Iron Cardio: Weeks 3 and 4

All Iron Cardio work done with single 20kg kettlebell. The Classic sequence is 1 clean, 1 press, and 1 single front squat. Waiter Walk is Dan John style - walking for specified number of seconds with a single KB held overhead with locked-out arm.

10/5
Iron Cardio Classic 20 min. - 18 sets
1-arm swing x 5 - 10 sets

10/7
Iron Cardio Classic + Half Snatch 20 min. - 14 sets
Getting better at half snatch, although I had one sloppy rep on each side.

Waiter Walk 40 seconds - 2 sets

10/9
Iron Cardio Classic 25 min. - 20 sets
Waiter Walk 40 seconds - 2 sets

10/14
Iron Cardio Classic + Half Snatch 20 min. - 12 sets
Sore Joint Solution Positions 5 and 6 - mainly to reduce hip soreness after Iron Cardio

In the afternoon, 3 rounds of the following, each round rougly 60-90 min. apart:

• 3 reps/side of ring-assisted pistol squat
• 5 chin ups

10/16
Iron Cardio Classic 25 min. - sets
Waiter Walk 30 seconds - 3 sets
Sore Joint Solution Positions 5 and 6 - mainly to reduce hip soreness after Iron Cardio

In the afternoon, 3 rounds of the following, each round rougly 60-90 min. apart:

• 3 reps/side of ring-assisted pistol squat
• 5 chin ups

Brett Jones post on the StrongFirst forum about when to move up in weight for Iron Cardio. I believe the advice applies primarily to the single-KB Classic variation. When you can do 2 sets per minute - or one set every 30 seconds - you can move up in weight or switch to a more challenging variation. If you can do one set every 45 seconds with double-KB Classic, you can move up in weight for that variation.

Later in the thread, a recommended max of 60 sets in one session is mentioned - again applicable primarily to the Classic variation. The max may be lower for variations that have more reps/set than the 3 are in Classic. For example, Traveling 2s has 4 reps and Traveling 2s + Snatch has 5 reps. I'm not close hitting max volume in my Iron Cardio sessions anyway.

Iron Cardio: Weeks 1 and 2

All Iron Cardio work done with single 20kg kettlebell. The Classic sequence is 1 clean, 1 press, and 1 single front squat. Waiter Walk is Dan John style - walking for specified number of seconds with a single KB held overhead with locked-out arm.

9/21
Iron Cardio Classic 10 min. - 8 sets
1-arm swing x 4 - 10 sets

9/23
Iron Cardio Classic + Half Snatch 10 min. - 6 sets
Waiter Walk 25 seconds - 3 sets

9/25
Iron Cardio Classic 15 min. - 14 sets
Waiter Walk 30 seconds - 3 sets

9/28
Iron Cardio Classic 15 min. - 12 sets
Some half snatch practice

9/30
Iron Cardio Classic + Half Snatch 15 min. - 8 sets
Waiter Walk 35 seconds - 3 sets

10/2
Iron Cardio Classic 20 min. - 16 sets

I figure when I average 1 set per minute or better doing the Classic sequence, it will be time to change my Iron Cardio programming. This idea is based on the one of the Iron Cardio discussion threads on the StrongFirst forum, in which a 2 set per minute performance goal is mentioned for moving up a KB weight. I extrapolated from that bit of info that if I can do 1 set per minute, I should be ready to attempt any Iron Cardio variation in which I do 2 presses. Before I started Iron Cardio, my press rep max was about 2, so I knew I couldn't do any variation that asked me to do more than 1 press at a time. In any case, for Week 3 I'll continue with the program of Classic on the easy day, Classic + Half Snatch on the hard day, and Classic + 5 min. on the medium day.

Korean Ground Turkey recipe came out delicious!

Iron Cardio planning

I've settled on Iron Cardio as the program to do until I'm ready to do The Giant 1.0 with single 20kg kettlebell. The prerequisite to do The Giant 1.0 with my 20kg KB is to be able to clean+press the KB for 10 reps. My current 20kg KB c+p rep max is 2, so it looks like I'll be doing Iron Cardio for a while. There are other training options out there. Maybe one of those options would be a faster journey to 10 reps of 20kg KB c+p. That said, I like Iron Cardio because of the numerous options for customizing workouts, like doing only the Classic sequence, or Classic + Half Snatch, or doing Traveling 2s; as well as a bunch of parameters like training for time or for volume, training time if going for time, target number of sets if going for volume, and so on and so forth. Another goal Iron Cardio was designed to achieve, besides strength, is improved general endurance, which should also help when I do The Giant 1.0.

Today I did a 15-minute Iron Cardio session. I did 14 sets of the Classic sequence of 1 clean, 1 press, and 1 single front squat. After the 8th or 10th set, I felt like I was expending more effort on each press. Thus, I think a Iron Cardio Classic session for 10 min. rather than 15 would be suitable for the easy day; if I go with a easy-hard-medium scheme.

For my hard day, I'm thinking of adding a Half Snatch. A Half Snatch is also a Half Press, with the 2nd half of the movement being the negative phase of a Press.

Thus for my first full week of Iron Cardio I plan to do these sessions:

• Monday - easy - Classic - 10 min. Followed by KB waiter walks, then KB swings.
• Wednesday - hard - Classic + Half Snatch - 10 min. Warm up with KB clean, KB clean to 90 degree elbow position, KB clean to higher position, etc until snatch is achieved; lowering to rack hold each time.
• Friday - medium - Classic 15 min. Followed by KB waiter walks, then KB swings.

For week 2, I plan to repeat the week 1 routine, except with 5 min. added to each Iron Cardio session.

The purpose of the waiter walks is to continue improving shoulder stability as well as overhead lockout technique for press and snatch. The purpose of the 1-arm swing is to help improve performamce in the KB clean and snatch. Also, the Iron Cardio manual recommends practicing swings on occasion

The intention of these first 2 weeks is to ramp up my strength and conditioning. I have some idea of what to do for Week 3, but I'll see how Weeks 1 and 2 go. If I average 1 set of Classic per minute during the first 2 weeks, I'll swap in a Traveling 2s day to my routine starting Week 3. Traveling 2s would be a good way to acclimate to doing 2 consecutve presses in one set, as I'd only have to do that once every 3 sets. Thus it'd be a good progression towards increasing my 20kg press rep max from 2 to at least 4.

The Giant 1.2: Week 3

8/31
The Giant 16kg - 49 total reps - left shoulder still destabilized by the 3rd or 4th rep of the 3rd set, so that I had to do shorter sets than prescribed to finish the session.

9/1
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 3 - 10 breaths - diaphragmatic breathing warmup
Side Lying Level 3 - 7 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 20 neck rotations per side, then and 20 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - Hit all the milestones to advance from Level 1 to Level 2 in both Positions 5 and 6.

9/2
The Giant 16kg - 45 total reps - once again the left shoulder destabilized by the 3rd or 4th rep of the 3rd set, thus once again I had to break up the prescribed sets into sets of 2-3 reps. The shoulder was fine with the shorter sets, even for a rep total higher than 40.

Since I am unable to maintain left shoulder stability in the clean+press once I start doing the 3rd set in The Giant 1.2, I don't think there's any point in continuning. I suspect the shoulder will do better with lower rep sets with the heavier 20kg weight. So Friday I'm going to retest my 20kg clean+press rep max, then decide where to take my training, based on the result.

9/5
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 2 - 10 breaths - diaphragmatic breathing warmup
Side Lying Level 3 - 20 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 20 neck rotations per side, then and 20 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - Tried Position 4 sitting on 6 stacked puzzle mats instead of on the floor. Hit all the milestones to move up to Position 4, Level 4. Instructions say I can practice Level 4 with elevated sit bones so I'll go ahead do that. Position 5 Level 2 was fine. Limiting factor seems to be endurance in holding the position.

9/6
Clean+Press Rep Max test warmup - 16kg clean+press 5 reps, rest, then 6 reps - was going to do 7 but the shoulder destabilized after the 6th rep.
20kg Clean+Press Rep Max - 2
Iron Cardio Classic - 10 min. - 8 sets

I was disappointed about my 20kg clean+press rep max not having improved from 2, after 3 weeks of The Giant. That 2nd rep required so much effort that I knew I wouldn't be able to do a 3rd rep. It can't be helped. I wasn't able to perform The Giant 1.2 as specified, due to the left shoulder instability, and therefore I wasn't able to realize the gains I could have had from The Giant.

On the bright side, I was able to do Iron Cardio classic for 10 minutes without any hip soreness. The Sore Joint Solution sessions must have helped.

Thus, a possible path forward, from here, is to do Iron Cardio Classic for the next couple of weeks. To minimize risk of left shoulder instability disrupting training, I think I should start with 15 min. sessions, and gradually increase volume over time. Pushing the volume too soon seems to destabilize the shoulder.

To start The Giant 1.0 with the 20kg, I need to improve my c+p rep max from 2 to 10. Ideally I should train with the press focus example from the Iron Cardio manual. However, I need to be able to do at least 3 reps of KB press in one set to use the press focus example. I think once I average 1 set per minute, I'll be ready to switch to the press focus example as described in the manual. The key is to be patient and don't force my body to do more volume than what the shoulder is ready for.

The Giant 1.2: Week 2

8/24
The Giant 16kg - 42 total reps - this began my new training block of The Giant 1.2. The hope is that this block will result in an increase in my 20kg clean+press rep max from 2.

16kg KB Waiter Walk - 3x40s

8/25
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 3 - 10 breaths, 10 nods, 10 head rotations - diaphragmatic breathing warmup
Side Lying Level 3 - 7 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 20 neck rotations per side, then and 20 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - was able to sit in straddle with straight legs right away, but not with uprlight torso. I started leaning back my torso with my hands behind me. I used diaphragmatic breathing to pull up my torso, with assistance from arms

I reread GMB's article on hanging exercises and was inspired to try assisted single arm active hang. I was able to hang for 20 sec. on each arm. I then tried active hang and managed around 30 sec. I later repeated this mini-circuit. I've done a log of hangig in the past couple of years, but it was all passive hang to decompress my shoulders and stretch the lats. Single arm hang should deliver more strength and mobility gains for the shoulder, as well as greater grip strength gains compared to 2-arm hangs. However, I hurt my shoulder swinging on monkey bars years ago. When you swing on monkey bars, you're doing single arm hangs. So it seems best to work towards the active version of singel arm hang first, then try passive single arm hang later.

I also did 2 sets of 2 assisted pistols to go with the active hang practice.

For cooldown I did my usual hamstring mobility routine.

8/26
The Giant 16kg - 45 total reps

My suspect left shoulder kind of fell out of place on the final set of clean+press. Maybe it's because the muscles I use to hold the shoulder in place were too fatigued after the previous sets I'd done? I had to break up the final set into doubles and triples. I did doubles because the shoulder slipped out of place after the 2nd rep and hurt too much for the 3rd rep. I managed some triples because the shoulder stayed in place for the third rep.


8/27
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 2 - 10 breaths, 10 nods, 10 head rotations - diaphragmatic breathing warmup
Side Lying Level 3 - 7 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 25 neck rotations per side, then and 22 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - Did 30 breaths, 30 nods and 30 head rotations in Position 5, Level 1, so I can move up to Position 5, Level 2.

8/28
The Giant 16kg - 48 total reps

16kg KB Waiter Walk - 2x40s

The Giant 1.2 Week 1

8/17
The Giant 16kg - 35 total reps - this began my new training block of The Giant 1.2. The hope is that this block will result in an increase in my 20kg clean+press rep max from 2.

16kg KB Waiter Walk - 3x40s

8/18
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 3 - 10 breaths, 10 nods, 10 head rotations - for recalling how diaphragmatic breathing should feel
Side Lying Level 3 - 5 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 10 neck rotations per side, then and 10 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - was able to sit in straddle with straight legs right away, but not with uprlight torso. I started leaning back my torso with my hands behind me. I used diaphragmatic breathing to pull up my torso, with assistance from arms

8/19
The Giant 16kg - 36 total reps
Suggested training roadmap for increasing rep max on a target KB weight from 7-8 to 10+ for The Giant 1.0 readiness.
8/20
Sore Joint Solution practice:

Supine Level 2 - 10 breaths, 10 nods, 10 head rotations - diaphragmatic breathing warmup
Side Lying Level 3 - 6 breaths per side, rest as needed, then 15 neck rotations per side, then and 10 nods per side
Phase 2 practice - same performance as 8/18.

8/21
The Giant 16kg - 40 total reps


Hamstring mobility circuit - 2 rounds - hoping opening the hips more in straddle side bend will reduce hip sorness from single front squat:

1. Good morning - 8 reps
2. Elephant walk - 10 reps
3. Seated straddle side bend w/ 4kg plate on floor - 5 reps w/ 10s hold on last rep - felt fine despite not being able to start with fully upright torso, still got a nice QL stretch on top of hips opening up a bit more and hamstrings loosening a little.

16kg KB Waiter Walk - 3x40s

ZHealth Isometric Protocols for Strength and Hypertrophy

Strength protocol:

• Contraction at 90%, or higher, of max force at long muscle length for 3-5 seconds per rep
• Rest 5-10s between reps
• 5 reps per set
• 3 min. break between sets
• 3-4 sets

Hypertrophy protocol:

• Contraction at 70-75% max force for 30 seconds
• Rest 10-15s between reps
• Total hold time should be 80-150 seconds, eg. 3 x 30s holds = 90s.

The strength protocol has some similarities to the Promethean program in Paul Wade's book Ultimate Isometrics Manual, which was published some years before the research that the above video mentions was published. In Promethean you pick whatever starting load you like, eg. 50lbs. Then you try to apply at least 50lbs. of force for 4-6 seconds. If you can hold for 6 seconds, you rest 20s, and increase the load by 5-10 lbs for your rep. If you can't hold for 4s, you drop the load for your next rep. Total reps would be 4-6. Eventually, you'll raise the load so high that a 4s hold requires very high effort - you'll probably be working around 90% 1-rep max at that point.

I plan to train with the IsoMax after completing of The Giant 1.x series with single 20kg kettlebell. After completed The Giant 1.2 for the first time with single 16kg KB, I was able to press the 20kg KB for 1 rep. I then did a training block on the IsoMax using my favorite strength protocl at the simte, which was 6x6, also from the Paul Wade book. After that block, I retested my 20kg KB press rep max, and found it increased from 1 to 3, whihch was ok, but not the 5 reps I'd hoped for.

Thus when I complete The Giant 1.2 with the 20kg KB, I'll take a few days off, then test my 24kg clean+press rep max. If it's under 5, I'll try out this relatively updated strength protocol, as shared by Z-Health in the above video, for 6-8 weeks, and see if that raises my rep max.