Kettlebell Thread

They're a great finisher or a great warmup. Have never tried them on their own bc I have a full home gym so I don't really need to. I also find that when I do them too often I get sprains in my upper back. It might be because
each time it happened I was doing 200+ swings 6 or 7 days a week on top of my normal lifting which already has a lot of upper back work.

That said I'll be moving cross country soon so I'll need to pack up my gym for a little while. Whats a good routine/split with kettlebells and oly rings that'll let me keep as much strength as possible for when I get back to normal lifting?
I have
>2x16kg
>1x20kg
>1x24kg
>2x32kg
As far as explosive movements, I can currently only use the 32 for 1H swings but can press, clean, and snatch the 24

>SPLAT
>SPLAT
>SPLAT

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I have and achieved Simple, and then Simple with a 36 and 40kg. I did it after my first round of Rite of Passage. My shoulders/press strength stayed as strong. My grip strength improved. It was very easy to stay consistent. Good program for BJJ and for just changing things up with the caveat I think you should be doing some form of heavy squat 2/3x per week, not only warm up squats like it says in the book.

I probably wouldn’t do this program if I had access to a barbell though. I did it during Corona.

Well from my experience (limited), I have done Simple and Sinister, Rite of Passage, Swing Swing Other Thing and also many cycles of Starting Strength and StrongLifts in the past.

If you’re already strong the heavy double kettlebell front squats and clean and presses really seem like the bread and butter for strength training with heavy swings and pull-ups mixed in for conditioning and back work. IMO most other KB exercises are fads or not as good.

To build overhead press strength you should do Rite of Passage. It’s in Pavel’s book “Enter the Kettlebell.” Or you can find it online. The goal is to use ladders/volume training to increase your clean and press strength a full kettlebell size (8kg) in 2-3 months.

Here is ROP in case anyone wants to try it out. This is copy and pasted from: oaklandsmostpowerful.com/the-rite-of-passage-preview

"The Rite of Passage Program"

This is a well-known press program presented by Pavel in "Enter The Kettlebell!".

Generally, start training with a kettlebell you can press 5-8 times, re-cleaning before each press. If you rest generously and as much as needed, you will be focusing on pure strength and neural adaptations. If you compress your rest intervals, you will focus more on hypertrophy (muscle-building).

Day 1 (Heavy Day)
Re-clean the kettlebell before each press.

Start with 3 ladders of (1, 2, 3) reps. The second week, do 4 ladders. The third week, do 5 ladders. Stay with 5 ladders from now on.

When you can do 5 x (1, 2, 3), keep the number of ladders at 5 and work up to 4 reps over the next 2-5 weeks. Rest as needed to keep every rep as crispy as the first. Typically, rest more before longer sets.

When you can do 5 x (1, 2, 3, 4), keep the number of ladders at 5 and work up to 5 reps over the next 2-5 weeks. Rest as needed to keep every rep as crispy as the first. Typically, rest more before longer sets.

When you can do 5 x (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), advance to a heavier kettlebell.

Day 2 (Light Day)
Re-clean the kettlebell before each press in the beginning. When you have developed solid technique in the clean, do one clean and multiple military presses from the shoulder.

Do 5 ladders, 2 rungs shorter than on Day 1.

Day 3 (Medium Day)
Re-clean the kettlebell before each press.

Do 5 ladders, 1 rung shorter than on Day 1.

NOTE** you can also do pull-up ladders of equal number in between your presses; I did it this way, and it was pretty fun. By the end of the program you're doing 75 clean and presses and 75 pull-ups.

This looks really good actually. Do you do it with one or two KBs? And if one, how do you balance the workload?
Also, having run this yourself, how feasible do you think it would be to do additional upper body work on training days? Something like cycling through dips and rows alongside the pullups to balance out all the vertical movement?

I did them for a while to reset after doing heavy barbell exercises for years. It was a nice reset. I did Turkish get ups with 54lbs, swings with 70lbs, and cleans/presses whenever I felt like it. I enjoyed it very much, and will probably switch to them once I'm done with barbell lifts. Maybe in my early to mid 30s. Either way, I love them.

I did it with one kettlebell and switched arms after every “rung” or set of every ladder. So 1 right, 1 left. 2 right, 2 left. Etc.

Doubles would be harder due but will give you more gainz. Totally possible.

I don’t think you’re going to have anything left for other training desu. Maybe the first few weeks. But once you get into 5 ladders of 3,4&5 it gets absolutely brutal. And the workouts get pretty long if you’re lifting heavy enough and taking adequate rest. By the end of my cycle I was hitting almost two hours on heavy day.

Again, starting with a few sets of heavy squats before the main workout, and mixing in pull-ups in between your clean and press sets, does make it much longer/harder but that’s how I recommend doing it.

Ok, so with one bell you're basically doing twice as many ladders since you're doing each side. Sounds hellish.
What weight did you start with and where did you end up? Right now I can C&P the 24 but can barely clean, much less press, the 32.

Hellish is a good way to describe it. But… it works. I began being able to press 28kg for 5 reps with difficulty. IMO this is the sweet spot. You want to start with a bell that you can lift (but not easily) for five. My one-rep max was the 32kg bell. At this weight, that is usually the case: if you can do 5 decent reps with one bell, the next 4kg size up will be your 1RM.

After eight weeks I was able to easily press the 32kg decently for 5 reps. So I replaced my old working weight (28kg) with a new working weight of 32kg, and my new 1-rep max became 36kg (barely).

If you’re trying to jump the full old school size gap if 8kg, the program is meant to make you strong enough so that when you take that big leap at the end you will be able to press the heavier bell for 1,2 or maybe 3 reps. This is enough to start a new cycle of the program with the heavier bell although it will take longer obviously

DESU I think it is much easier to press one kettlebell than two. Two requires more whole body stabilization and strength. But I’m 100% sure you can do the program with either.

>Do you do it with one or two KBs?
If you want to do double KB clean and press, try Geoff Neupert’s STRONG! It’s basically just ladders of double cleans and press + double front squats.
strongfirst.com/brutally-strong-with-double-kettlebells/