A couple of days ago I received the following questions about my training and my justifications for the way I train. All very good points and I will do my best to answer as clearly as possible. I hope this is of help to everyone.

Here are the questions posed by David:

“Andrew, thanks for sharing your training with us.

I have a couple of questions. Do you do each days training in one session or do you divide the elements into a.m. and p.m. or some other template? It looks like tremendous volume for one session. (at least it would be for me).

The other question regards your overall training program. It appears to be generalist re: strength/endurance/power. And it appears somewhat intuitive regarding when you do what. By this I mean, it looks like you are developing a variety of attributes (speed/strength/explosivity/endurance, etc. and that you are pretty flexible in what you do on a given day. The constants appear to be GS, OLY, and strongman/grip work. when you do what appears to be secondary to simply doing each element at some point during the week.

So, am I missing a larger design here or did am I pretty close? Or perhaps are you in a periodization cycle that will change as time to a competition draws near?

I’m asking all these questions because of my interest in diversifying my own training. I think my “immersion” in GS while productive of improved technique and some rapid increase in #’s left some gaps in strength and resulted in overuse injury. Appreciate any insights you care to share.

Thanks for your time.
David”

Here are my thoughts:

1) My training days are completed in one session taking anywhere between 1-1.5 hours. My warm-up consisting of lunge walk stretches, resistance band stretching, overhead squats and light kettlebell swings, snatches and 1-arm jerk adds another 20 minutes to the beginning of my workouts.

2) My training is generalist, but with a purpose if that makes any sense. Let me explain. My workouts contain a lot of diverse aspects and I will give my justification for each:

• First off, my current goal is to reach the rank of Master of Sport for girevoy sport.

• My exercise selection loosely follows the Jim Wendler 5/3/1 program; Monday – Bench Press (I do weighted dips), Tuesday – Deadlift, Wednesday – Rest, Thursday – Standing Press, Friday – Squat

• With that stated, Monday and Thursday are Kettlebell Jerk days, while Tuesday and Friday are Kettlebell Snatch days.

• Along the same lines, I perform Barbell Snatches on Tuesday and Fridays. Barbell Clean and Jerks are performed on Monday and Thursday.

• After my general warm-up, I start my training with Olympic weightlifting. The full lifts maintain my mobility/flexibility and more importantly they excite my nervous system for the work to come. These lifts get my body primed to move explosively. Kettlebell sport jerks are repetitive explosive movements. I am capable of pressing the 32kg bells, but in order to compete with the best kettlebell sport athletes I need to be able to do 120+ reps in ten minutes. By becoming more explosive, I become more efficient with the kettlebells. I try not to go beyond 80% of my 1RM on my oly lifts.

• I have found that I can kettlebell snatch after any form of lifting, but that I am too tight in the shoulders (a problem I struggle with anyway) to perform kettlebell jerks after other lifting is too difficult for me.

• With this in mind, after Olympic weightlifting on Monday and Thursday, I perform my kettlebell jerk and /or long-cycle sets. Followed by the upper body strength lifts; dips, pullups, standing presses, rows.

• After Oly lifting on Tuesday and Friday I perform my strength lifts and finish with kettlebell snatches.

• I have recently made an adjustment to my Deadlift days by adding in the dynamic squat prior to deadlifting (Westside Barbell – 50-65% of 1RM on the bar, resistance bands make up the remainder, 8-20 sets total). While this will hinder my deadlifting for the day, I feel I will gain greater overall strength in the end. Time will tell.

• My kettlebell lift training has been rather intuitive and not percentage based. I do not know if anyone has a kettlebell sport percentage chart for progress. I am going to start charting my intuitive kettlebell lifting in order to see what percentages I have been using. I will then look to optimize my training once I have some better data.

• 2 weeks from a major kettlebell competition I will change my training to only kettlebell sport lifting and will perform both jerks and snatches on training days. I only train every other day during this time.

3) Limitations that I have observed working kettlebell sport:

• While kettlebell jerks work my legs, the strength in my legs diminishes if I do not squat. Likewise, I experience more knee pain when I do not squat deep. I believe quadriceps flexibility diminishes by not squatting deep which lead to the joint pain I was experiencing.

4) A note about my nutrition:
• I have found that my training sessions are much more productive when I consume a protein shake 1.5-2 hours prior to training along with a creatine supplement 45 minutes prior to training.

Growing up in the United States of America, team sports are the primary mode of exercise for many young individuals. I participated in ice hockey and lacrosse from elementary school all the way through college. Both of these sports, as do many others, require an individual to possess strength and stamina over the duration of the contest. Unlike classic endurance sports such as running, jogging and swimming, these team sports also require an explosive power component and some high-level strength. A limiting factor for many individuals in team sports is their ability to recover from one bout of high intensity activity to the next, over the course of the contest. Continue reading »