When I recently completed Easy Muscle A with double 16kg kettlebells, I was thinking of doing Maximorum Master next with double 20kg KBs for the Clean+Press and Double Front Squat and 16kg KB for the Snatch. Maximorum Master schedules double KB C+P and DFSQ with heavy weight 2 days a week for strength training, then eventually building muscle. Snatch is scheduled on the other 2 days for power training and conditioning. It looks like a great program for improving my double 20kg C+P rep max from close to zero to 10. With my double 20kg C+P max up to 10, I would be ready to take on The Giant, Giant X, or Easy Muscle A and thus take the next step towards achieving double 24kg C+P.
Maximorum Master recommends a 5RM (rep max) weight for the double C+P and DFSQ. After finishing Easy Muscle A, I tried to assess my double 20kg C+P rep max, did not feel comfortable double-cleaning 20kg KBs, so I assessed my single 20kg C+P rep max and found it to be 3. So obviously my body was not ready for Maximorum Master. To prepare for that program, I thought I would spend some time increasing my single 20kg C+P rep max and also improving my 20kg single front squat, eventually working towards DFSQ.
I then did some more research and realized Maximorum Master is a Level 4 program in Geoff Neupert's 5-level pyramid of kettlebell skills. My struggle with the single KB front squat made me realize my Level 1 and 2 skills may not be as good as I thought. Kettlebell Burn 2.0 is a program that Neupert recommends for working Level 1 and 2 skills and improving performance of the more difficult Level 2 skills such as the Snatch. Like Maximorum Master, it promises strength gains as well as conditioning gains, but at Level 1/2 going to 3 rather than Level 4.
With all this in mind, I tested my single 16kg strict press rep max and got 9 reps with my left arm and 8 reps with my right. Kettlebell Burn 2.0 recommends a weight that can be strict pressed in good form for 4-6 reps. So I could start it now with the 16kg, or I could wait until I improve my 20kg strict press from a rep max of 1 to the 4-6 range, then do the program with the 20kg. I decided to do Giant 3.0 with the single 20kg to accomplish this strict press goal.
So, today I did a Giant 3.0 preview workout - 1 rep of single C+P on each arm, with rest determined by autoregulation, for 20 min. I got into a decent rhythm, but somehow pushed myself hard enough so that my very last C+P attempt on my left arm, I barely managed to complete the press.
No comments:
Post a Comment