Giant 1.1: Week 3

My conditioning seems to be improving. Compared to last week, I did at least one more set per session, because I needed just a little less time to rest between sets.

My warmup was the supine and side lying positions from P3 protocol (Sore Joint Solution). For cooldown, I lay in an easier variation of supine from P3 and practiced diaphragmatic breathing - typically 15-20 breaths, until I felt my heartrate slow down to closer to normal speed. Then I practiced the Phase 2 exercises from P3 protocol.

I assumed I'd have to wait for another year or so before I could advance to Phase 2, but then I reread the Sore Joint Solution manual and found these sentences:

Some people really struggle with side lying, but supine and prone are relatively easy. In that case, move up to Phase 2, but start each session with side lying until you hit the target reps.

Turkish Get Up progress

This past December, I started practicing the Turkish Get Up again. Most of my TGU practice is on the days in between my The Giant sessions. I gradually progressed from practicing TGU with empty hand, to using an 8kg kettlebell, then the 12kg..

Today I tried the TGU with a 16kg kettlebell for the first time since I stopped doing Simple And Sinister back in May 2020. I felt a drop in my control of the KB. I got my 16kg KBs from Dragondoor. These days people call them hardstyle KBs. My lighter KBs and 20kg KB are competition style KBs. So the 16kg KB is not only heavier than my lightest KBs, it's also a different shape. So the cause of my control issues could be simply the weight but maybe the shape had something to do with it too. In any case, I switched back to the 12kg for TGU practice and did 2 more reps per side.

My main motivation for practicing TGU has changed since December. Back then it was to help me get better at the snatch. But now my motivation is just wanting to be ready for Kettlebell Burn 2.0. After I finish The Giant 1.1, I plan to do The Giant 1.2. 1.2 as a followup program to 1.1 increases the weekly volume to keep the muscle and strength gains coming. Next after 1.2 is The Giant 3.0 with the 20kg KB, which should hopefully result in my 20kg strict press rep max increasing from 1 to the 4-6 range. Next after 3.0 is Kettlebell Burn 2.0, a program that incorporates practically all the Level 1 and 2 exercises in the Geoff Neupert pyramid - TGU being one of those. If I want to practice the TGU safely with a 20kg KB, I'd better have a decent amount of practice time with the TGU first.

Giant 1.1: Week 2

StrongFirst has the Victorious course by Fabio Zonin on 25% off sale. Victorious is focused on the fine points of pressing a heavy kettlebell. My kettlebell training in the past couple of years has been mostly influenced by Geoff Neupert. I continue to be a fan of Neupert's teachings but I see Zonin also enjoys a lot of respect in the kettelbell training community, and so I've been curious about how he teaches kettlebell lifting. While Neupert is a former StrongFirst coach and Zonin is a current StrongFirst coach, each coach inevitably has their own perspective which may be useful to study.

For the Monday session I tried incorporating the Victorious pressing techniques. I realized why Zonin advises a rebuild from the ground up approach to learning and practicing the Victorious style of pressing. This style makes sense but it's hard to switch to it without putting in the time into the pressing techinque rebuilding process as advised in the Victorious course.

Also my left shoulder was feeling less stable and more irritable after trying the Mark Wildman style of kettlebell clean. It doesn't seem to respond well to the internal rotation that the Wildman style forces onto the shoulder. So for the Wednesday session, I switched back to the Neupert style of KB clean. Another thing I did to try to improve shoulder stability was, after the The Giant session, do 30 seconds per arm of waiter carry. This is just walking around with the KB held overhead with locked out arm. I got this idea from Steve Cotter and Dan John. Dan John in particular stated in this article that it does wonders for the shoulders. GMB has additional thoughts on loaded carries here

I also switched back to Neupert's style of KB press for the Wednesday and Friday sessions. Without practicing the recommended foundational exercises in Victorious beforehand, it didn't make sense to switch to the Victorious pressing style. Victorious appears to be intended specifically for improving at pressing a heavy kettlbell, and comes with recommended assistance exercises and unique techniques to practice. Victorious might be more useful for when I start pressing the 24kg KB, which at present is too heavy for me to press to full lockout. At present though I'm working through The Giant 1.1, with the intention to follow up with Giant 1.2. I do note need to switch to the Victorious pressing style now.

Geoff Neupert on testing your kettlebell repetition max

I've been following Geoff Neupert fitness programs for a couple of years now which practically makes me a disciple of his fitness teachings, so when this popped up on Youtube, I was interested in his instructions for testing your repetition max with a particular kettlebell weight. When I tested my 20kg clean+press rep max, I simply grabbed the 20kg KB and tried to do as many reps of clean+press as I could. I didn't do any of the 3 methods described in the video.


I'm not sure I understand the 5,4,3,2,1 countdown method. I guess I would need 5 different weights. The KBs that I have that are lighter than 20kg are 8kg, 12kg, and 16kg KBs. So I guess I can't use this method

The modified Delorme method looks easiest to understand. The instructions are to do 3 sets as follows: Set 1 = 50% of old 10RM, Set 2 = 75% of old 10RM, Set 3 = 10RM for max reps OR new weight attempt for new 10RM. So in my case: Set 1 = 5 reps with the 16kg, Set 2 = 7-8 reps with the 16kg, Set 3 = Attempt as many reps as possible with the 20kg.

This is the 3rd method as copied from the video: Use some lighter than your old 10RM KBs and do 3-5 warm up sets, going progressively heavier and by feel on the reps. Make them crisp and make sure they feel LIGHT. Then use your new 10RM load and do 1-2 sets of LOW reps - like 1-3 to get used to the load. Then rest about 3 minutes and go for your 10RM.

When its time to test my 20kg clean+press rep max, I'll probably used the 2nd method above. I can't do the first because I don't have 4 weights lighter than the 20kg. The 3rd just looks overly complicated.

Giant 1.1: Week 1

The soreness in the elbows that I feel when I shovel snow or do any activity in which the hands supinate while carrying something continues to persist. One possible cause is allowing the elbow to be bent on the backswing of a kettelbell swing/clean/snatch. I like to think that I am not doing that, but to eliminate that possibility, I switched to the thumb-back style of the KB clean favored by Mark Wildman. Wildman has plenty of videos that show how he wants you to clean the KB but this recent video goes into more detail. As Wildman states in his videos, the purpose of turning the thumb back for the backswing, it is it forcces the arm to stay straight on the backswing. The tradeoff is that it also takes the shoulder into internal rotation. The internal rotation was uncomfortable for my shoulder the first time I tried Wildman's style, which is why I adopted Geoff Neupert's style in the first place. Neupert teaches the clean with the KB handle held at a diagonal, so the thumb points diagonally, which avoids internal shoulder rotation, but places more responsibility on the trainee to pay attention to the arm being straigth on the backswing.

As I anticipated, my volume under The Giant 1.1 has been higher than under The Giant 2.0. I did 40 or more total reps per workout under 1.1, compared to under 40 reps per workout under 2.0. The Giant 2.0 is built on ladder reps, which allows some people to do higher volume, depending on the person's conditioning. The manual for The Giant suggests doing 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, then optionally 2.0 for people like me with low endurance. For people with good endurance, the option of skipping the 1.x programs and going straight to 2.0 is suggested. I understand now why the manual makes these recommendations.

Continuing The Giant KB training but switching fro double KB to single KB work

My low back still feels fine after the snow shoveling session that interrupted my kettlebell training midweek. I think working on my shoveling technique, followed by the P3 session for cooldown/restoration helped my low back keep feeling good.

My previously injured shoulder however continues to have intermittent soreness. Being able to lock out both arms in the double KB press has protected the shoulders to an extent. But stacking the locked-out arms on top of the shoulders and lats has been a struggle. While my overhead reaching mobility has improved over the last 12 months, it hasn't improved enough to allow me to lock out both arms without too much arch in the upper back.

According to Geoff Neupert's 5-level pyramid, all double KB training is at Level 4 and above.

For those who have the mobility to practice double KB clean + press safely, the advantages of double KB C+P over single KB C+P include more load for the lower body/posterior chain, potentially greater muscle gain, and time savings from working both arms simultaneously in every set. It was for these reasons I sort of rushed into double KB training, without thinking too much about the consequences of jumping to Level 4 without properly working through Levels 1-3.

However, I decided to continue Giant style training but with single instead of double KB. I believe I can still stimulate muscle and strength gains training The Giant style with single KB, with less risk to my shoulders. While Mark Wildman teaches KB technique a little differently than Geoff Neupert, I think he might be right about people needing a significant amount of time practicing single KB C+P before taking on double KB C+P, because it just takes time for tendons and ligaments to adapt to the top position of the press. This and other thoughts by Wildman can be found in his video on how KBs can fix rounded shoulders

Furthermore, I'm switching from Giant 2.0 to Giant 1.1. Giant 1.1 programming is based on straight sets. 2.0 is based on ladder sets. I had believed that ladder sets would always produce more volume than straight sets. I've realized that this is not always true. Trainees don't have good endurance need more rest between sets compared to trainees with good endurance. Thus, trainees with good endurance can do more volume in one workout, and take better advantage of ladder sets. In other words, my volume was just under 40 total reps per Giant 2.0 session. I believe my volume will be higher doing 1.1 compared to 2.0.

The goal I'm working towards is still the same - to be able to strict press the 20kg KB for at least 4 reps. An intermediate goal before that is to be able to clean and press the 20kg for at least 5 reps. I believe this is doable because I can C+P the 20kg for 3 reps already. The road to get there is:

1. Train under Giant 1.1 until I can C+P the 20kg KB for 5 reps, or until I've done 1.1 for 4 weeks, then train under Giant 1.2 until the 5-rep C+P is achieved
2. Train under Giant 3.0 with the 20kg KB. This should get me to the 4 rep minimum strict press goal.

Piano activities

Persistent golfer's elbow issues have combined with my growing interest in improving my piano playing to spend less time playing/practicing the guitar and more time on my newly acquired Kawai ES-920 digital piano. I've taken some measures to address the golfer's elbow, which I may post about elsewhere. The majority of my piano activities have been focused on working through the updated Jazz Piano Jump Start course on Open Studio.

One of my supplemental activites is learning the electric piano part for "Josie" thanks to this video:


Great series of articles related to playing solo arrangements of song and/or accompanying a singer on piano:

How to Transform a Lead Sheet Into a Performance

10 Great Arpeggios for Left and Right Hand

How to Create Flowing Keyboard Accompaniments

The Basics of Stride Piano
I'm working through the updated Jazz Piano Jump Start. I'm enjoying the emphasis on GPS compared to the original version. An area of improvement would be the workbook for Week 5. Adam plays something that doesn't match the onscreen notation which throws me off. I think I understand why the etude is just a chord chart instead of written out like the etudes in the earlier weeks - the idea is to encourage the student to improvise the rhythm. We used to be able to ask questions in the original version of Jazz Piano Jump Start. Now you have to subscribe to Pro membership or something