Back on the bar

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Scott Birdby Scott Bird | February 24, 2007
Filed in Weekly summary | 4 comments

Fingertip push-upIt’s a great feeling to be back on the chin-up bar again. This week I kept it to short sets (3-5 reps) of common-or-garden bodyweight chin-ups and pull-ups. These were interspersed with moderate (60-70kg) bent rows. Just enough to test the endurance.

I decided to re-evaluate my training for the one-armed chin-up (OAC). This doesn’t mean abandoning the project by any means; simply doing things a little differently. There were two pieces of information that appeared during the week which proved particularly timely.

The first of these was the post on Rif’s Blog regarding training of the kettlebell snatch for the SSST. A similar approach seems reasonable here; in particular the change up from several short to a couple of long sets.

The second was an email from Chris which mentioned a great-sounding routine in Ross Enamait’s book Never Gymless. I’ve only skimmed the book so far, but it looks great (full review shortly).

I’ll post an updated routine shortly, but it’s essentially short, weighted sets (of chin-ups and pull-ups) on most days, with a couple dedicated to the one-armed stuff. There’s also a small amount of kettlebell training in there, a healthy dose of rack pulling and some hand, grip and wrist work in various formats. Including the fingertip push-ups - love them.


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Discussion

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Comments

1

Good to see you training Scott.
If your looking at the SSST, does that mean your bring kettlebells into the mix?

Posted by: Mike | February 25, 2007 12:21 AM

2

Thanks Mike.

I currently only have a 16kg kettlebell (soon to be painted if it stops raining here), which is challenging enough for now. I’ll grab a 24kg bell at some point and start looking at things like the SSST and the Tactical Challenge, but that’s a fair way off.

How long did it take you to transition from the 16kg to 24kg kettlebell? And how long were you using the 16kg bell first?

Posted by: Scott | February 25, 2007 8:54 AM

3

I bought my 16K in about December of ‘05 but didn’t use it for almost a month. If you look back at the “One Year Ago”s on my blog, as they come up, the ones that are showing up now are those (I really need to get all my old posts tagged). I started out with just swings for a couple months, then on to snatches. I finally bought the 24K in about May or June of ‘06, that was when I could first get 100 consecutive swings trading hands every 10 or so. It took me until, I think, August before I was really comfortable with the 24K. I still use the 16 when I want to juggle but the 24 is pretty much my tool of choice for snatches. i recently got my hands on a 32 and tried some snatches. The jump from 24K to 32k is significant, very significant. I’m gonna keep working with that one until I’m good enough to get some reps in there. I’ve gotten so I can do a little juggling with the 24. I don’t do it a lot but I do it to show off a bit when I’m demoing the bells. I do it to show the guys I am talking to that it is obviously not as heavy as they think it is.
Thanks to you pointing me to Rif’s blog I’m gonna go for his suggestion of sets of 25 snatches. If you can do 4 sets of 25 snatches, you’re ready to move up I’ll bet. No matter when you get it, it’s very likely that the first month you have it, you’ll be questioning if you wasted your money on this one but practice pays off. You have the patience for the one arm pull up so I know you have it for the heavier bells.
I still want to meet the freaks that are snatching the 40 or larger for reps.

sorry for the book, I haven’ blogged in a day and it looks like it’s starting to show.

Posted by: Mike | February 26, 2007 12:01 AM

4

Wow, thanks very much for the info Mike. Although I’ve had the 16 for several months, it’s really only in the last few weeks that I’ve been using it (mainly for swings) on a regular basis.

Your progression of swings -> snatches sounds like a good way to really get into it; especially as it gets a bit closer to outdoor workout weather here. I do stuff like the swings indoors, but the snatches need more headroom than I’ve got in the house.

I’ll hold off on getting a 24 for a few more months; that should give me enough time to get really comfortable with the 16. And 4 sets of 25 snatches sounds quite ambitious at the moment :)

Posted by: Scott | February 26, 2007 11:39 AM

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