I put the bell down after my set and slumped into the patio
chair. I always keep the patio chair real close when I'm doing
my high rep swings because these sets make walking a bit tough.
I panted so hard from the exertion that I had to stomp my feet
on the ground a few times to distract myself from the pain in
my lungs. I had just completed 230 overhead swings with my 1 pood
bell. A new personal record.
Lifting heavy is always impressive. But for sheer "enjoy
the pain" type suffering, I find nothing more grueling than
grabbing a kettlebell and swinging it as many times as I can.
When I got my first 1 pood KB, I set a goal to do 200 consecutive
swings with no rest. I have blasted through this record, and now
pursue grander vistas (300 swings…).
Why 200 Swings/Snatches?
Okay, besides Discussion Site bragging rights. For me, the answer
is clear as day. Heart disease runs in my family. And heart disease
can sneak up on you. I have an uncle whose coronary arteries went
from completely clear to 50% blocked in two years!!! Scary stuff.
Clarence Bass quoted a study published March 14, 2002, in the
New England Journal of Medicine in his awesome web site www.cbass.com.
The study, not surprisingly, reveals that exercise is the best
way to put off death. And the fitter you get, the longer you'll
live. "In both healthy participants and those with cardiovascular
disease, peak exercise capacity was found to be a stronger predictor
of death than widely-known risk factors such as hypertension,
diabetes, obesity, heart arrhythmia, high cholesterol, and even
smoking."
I figured I'd better get to work. With the awesome cardio possibilities
of the KB, I knew that some high rep goal should be in my future.
The cardio emphasis also dictated that I emphasize the swings
over the snatches. The reason being that the swing allows no rest
at all. While you can rest at the top of a snatch for as long
as you want, when you swing, the bell goes down in its own time-i.e.
no rest. So if I want to maximize my work capacity, the swings
are the ticket. The 200-swing dream was born.
Well, how do we get there?
There are two main obstacles between a trainee and 200:
· Muscular endurance-your back, hips, and especially your
grip need to be very well conditioned to perform this feat.
· Aerobic and anaerobic conditioning needs to be very highly
developed to see you through to the magic number and beyond. Then
again, 200 is so evil that you're going to hurt no matter how
much you develop these two capacities.
Let's overcome these obstacles one at a time.
Muscular Endurance
Well, there's no substitute for doing lots of snatches/swings.
Personally, I swing or snatch twice a week. Once on Sundays and
once on Fridays. On Sunday, I do high volume 1 pood swings. On
Friday, I do as many swings or snatches as I can with the 1.5.
This combination lends me both the strength and endurance to get
to the fabled 200. I'll detail my precise rep schemes later.
In terms of grip endurance, I found that the Farmer's Walk is
the best exercise for holding on to the bell for those last critical
reps. Just take a pair of 1.5's and start walking. You can also
do it with 1 poods, but you'll have to walk much further. Either
way, you will quickly develop the necessary forearm and grip endurance
to tackle 200. John Brookfield also has some great grip exercises
in his "Mastery of Hand Strength." Pick the ones you
like. Any way you slice it, increase your grip strength, and watch
your KB totals go through the roof. (And, of course, vice versa!)
The most evil grip drill of all is a little variation of the Farmer's
Walk that I cooked up a few weeks ago: Farmer's Walk with pliers
(bwa-ha-ha-ha!!) Hook up your one pood to a piece of leather strip
or some other sturdy flat band that can support the weight of
the KB. Grip the ends of the band with pliers. Hold the pliers,
lift the KB, walk out the door, down the street as far as you
can. When you can go no further, switch hands and walk back. Of
course, it helps to start with your weaker hand, so you develop
your grip evenly. You can also try pliers of different sizes and
shapes for different workouts each time. It's up to you. Some
pliers hurt more than others.
Palm skin? We don't need no stinkin' palm
skin!
Okay, if you want to be macho and build your calluses to the greatest
possible extent, you won't have any skin on your palms. The calluses
will catch on your bell handle and be ripped off rather brutally
and unmercifully. When I first started the bells, I went through
boxes of Band-Aids like Grant went through Richmond. No more.
Now I haven't needed a Band-Aid for my palms in months.
Big secret? Sure. First of all, hold your bell more with your
fingers. More tiring, but easier on your hands. Lastly, file those
calluses!! This may seem like heresy to the "real men embrace
their rough hands" crowd, but I've found that keeping my
calluses smooth prevents them from catching on the bells and getting
ripped off. Ironically, your calluses stay with you longer if
you file them. Oh, and the wife likes the hands this way better
than when they were "claws."
Aerobic/Anaerobic Endurance
Originally, I attacked the problem of developing "wind"
like any good party member-head on! Volume, volume, volume. There
are two problems with this method. First of all, Jason Clower
has detailed the risks of "volume-fests" in his "Kettlebell
Manifesto." Second, there are better and faster ways to get
you to your goal. Even though I've had much more luck with my
back than Mr. Clower, attacking the problem head on like that
just didn't work for me. I was never able to get over 162 reps
using kettlebells as my sole source of aerobic/anaerobic exercise.
That's when I came upon a book entitled "Heart Monitor Training
for the Compleat Idiot" (that's how he spelled it) by John
T. Parker. The book details how to increase your capacity for
aerobic endurance. Now, I know that many of the comrades are enamored
of Tabata sprints and kettlebell work. I also know that working
out non-intensely seems like wimping out. But that's just what
Parker tells you to do. Of course, you only work out non-intensely
every other day. The funny thing is, when he says to do a light
day, you have to be intense in your non-intensity! Specifically,
you must keep your heart rate below the "Recovery Ceiling."
What, may you ask, is the "recovery ceiling." Well,
it's 70% of the distance between your resting heart rate (RHR)
and your maximum heart rate (MHR). (MHR-RHR) X .7 + RHR. You need
to measure your resting heart rate first thing in the morning
with a heart monitor, and you need to get a good calculation of
your maximum heart rate using his prescribed workout. Somehow,
I think that a good bout with the bells will get you to or really
near your MHR. If you ever see your numbers go beyond the MHR
you calculated, you need to amend your numbers. Remember it's
your maximum.
So add in light days to your KB work. On these light days, you
need to keep a heart rate monitor on to make sure you're not going
overboard. And believe me, you'll be champing at the bit to hit
the gas and do a real workout. Don't. Pavel was right when he
said to vary your training loads. Parker tells you exactly how
much to vary the effort down to how many beats per minute your
heart should pump.
Taking this advice to heart, I (Bless me comrades, for I have
sinned) started riding a bicycle on non-KB days. You can jog,
jump rope, do light kettlebells, clubbells, or (gasp) girlie-spandex
aerobics (shudder), anything. Just get your heart rate up, but
not higher than your recovery ceiling. Console yourself as you
do these not-so-macho activities with a reminder that if you weren't
doing them, you'd probably be taking the day off of high rep kettlebells
anyway.
I also made Thursday an intense bicycle day. I go for a half hour
flat out on the bike on the same path. I try to beat my time each
week. A long term endurance workout also helps build the cardio
to undreamed of heights. I make it a point to tax my endurance
in several different ways (Heavy KB, Light KB, heavy bike, light
bike). This develops the endurance very nicely, and will set you
on your high rep goal in short order.
The Rep Schemes
There is a certain visceral dread associated with stepping up
to a chunk of iron just knowing you're going to do 200+ reps,
and how much it's going to hurt.
The rep schemes below will get you to or very close to 200 and
make it almost a game. Almost fun. Almost make you forget that
you've probably going to puke up a lung.
I've presented them in the order of difficulty.
Lucky 13's.
Do 13 reps, then 12, 11, 10, etc. all the way down to one. Actually,
this rep scheme only gets you to 182, not 200. If you still can,
do another 9 in each hand. What I like about this type of scheme
is that it gets mentally easier as you go along, seeing as how
you do fewer reps as you go along. Throw in nine reps at the end,
and you have yourself 200.
1-10-1
This one is like going over a mountain. You start off easy, it
gets harder, and then starts getting easier again. Psychologically,
much harder than Lucky 13's.
30, 20, 11, 10,10, 6,5,4,3,2,1
This rep scheme gets you to 200, but you start out with much higher
reps. It's very useful if you plan on eventually doing "The
Old Fashioned Way" because this scheme taxes your grip more
than any of the others above.
The Old Fashioned Way
100 one-hand pass the bell and 100 the other. This, for me, is
the Holy Grail of high rep kettlebell schemes. You'll really need
to do some intense farmer's walks and wrist rollers to build the
grip endurance for this one. When you finally get there and are
all proud of yourself, try not to think about that guy who did
over 4,000 one pood swings with one hand.
Take care of your health
So many people on the board complain about backaches that I thought
I'd put my two cents in. High rep kettlebelling could injure you
or it could expose some underlying physical dysfunctions that
you were previously unaware of.
I was having some back trouble several months ago. I thought it
was from the bells, but when I got it looked at, my doctor found
that I had one leg that was shorter than the other was. I got
a special lift put in to my right shoe. Not only did my back clear
up, but I was much more stable when I snatched. If you're having
any trouble like this, by all means see a doctor. Preferably a
sports medicine doc. Better still, try an osteopath. Osteopaths
are real, licensed doctors who are trained in manipulative treatments
that certainly helped me, and may help you as well. Just a thought.
Also, with this type of exercise you can injure you if you're
not careful. So, ease in to the volume. Hit the big volume sets
only after several months of conditioning your muscles. I know
that 36 pounds doesn't sound like much, but our Fearless Leader
and Comrade-in-Chief was injured lifting a 45 lb. plate. Read
Bullet Proof Abs for the details. Be intense, but be careful!
Best of luck.
Comrade Ari H. Mendelson, Esq.
