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

Today's Giant session canceled by snow

I had to spend my weekday morning workout time shoveling snow instead of doing a Giant session with double kettlebells as originally planned. I paid extra attention to never lifting the snow-filled shovel without moving my knees, in hopes of preventing low back DOMS, which had hit me after both previous snow shoveling sessions this year. I did a bastardized version of the pole shaking technique I'd learned at a Mike Sigman workshop - start with the front knee bent, then quickly straighten the front leg while tossing the snow with the shovel. The toss should be to the left if the front leg is the left leg, otherwise to the right. By the end of the shoveling motion, the weight should be on the back leg with the back knee bent.

After shoveling was done, I tested my 20kg clean+pressn rep max with each arm. Rep max was still 3. I've only completed 2 full weeks of Giant style training so I wasn't expecting great gains from The Giant anyway.

I then did a P3 (Sore Joint Solution) session in hopes of relaxing the low back.

Giant 2.0: Week 2 completed and doing bar chin ups again

Last week I started Giant 2.0. This is one of the 4 programs that come with The Giant by Geoff Neupert. This one incorporates repetition ladders.

For the Monday session, I focused on the press portion of the double KB Clean + Press. I took the time to practice the zip-up with the racked kettlebells.

For the Wednesday and Friday sessions, I went back to focusing on the overall C+P movement, in which the KBs are cleaned into rack position, then pressed almost immediately. There is a store-and-release kind of action that happens - the cleaned KBs settling into the rack adds extra tension to the body, which is then released with the press, adding a little extra power to the press. The store-and-release action is one of the reasons KB practitioners can typically do more C+P reps than strict press reps.

My left shoulder started to bother me a bit. By Friday I realized that in my effort to improve my overhead lockout positioning, I was allowing my scapula to rise. So for Friday I focused on keeping my shoulders in their sockets

On my training days, I've been practicing chin ups, sort of in grease the groove fashion, in the afternoons after my Giant 2.0 sessions, as inspired by Geoff Neupert's video. When I first read his arguments about too much pronation leading to elbow tendonitis (golfer's elbow or tennis elbow), I felt dismissive at first, but upon further reflection, I thought this Davis's law that he mentions might be legit - maybe by doing a bit of chin up training I could get my elbow tendons to remodel themselves to tolerate chin ups. I used rings for chin up training on Monday and Wednesday. Rings allow me to start with hands in neutral grip, then pull into supinated hands at the top of the chin up. Then, later in the week, I tried chin ups on the pull up bar and was pleasantly surprised to find the concentric portion fel fine, using the spiraling technique. The eccentric portion irritated my right elbow, but not my left elbow. I finished each set with hanging for time with the supinated grip. Neupert says elbow pain from chin ups could be caused by not allowing the elbows to fully extend at the bottom position. Thus, hanging for time will hopefully lead to Davis' Law doing its work on my tendons, allowing chin ups to feel more and more comfortable; as well as providing a stretch for the lats

Switched from single 20kg Kettlebell Clean + Press back to double 16kg Clean + Press

I closed out my 2024 fitness training with double 16kg kettlebell Clean + Press under the Easy Muscle A program. This resulted in the ability to C+P a single 20kg for 3 repetitions, being able to press it only half way on the 4th attempt.

I decided to do another Geoff Neupert program, Kettlebell Burn 2.0, with a single 20kg KB. In order to do it productively and safely, I need to be able to strict press the 20kg at least 4 reps. I tested my strict press rep max with the 20kg and was able to do one rep, only being able to press it partially on the attempted 2nd rep.

Until the beginning of this week, I was doing 20 minute C+P sessions with the single 20kg to try to improve my strict press performance. I can do more slightly more C+P reps than strict press reps with the 20kg, thus I can do more total reps (higher volume) of C+P than strict press in a 20 min. session. Some coaches, including Neupert, advise practicing strict press instead of C+P to improve strict press technique. So a question to ponder here is which approach will be more efficient for achieving my goal of 4 strict press reps with the 20kg? My hypothesis here is C+P would be more efficient because of the higher volume. More total reps means more practice pressing the KB, which should lead to faster progress.

Then on Wednesday morning, I woke up with the idea of switching back to double 16kg C+P training to help improve my strict press of the 20kg. I'm capable of C+P training at much higher volume (weight x sets x reps in one session) with double 16kgs compared to single 20kg. I've found that high volume training works very well for stimulating muscle growth as well as strength gains. Here "strength" is understood to be the amount of muscle force that can be generated. Single 20kg C+P training should in theory improve my 20kg press performance because 20kg is heavy enough to force my CNS (central nervous system) to recruit more motor units, and to repeatedly practice motor unit recruitment. This training would focus more on strength gain as opposed to muscle gain. By comparison double 16kg C+P training could stimulate more muscle mass gains in a 4-week period because of the higher volume. Then when I switch back to single 20kg training, progress towards the 4-6 rep strict press should be faster because my CNS would have more muscle to work with. There

The choice of training routine with the double 16kg comes from another Geoff Neupert program called The Giant, which focuses on C+P. The Giant comes with 5 different training routines, each meant do be done for 4 weeks: Giant 1.0, Giant 1.1, Giant 1.2, Giant 2.0, and Giant 3.0. Giant 1.0 and 1.1 are meant to be done in order and are similar in design and promised results to Easy Muscle A. Giant 1.2 or 2.0 are recommended after 1.1. Giant 2.0 incorporates ladder repetitions for potentially higher volume (more overall reps) than Giant 1.2. Having completed Easy Muscle A recently, I figured I could do 1.2 or 2.0. I decided on 2.0 for the higher volume potential.

Thus I ended up doing Giant 2.0 sessions on Wednesday and Friday. The Wednesday session went pretty well. I was able to do 3 rounds of the prescribed ladder, plus 2 more sets for a total of 53 reps. I felt pretty good the rest of the day and the following day, though that night I got crazy hunger pangs shortly after dinner. I ended up devouring a cup of blueberries, a protein bar, and quite a bit of trail mix. The Friday session prescribed one more rep per rung of the ladder. I managed to complete only one full round on Friday. The highest rung was for the Friday ladder was 8 reps, which I barely completed, and needed more time to rest afterwards