The Giant 1.2: Week 2

I kind of took it easy for the Monday session

For the other 2 sessions I increased the training time from 25 min. to 30 min. to see if I could do more sets, especially the 9-rep sets. As it turned out, the extra time allowed me to do an extra set, resulting in 54 or more total reps for each of those sessions.

I continued doing chin ups on the afternoons of my The Giant days, for the purpose of conditioning my tissues for doing high volume chin up sessions in the near future. I didn't have a timeline for progressing from 2 sets of 2 reps to 5 sets of 5 reps, which is the most Geoff Neupert recommends. However this week I found myself doing 4 reps instead of 3 reps per set. I wasn't thinking of trying that 4th rep - I just found myself doing it.

For warmup and cooldown, I switched from P3 Protocol (Sore Joint Solution) to SCT4KB (Systematic Core Training For Kettlebells). There is some overlap between P3 and SCT4KB so the switch was fairly smooth. Sore Joint Solution and SCT4KB both promise improved mobility. SJS is more focused on movement restoration. SCT4KB is more focused on strengthening the core. Both have you start with diaphragmatic breathing as your base. I decided to switch from P3 to SCT4KB because if either one will lead to improved shoulder mobility and range of motion, especially flexion - the ability to put your arm straight up over your head - it makes sense to focus on core strength. So far it seems like SCT4KB sessions, as a bolt-on to The Giant sessions, take less time than P3 sessions. When I do a P3 session after a The Giant session, I tended to do the diaphragmatic breathing and head movement exercises for 2-3 body positions. SCT4KB has me working out of one body position at a time.