I had another run-through of our “alternative” Kettlebell Pentathlon this week and managed to extend my high score. The “alternative” or”penta-cardio” pentathlon operates on very similar lines to Valery Fedorenko and the WKC’s pentathlon, but subsititutes in swings and squats to try and make the workout a little more accessible, and a little more conditioning, and less strength.
My stats were as follows:
150 24kg 2H swings done in 25 reps/min over 6 mins (Score=450 pts/Total=450pts)
120 24kg cleans done in 6 minutes (Score=360 pts/Total=810pts)
150 1H swings done 13R/12L reps/min over 6 mins (Score=450 pts/Total=1260pts)
60 24kg racked squats done in 6 minutes (Score=180 pts/Total=1440pts)
5 minute breaks between exercises. Total was 1590pts. Next target is 1621pts, but even upping the C&Js to 24kg will only yield 1620pts, one exercise has to be done with the 28kg to get to the “extreme” category. Not happening anytime soon.
I had another attempt at the WKC Kettlebell Pentathlon today. My previous score was 1141, working with the 20Kg on all except the half-snatch (16kg), and missing reps on the Jerk (12) and Push Press (38). Clearly room to improve on those rep counts, but I also felt that there was room to pick up points with some heavier cleans, so I went as follows:
120 cleans @24kg to give 360pts
60 long cycle clean & press @20kg to give 150pts (total=510pts)
114 jerks @20kg to give 285pts (total=795pts)
108 half-snatches @16kg to give 216pts (total=1011pts)
At this point I was exactly 250 points short of reaching the much-coveted “extreme” points score. The 16kg kettlebell could yield only a maximum of 240pts, so, greedily perhaps, I started the push press with the 20kg kettlebell, needing 100 reps to give me the 250pts needed to get me into a new category. Unfortunately, it was not to be and I managed to reach a push press total of 83 reps and 207.5pts.
Rounding this down, gave me an overall total of 1218 points, a marked improvement on my previous best of 1141, but still with plenty to go to reach the “extreme” category at 1261pts.
OK, that’s not the best name, but it’s the best I can come up with right now.
I’ve really enjoyed doing the WKC Kettlebell Pentathlon, but it’s not for everyone. There’s a lot of overhead work and, notably, no swings. That’s not surprising, really, as it is supposed to be a gentle introduction into the Girevoy Sport way of doing things, but it does work really well for those of us who like goals, preferably *numerical* goals, and scoring systems. So, my other half and I wondered, “could we devise a similarly structured workout, but with less overhead work and incorporating swings, something more conditioning and less strength?”. And the answer is yes, yes we could, and I tried it out for the first time today.
The structure is the same as the WKC pentathlon: 5 exercises lasting 6 minutes each, separated by 5 minute breaks. Count your reps, up to the max rep limit, multiply them by your kettlebell weight factor, sum them over all five exercises and get your overall score and see how you do.
The Penta-Cardio Kettlebell Workout
Exercise (1): 6 minutes of two-handed swings. The maximum rep limit is 150, if you can manage more, choose a heavier kettlebell. You may set the kettlebell down on the floor as many times as you wish, but you must complete at least ten swings between each set-down.
5 minutes of rest
Exercise (2): 6 minutes of cleans. The maximum rep limit is 120. You may not put the kettlebell on the floor. You may rest in the rack position.
5 minutes of rest
Exercise (3): 6 minutes of single-handed swings. The maximum rep limit is 150, if you can manage more, choose a heavier kettlebell. You may set the kettlebell down on the floor as many times as you wish, but you must complete at least ten swings between each set-down. You may change hands on a swing or via a set-down. You may not do hand-to-hand swings continuously, you should aim for an even distribution of swings between left and right sides.
5 minutes of rest
Exercise (4): 6 minutes of racked squats. The maximum rep limit is 60. Thighs should be brought to a position parallel to the floor during the squat, knees should not be allowed to travel forward excessively (i.e. past the toes). The knees should lockout on the upward part of the squat. You may switch sides as often as you wish. Switching should be done on a swing, the kettlebell is not allowed to touch the ground. You may rest with the kettlebell in the rack position.
5 minutes of rest
Exercise (5): 6 minutes of clean and jerk. The max rep limit is 60. You may rest in the rack position. The kettlebell is not allowed to touch the floor. You may switch sides as often as you wish. You may switch on a swing or on a backswing.
Kettlebell multiplication factors are as follows:
8kg=x1.0
12kg=x1.5
16kg=x2.0
20kg=x2.5
24kg=x3.0
28kg=x3.5
32kg=x4.0
Scoring for men is as follows:
Men’s Standards
Less < 810: Low
811- 1080: Average
1081- 1350 : Good
1351 – 1620 : High
1621 – 1890 : Extreme
More > 1891 : Superhuman
Scoring for women is as follows:
Women’s Standards
Less < 540: Low
541- 810: Average
811- 1080 : Good
1081-1350 : High
1351 – 1620 : Extreme
More > 1621 : Superhuman
FTR I ran through the workout today with just the 24kg kettlebell, but it was a bit too much for me today and it kicked my butt as I severely faded at the end. Stats were as follows:
150 reps of 2-handed swings.
120 reps of cleans
130 reps of single-handed swings
58 reps of racked squats
A miserly 21 reps of clean and jerk
I was totally pooped by the end, but this still gave a score of 1437 and a comfortable “high” rating, which is in fact quite similar to my conventional pentathlon scoring.
Now, I just need some victims and some feedback … 🙂
No. 3 attempt at Kettlebell pentathlon, and a slight improvement – 1141, compared to Friday’s 1106. Stats were as follows:
120x20kg Cleans – 300 points (20s spare)
60x20kg LC Press – 150 points (45s spare)
108x20kg Jerks – 270 points (12 reps short)
108x16kg HalfSnatch – 216 points (5s spare)
82x20kg Push Press – 205 points (38 reps short)
Clearly I struggled at the end, only managing 82 Push Presses in the final set, but annoyingly, I am still working too fast for the first two exercises, the Clean and the LC Press. Trouble is, I am not actually convinced that slowing down those two exercises will result in increased energy levels later on. It should, I suppose, all things being equal, but my instinct tells me that it isn’t going to happen. I am actually tempted to go heavier on the cleans, to 24kg, in the hope that that may slow me down, but not sap me too much.
In general though, I am loving this workout, the ability to “score” your workout is terrific for comparison purposes, and for looking for improvements, and failings! Will probably take a few days away from it now, my upper torso and arms are definitely feeling it after three runs through it in recent days. Hopefully I will be able to come back to it a little fresher, and maybe a little stronger, next week.
Two days after my first attempt at the Kettlebell Pentathlon, I got high. More specifically, I managed to increase my score to 1106, which puts me safely in the “High” category (1081-1260).
My strategy was to use the heavier 20kg kettlebell for the initial set of cleans, then drop back down to the 16kg for the other exercises, but to try to max out the rep limits. That’s not quite how it worked out. I maxed out the 120x20kg cleans but I was still too fast and had 28s to spare at the end of the 6 mins. I then did 60x16kg LC Presses, but I was too fast and had 66s left to spare! Next, I did 120x16kg jerks and finished with 33s to spare. At this point I was a bit annoyed with myself for not timing the sets better, but when I then did the 108x16kg half-snatches I only managed to finish the set with 3s to spare, and to be honest I was certainly feeling the cardio at that point. The five minutes of rest til the start of the push presses flew past in what felt like about 90s and I started on the push presses. This hurt. Only 16kg still, but I was really feeling this and was heaving like an old steam engine by the time I finished, with a total of 115 out of the 120 limit.
So, barring the missing 5 reps on the push press I had fulfilled my strategic plan of using the 20kg for cleans and maxing out the other exercises, but I could not help but feel disappointed with my poor sense of timing on the earlier exercises. Completing 60 LC presses with over a minute to spare is daft, I should have either gone heavier, or simply slowed down to save energy – I would either have gained a better multiplication factor for using the heavier bell, or had a little more energy at the end to squeeze out the missing 5 reps on the push press! It’s a matter of getting that balance right between getting the reps and going up a notch in weight, but I suppose the answer is pretty obvious to me – if I can only gain 10 more points by adding those missing 5reps of push press, any significant increase in my score is going to have come from increasing the weight of the kettlebell for at least another exercise, or to increase the weight of the cleans to 24kg. Looking at the numbers, it would seem to suggest that the most likely candidate for increase is the LC press, but then since that is on the lowest limit of 60 reps, the weight increase actually gains me the least points gain in total, assuming I am still maxing out the reps.
I think maybe I’ll actually just try to do some 20kg LC presses and 20kg Jerks as 6 minute sets on their own, not as part of a pentathlon workout, and see how that feels.
For reference, the next strength category target points score is 1261, and bumping up weights in BOTH cleans and jerks would not be sufficient to achieve that, so my next personal target needs to be more points-focussed rather than “category-focussed”. Not saying I wouldn’t like to be in a higher category, obviously, but to be realistic, the numbers don’t suggest that it’s going to happen any time soon.
Today I tried the new Kettlebell Pentathlon from Valery Fedorenko and the WKC.
It’s a simple enough system of exercises done to a specified timing and scored according to your number of reps completed and the weight of kettlebell used.
You can see the video of VF describe the pentathlon here:
The five exercises are performed as follows:
1) 6 minutes of Kettlebell Cleans, to a maximum rep count of 120
5 minutes of rest
2) 6 Minutes of Longcycle Presses, to a maximum rep count of 60
5 minutes of rest
3) 6 minutes of Kettlebell Jerks, to a maximum rep count of 120
5 minutes of rest
4) 6 minutes of Kettlebell Half-Snatches, to a maximum rep count of 108
5 minutes of rest
5) 6 minutes of Kettlebell Push Presses, to a maximum rep count of 120
You may switch hands as many times as you like and all exercises are carried out with a single kettlebell. You may use different weights of kettlebells for each exercise; each weight of kettlebell has a different “multiplier” for your overall score, so it’s a matter of balancing between using a heavier bell to maximise your score, or maximising your reps with a lighter bell, but with the maximum rep counts in place for each exercise you can only score up to a maximum level with a particular weight kettlebell. That is, to get really high scores you must use heavier kettlebells as you cannot increase your rep count beyond the limits set by the WKC.
Your total score is given by multiplying your kettlebell weight multiplication factor for the kettlebell used by the number of reps achieved for the exercise and then summing these totals over all five exercises. Multiplication factors are shown below:
12kg=x1.5
16kg=x2.0
20kg=x2.5
24kg=x3.0 etc etc etc for the higher weights.
This means that if you use the 16kg kettlebell for every exercise, as I did, and max out the reps for every exercise, which I didn’t, your maximum score is 1056. WKC have a general scoring table which is as follows: (also shown here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150286705988123 )
Men’s Standards
Less < 720 : Low
721 – 900 : Average
901 – 1080 : Good
1081 – 1260 : High
1261 – 1440 : Extreme
More > 1441 : Superhuman
You’ll note that the best you can do with a 16kg is “Good”.
I set my Ultratimer app on my ubiquitous iPhone to handle the 6/5 minute periods and set off with my trusty 16kg kettlebell in hand. I had no problems at all achieving 120 cleans with 20s to spare for the first exercise. Similarly, no issues achieving 60 reps of longcycle press, indeed with 30s to spare. This exercise is performed strict, no bend to the knee when pressing, or rotation to the torso (at least I didn’t!). On the third exercise I maxed out again at 120 reps for the Jerk, but this time with only 3s to spare. The fourth exercise was my least favourite, the half-snatch. It’s not an exercise I ever really do an my muscle memory tried to take over a number of times to convince me to either do a press on the way up (because I had racked on the way down), or a full drop from the locked top position because I had snatched it all the way as normal. It was coming together by the end of the exercise and I notched up 96 reps out of a possible allowed maximum of 108. Finally, the fifth exercise was the Push Press, where the key is that the knees may be bent to start the kettlebell moving into the press, but the heels must stay rooted to the floor. I was heaving a bit by the end of this and recorded 106 reps out of the maximum of 120.
As I said, I used the 16kg kettlebell throughout, giving me a multiplication factor of 2.0x my number of reps (which was 502), giving a score of 1004, firmly in th “Good” rating above 🙂 What I like about this is that I know that IO cannot achieve a “High” rating by simply maxing out my reps, that’ll only get me so far, I HAVE to do at least some of the exercises with a 20kg, or higher, kettlebell to achieve a score high enough. Good incentive to progress, I think! Clearly, with the first two, maybe even three, exercises there’s room for me to up the weight and still max the reps, particularly the cleans, so that, along with trying to max out my reps for the half-snatch and Push Press exercises will be my “way forward”. With the increased multiplication factor of a 20kg kettlebell I need only achieve 96 out of the maximum 120 reps to equal the score of 120 reps with the 16kg. (or 48 reps instead of 60 for the Longcycle press).
Overall I really enjoyed the workout, though I found the 5 minute rests a bit long for the first couple of exercises, though I was then glad of them for the later ones. Think that just means I need to go heavier.
Finally, I posted my score on Facebook and tagged Valery Fedorenko on the status update. I was pleased to see this soon after, all very encouraging and inspiring 🙂
Push-ups are not my favourite, having a dodgy wrist is only part of my excuse, however somewhat ironically the discomfort in my wrist caused by such exercises can be alleviated by using balls, despite the fact that it does actually make the push-up physically harder. Essentially, having the ball under my wrist allows me to transfer the pushing motion more directly on to my radius and ulna bones (teh two major bones of the forearm) rather than via the smaller scafoid-type bones (which give the discomfort).
Today I managed to do a few controlled push-ups while balanced on 4 medicine balls:
I find that you can never really predict how a workout is going to go until you get into the thick of it. Sometimes I will start a workout with nothing but the best of intentions, with plans to swing the world on its axis and blast out a gahjillion calories, but end up struggling after ten minutes and finishing early. Other times I might start off tired and weary, thinking that there’s not much chance of pushing the envelope on that particular day, but then it all comes together when the iron starts moving around and I end up with a really satisfying workout. Today was definitely one of the latter workouts, and by some margin!
I took at trip to the gym this (Sunday) morning for my workout. As I arrived at the reception I cast my eye over to the open area near the free weights/kettlebells where I like to work out and saw that it was pleasingly devoid of gym-users – I like a quiet gym. When I emerged from the locker-room, however, people must have been teleported in because there was just no room left for me! Argh! maybe I was going to be stuck on some boring CV machine for a while until some space cleared. But no! I’d forgotten about the studio! A quick check with the guys behind the reception to confirm there were no classes planned for a few hours and I’d grabbed myself a huge workout area, all to myself! I grabbed a few kettlebells, a BOSU, a Fitball, a 20kg powerbag, a Reebok step/bench and a mat and I was “good to go!”.
Working on the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid!) I thought I’d go with squats and swings.
The other great advantage of working in a studio that is really intended for group fitness classes is the preponderance of mirrors, which are great for checking form and technique; I worked hard on my squats to ensure that my knees remained behind my toes at all times and that my thighs got to at least parallel with the floor for each and every rep.
I then went for a some old-school plyometric stuff on the Reebok step, doing a couple of minutes each of running steps and then some astride centre jumps on and off. Jeez, that nearly killed me! I used to do that stuff every Friday at our martial arts fitness session with Mike from http://www.logicfitness.com, but that was a few years ago and it was a real eyeopener to me to see just how hard it was to get back into that type of “intense-burst” exercise. Felt good though. Hard. But good.
After that I was back to kettlebells for some GS-style snatches, with particular emphasis on trying to get a comfortable, relaxed position at lockout and slowing down the reps from the RKC-style pace of perhaps 20 per minute, to maybe even less than half of that. The mirrors on two walls allowed me to see my form from both front and side and whilst I was not overly unhappy with how the lockout *looked*, even from the side, I didn’t honestly feel that I was gaining much back from relaxed position, and really does feel like it is my lack of mobility/ROM in my shoulders which prevents it. Perhaps I should be a little more rigouous in my use of TheRotater, perhaps I should have a month of shoulder stretching exercises and see whether that produces any kind of improvement? Worth considering, I suppose.
So, then in the spirit of resurrecting exercises that I haven’t done in some time, I laid myself out on the floor for some … Turkish Get-Ups!!! It’s been tricky to do this exercise with my hand/wrist problems, but today I actually found that if I took my thumb out of use and just relied on my fingers and hand to push myself off the floor, it was more do-able. I confined myself to only using the 12kg kettlebell. That’s a “light” weight for someone of my size and overall strength for this exercise, but it’s definitley a weak-spot for me, so I figured there’s no point in being stupid and macho about it and just used the 12kg. I alternated between left and right sides, no appreciable resting, just enough time between get-ups to “reset” myself and kept it going for 10 minutes. Really enjoyed them, which is a first 🙂 Also managed to actually do a single 12kg bottom up TGU on each side as well, which was very pleasing – I am actually looking forward to trying to extend that. A great video of that particular exercise, albeit with the 16kg is from Mark Cheng.
I’m pretty sure I could get to 16kg, but I’m not sure I’ll make it look as good and tight as Mark does!
Anyway, on to the next set of exercises. I figured that I should really take advantage of having the whole of the studio to myself, especially since it gave me a chance to throw some powerbags around … so that’s what I did! Down the length of the studio is about, I dunno 30m or so, so I started at one end and launched the 20kg powerbag with my right arm, three throws to get from one end to the other, then left arm back again. My only restriction was that the bag had to be launched from above shoulder height. After doing that for half-adozen up-and-downs I was loving it! Totally weird kind of exercise, strong and explosive and exhausting, but not like anything else. I thne mixed it up with a few rounds of two handed throws from above my head, those really killed, and then some throws/swings from waist height, working on getting some rotation into the torso to send the bag flying. All great stuff!
Back to the kettlebells again. Grabbed a pair of 16kg bells. Racked them and walked around the room, dropped them into a suitcase position and walked around the room again. Rack. Walk. Suitcase. Walk. Rack. Walk. Suitcase. You get the idea … then I mixed it up some more. Single 16kg kettlebell, rack it into a bottom up clean and rack, and walk around the room with it. Switch arms and repeat. A few more reps of that and I was really starting to fade. Then I got out some more benches and set up a little two-step pyramid enabling me to walk up steps and over the other side, kind of like this: _¬T¬_ I then cleaned the two 16kg kettlebells to a bottom up rack position and then rolled over the steps, back and forth a few times, concentratinmg on maintaining that bottom up rack position stable. Quite a stiff trial in actual fact. I then finished off the bottom up work with a 20-rep see-saw press cycle.
To finish off the whole session, I then simply used the BOSU, Fitball and mat to enjoy a good stretch and completely finished off with a sauna. Absolutely Pooped!
I really feel like I will pay dearly for this workout tomorrow, or the day after, with some major-league DOMS, but it’s gotta be worth it after an epic workout like that! 🙂
Today I managed to hit my current target for kettlebell snatches. I completed 100x20kg snatches in 290s. Happy with that.
I had the idea of making March’s target something around the lines of bottoms-up presses and have settled on the target of 5 reps (10 presses) “see-saw” bottoms-up presses with double 20kg kettlebells. I can currently do this with 16kg kettlebells and I can do a single double BUP press with 2x20kg kettlebells, so this sounds like an achievable if tough target to hit by the end of March.
There’s a big difference between single, or double, presses and the “see-saw” press, as it involves the transfer of effort from one side of the body to the other, and then back again. This should hopefully be a good test of my dynamic core strength as opposed to the static core strength utilised more in the non-seesaw presses.
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