2025 Fitness In Review

January-Febuary

I suffered some low back pain after shoveling snow early January. I took some time to recover then played around with kettlebells trying to decide whether to focus on double kettlebell clean+press. I then found Geoff Neupert's video on when to switch from single kettlebell to double kettlebell training. There's a lot of great advice in there but one that applies here is when to switch from single KB clean+press to double KB clean+press. He says you should be able to do, I think, 10 set of 5 clean+press with single 24kg KB; then you're ready to start clean+press training wih double 16kg KBs. When moving to double KBs, the formula for what KB weights to use for double KB c+p is to add 8kg to your single KB weight and that would be the combined weight of the double KBs.. So if I achieve 10 5-rep sets of clean+press with a 24kg and I wanted to move to double KB c+p after that, the weights to use would be 24 + 8 = 32 kg total, thus double 16kg. After reflecting on the Neupert's advice, I decided to stick to single KB training, focusing on clean+press in particular. I have

Febuary-April

I wanted to try Kettlebell Burn 2.0 but the recommended KB weight is one that can be strict pressed for 4-6 reps or clean+pressed for 5 reps. The 16kg felt too light. The 20kg was a little too heavy but would be the right weight after I increase my pressing performance with it. Instead of training directly with the 20kg, I decided to do The Giant 1.1 and 1.2 with single 16kg.

April-June

This was the experiment with a triple wave variation of Paul Wade's 6x6 program for overcoming isometric training with an IsoMax/Isochain. The experiment was a modest success for my drag curl and a failure for my overhead press. I changed the lower body exercise in the middle of the experiment.

June-September

This was the Tendon Burn Count experiment, based on tendon stress relaxation. The experiment was a success from the perspective of elbow tendonitis. Lifting the mattress to change bedsheets no longer hurt. The experiment was not as successful from the perspective of strength gains.

September-October

By this time I still wasn't able to press the 20kg KB for at least 4 reps. So I did The Giant 1.2 with the 16kg KB again. After completion of the program I was able to clean+press the 20kg for 5 reps.

October-December

I finally got around to trying out Kettlebell Burn. I started with the 2.0 version. 2.0 has you doing a strength training segment for 15 min, then a strength conditioning segment for 15 min., then swings. I quickly got tired of having to do swings after already feeling drained from the strength conditioning part, so I switched to the Reloaded version, which schedules the swings on different days. I could have continued with Kettlebell Burn Reloaded to the end, so I could make a proper evaluation of the program with regard to fat loss and strength gains, but I couldn't stand that style of training anymore. The feeling of being exhausted and out of breath is one thing. I also had soreness in the legs and hip for days after a workout. I also hated doing Turkish Get Ups and partial TGU as much as the program asked me to do. The golfers elbow that was gone at the end of Tendon Burn Count came back too. So my decision to quit the program was prompted by the accumulation of these annoying aches and pains, lack of enjoyment of training, and a feeling that I wasn't actually getting strength gains.

December

I switched from Kettlebell Burn to Iron Cardio and enjoyed exercise a lot more. These last few weeks of Iron Cardio feel more like rehab/recovery than strength/endurance training, although the 20kg KB seems to feel lighter these days than when I first started training regularly with it. For my very last workout of the year, I tested my 20kg clean+press rep max with each arm. It turned to be 5, same as in October. So if I made any strength gains at all from Kettlebell Burn, followed by Iron Cardio, it would have been in the lower body and/or upper body pulling strength.

Tentative 2026 Plan

I will probably start my 2026 fitness journey with The Giant 3.0, the variant of The Giant designed for a 5-rep max weight. I want to increase my 20kg clean+press rep max to some value higher than 5. Iron Cardio training could probably do it, but I think 4 weeks of The Giant 3.0 will result in a higher increase than 4 weeks of Iron Cardio.

After completion of The Giant 3.0, I'll retest my 20kg KB. If my rep max is at least 10, I'll move on to The Giant 1.0 with the 20kg. If my rep max is 9 or lower, I'll switch back to Iron Cardio and do that until I can do the Classic circuit at a rate of 2 sets a minute. Some people say the 2 sets/minute metric is in the Iron Cardio book but I haven't been able to find it. I think they are confusing the book with author Brett Jones' posts on the Strongfirst forum, like this one. At any rate, achieving 2 sets a minute indicates a gain in endurance, and probably strength gains along with that. That should be a good time to retest my rep max again.

Eventually I'll achieve a 10-rep max and work through The Giant 1.0-1.2 with the 20kg

After completion of The Giant 1.2 I'll give my elbows and other joints a break and focus on overcoming isometrics, doing the 6x6 program on IsoMax. Completion of the The Giant series should have resulted in muscle size gains. 6x6 will train my CNS to utilize the increased muscle size to generate even more force.