7 pax met at the grassy knoll at the Fly on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for some Sweaty Bells. YHC’s plan was to introduce the pax to the Total Tension strength program that we completed recently in Area 51. Details can be found here: https://www.strongfirst.com/total-tension-kettlebell-complex/
After a brief disclaimer (maybe?), we circled up for a little instruction prior to the start of the workout. The first lesson: you need bigger bells. After that, we did a quick hard-style plank to get the feeling of the total body tension you’re supposed to be trying to achieve during this workout. Next, I explained the four exercises we’d be using today: the clean, the overhead press, the squat, and the renegade row. We partnered up by bell size (with one set of triplets due to the odd numbers).
The Thang:
- Double clean x 1
- Double press x 1
- Double front squat x 1
- Renegade row x 1 per side – a renegade row is when you plank on the bells and row one, then the other
Each round, increase the press reps by 1. The goal is to get to 6-8 presses before coming back down by one rep per round. If it’s too easy, you should increase the weight for the next workout.
The finisher: 100 double swings in sets of 10-25
- During the downtime during the partner work, we
discussed other kettlebell resources and exercises. Some good training cues can
be found in the following video from Strongfirst: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQEFc6rSKvA
- Swing: 0:00 of the above video
- Clean: 2:17
- Press: 3:02
- Squat: 4:02
- Snatch: 4:42
- I’d also recommend getting the book, Enter the Kettlebell: https://www.amazon.com/Kettlebell-Strength-Secret-Soviet-Supermen/dp/0938045695
- The above program is intended to be run for 6 weeks with 3 workouts a week. It should take a little under 45 minutes, so it’s great for an F3 workout. Alternate pyramiding the presses and the squats while keeping all other exercise reps at 1. Finish press days with the 100 double swings. Finish the squat days with 5:00 of single arm snatches. The goal for the snatches is to complete 100 good reps with a 24kg bell.
- Read more about the program and get some helpful
links to the total tension exercises in the following few backblasts from Tiger
Rag:
- Press pyramid BB: http://f3southcharlotte.com/2019/10/07/get-tight-get-strong/
- It’s always great to work out with the F3 NOLA pax when I’m in town visiting family. Thanks to RY for the invitation to Q and thanks to the pax for following my lead. If you’re ever looking for some weinke ideas, check out some of the backblasts from our Area 51 workout, Meathead: http://f3southcharlotte.com/category/meathead/ Also feel free to reach out to me at weustis@gmail.com with any questions. I’m not an expert, but I play one in F3.
