Welcome to the athlete journal of Brandon Hofer. Brandon is a personal trainer, yoga practitioner, and kettlebell enthusiast. Currently he is preparing for the StrongFirst Level 2 Instructor Certification, and you can follow his journal here to see how he’s getting ready.
Athlete Journal, Entry 2 – 2/23/2014
I felt a little slow this past week, so I’m sensing a lighter week in my near future. Overall, the press still feels good and I feel like my bent press is getting tighter.
What are you working on lately? Anyone else have a solid workout to post for SFG or RKC prep?
Feb 6th
Kettlebell Press Ladder:
- 28kg 2x (1,4,2,5,3)
- 24kg 1x (1,4,2,5,3)
The goal here was to complete the entire ladder, alternating hands each rung, without setting the kettlebell down. Emphasis on pressing speed. Had to drop down to 24kg on the third ladder.
Two Hand Swings – 36kg
15 reps per minute
10 minutes
Feb 7th
3 Rounds:
- Ground-Up Shrimp Squats Ladder – 20kg x(1,2,3)
- Goblet Squat – 32kg x8 reps
- TRX One Arm Row – x5 reps each arm
Finished with 100 Swings of choice – 32kg
No timer, sets of 20
Ground-Up Shrimp Squats:
Swings:
Feb 8th
Turkish Get Up – 32kg x3 each side
One Arm Clean – 32kg x5 each side
x5 sets
Single Kettlebell Jerk Ladder:
32kg 3x (2R, 2L, 4R, 4L, 6R, 6L, 8R, 8L)
Feb 9th
Active Rest – Yoga
Seated Poses and Inversions
Including: Shoelace Pose, Pigeon, Shoulder Stand, Dolphin, Hero’s Pose, Janu Sirsasana, and others
Feb 10th
Double 24kg
90 seconds per round
20 total rounds – 30 minutes
Round A
- Double Swing x5
- Double Press x5
Round B
- Double Clean x5
- Front Squat x5
Alternate A and B each round
You’ll end up with 50 total reps on each exercise.
This workout is great for SFG 1 or SFG 2 hopefuls. It can be easily modified for ability level or linear progression by adjusting bell size or rest time per round.
Feb 11th
Bench Press
7 sets of 5 reps
185, 185, 185, 190, 195, 200, 205 (only 3 reps)
I don’t often do bench press, but I find it to be a quality supplemental exercise for my kettlebell presses.
Weight Pull Up Ladder – 35lbs
3x (1,2,3,4,5)
The pace today was very slow, with lots of rest between sets and no rushing. Including warmup sets, just these two exercises took about 55 minutes.
Feb 12th
Turkish Get Ups x5 each side – 32,36,36,36,36
Windmill
24kg x5; 28kg x5; 32kg x3; 36kg x3
Bent Press
36kg x1 each side
x3 sets
Feb 13th
32kg One Arm Swings
10 per minute
20 minutes
Switch arms each minute
Feb 14th
Rest
Feb 15th
One Arm Clean – 32kg x5 each side
x5 sets
Single Kettlebell Jerk Ladder:
32kg 3x (2R, 2L, 4R, 4L, 6R, 6L, 8R, 8L)
My jerk technique has some obvious flaws, so this video is more of a marker to check my progress six weeks from now.
Glute/Hip Stretches
Feb 16th
Yoga Day
Seated Poses, Hip Openers, Spinal Flexion
Feb 17th
Crawling Patterns Warm Up
Main Sequence:
32kg
- Swing x10
- Turkish Getup R x1
- Swing x10
- Turkish Getup L x1
- Swing x10
- Press R x5
- Swing x10
- Press L x5
- Swing x10
- Goblet x10
- Swing x10
x5 total sets
300 total swings
Feb 18th
I was feeling a little sore and sluggish from yesterday, so I kept it simple today with lots of stretching.
24kg One Arm Swings
10R/10L per minute
10 minutes
200 total swings
20 minutes yoga
Feb 19th
Active Rest – Yoga
I’ll definitely plan more sessions of double 24kg work in the next two weeks, and I know I need to start amping up my snatch conditioning as well.
