing out how simply changing an up hill ladder to a downhill ladder and visa versa can drastically change the effect of ease or difficulty of a target challenge.

Guidelines of this week's Sunday Finisher; goal of 600 swing reps under 30 minutes

3 bells, heavy, moderately heavy, moderate.
one hand swings for half of the swing reps
max of 20 reps per set, no minimum (you can do sets of 10 if you choose)
rest only as long as you need to between each set. 

I chose to alternate my one hand swings sets using 5 R/ 5 L x 2 and 10 R/10 L because this made it easier to keep track of the 5 sets of 20, and I simply didn't feel ready to do my first set w/24kg 10 reps at a time, I wanted to ease into it.....see, I told you I was a weenie when I trained on my own!  lol

Looking at the video I know I could have shaved off a lot of the rest time I took between sets, in fact afterward I was able to calculate in order to get it done in 20 minutes I can only allow 10 seconds, or less to rest between sets.  But it's all good and fine because now I have a goal based on how difficult this trial test was, and I have more to look forward to in the next couple of months :)  Hmm...I should give this one a name since I'm going to do it again....20 x 30 in 20 :)