A question about the Nerd Math Swing Program.

I am opting to start with: Approach 1 / Option C (Page 12). This is the hand-to-hand swing (H2H) and two hand swing (2HS) variation.

I am trying to decide if I should use the same KB for both swings. For the H2H swing I would use a 20kg. This seems too light for a 2HS and I may use a 24kg or 28kg.

Any thoughts on using different KBs within the same workout?

Maybe the admins can highlight this post so we keep it updated. If the community can highlight when there is a sale or discount code for the Wildman programmes. It would be great. To be informed. I just saw a post with a discount for 2H club a month ago (my bad, I missed it).

At the moment there is an early bird offer for the kettlebell programme: 99 dollars.

The 2H programme is 77 at the moment.
PD: I want to support Wildman but at the moment I'm between jobs so don't be harsh about this post, please.

Hi, If you buy it. Please, give feedback to the community. I cannot do it just now but I think it would be great to hear from someone who read the pdf and give us their opinion.

Cheers!

I've been rethinking my programming and I've gotten stuck on the question of going heavier with one side versus moving into double KB training. My fitness goal is to have General Physical Preparedness (GPP) for playing with kids, working around the house, and recreating (bicycle, walking, climbing) with a smile on my face (read: non-competitively).

So a hypothetical question: What are the pros and cons of doing 32kg one-arm swings versus 16kg double-arm swings?

Thoughts?

So as far as I know Adex doesn't have a European distributor at the moment and it would be very expensive to ship clubs here. The club + add-on kit would be $459 then shipping it to Europe would be around $200 via USPS International (around $400 for Fedex). So we add 19% VAT for Germany and I'm looking at $784 total (or 676€).

So these clubs are unfortunately very expensive if you don't live in the USA. Right now I own a 4kg (8.8lbs) and 8kg (17.6lbs) club. I have probably half a year of training left with the 8kg club until I should increase the weight. I could maybe stretch that to a a year but then I have to find a solution. I could just buy the 10kg, 12kg and 15kg clubs of my favorite european manufacturer and that would be 305€ total. But the jumps are 2kg (4.4lbs) each time and the last is 3kg (6.6lbs) and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't survive that.

There are different DIY solutions for loadable clubs like this one https://www.todayfitness.net/budgetbody/makeclubbell.htm

But realistically they cannot go up to 20kg from what I've seen and that would be the end goal in a few years. The best option would probably be to find someone locally that can use the right tools and just make an Adex club yourself. I remember there was a guy from Cyprus who did just that (awesome work btw). I would much rather have a professional product though. There is one guy in the UK who is selling an adjustable mace that can reach 15kg for £400 but with VAT and shipping its as expensive as the full Adex set. So not even remotely an option either (although it looks very sexy).

So does anyone know of a different option? Or has anyone heard of plans from Adex for European distribution or some European based company that is looking to make adjustable clubs themselves?

I'm doing the exercise for overweight individuals program with a light adex club. I've been doing it three days a week, because I love it. Working to twenty sets before bumping the weight up.

I notice in one of the expansion videos he suggests to do it twice a week to take it easy on the joints. Is three days a week too much? Not experiencing any issues now, but I could see it getting to be rough as the weight goes up.

Hey everyone, looking for some guidance.

Mark basically lays out two systems -

Volume Cycle where you do say 3 sets of 5, then next time 4 sets of 5, then 5 sets of 5 until you get to 20 sets of 5. Then you add weight or reps.

Tetris Programming - Heavy days and Light Days at 60/80% One rep max. Training Swing and C&P on 2 days and TGU and Squat on two days.

In what situation would you use each programming method?

Right now I'm coming off being relatively deconditioned with Covid weight, but I've been slowly ramping up my efforts before beer league hockey season starts (in about 6 weeks) and I'm adding back in Kettlebell (as well as have recently taken to Heavy club work). I'd like to get back into the rhythm of a strength program before I'm playing hockey 3 times a week again, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am working through Mark’s overweight program. I am currently doing KB 2/week and Clubs 3/week. Personally I prefer the clubs and feel like they target the areas I need to work on the most. However I know the KB are important too.

Current Program: Monday, Wednesday, Friday all 3 club exercises Tuesday Thursday two of the 4 kettle bell exercises

Doing this program I work through weights every two weeks on the clubs which I think may be too quickly as I start increasing weight. Started a 1lb, then 2.4lb and now 3.5lb. I have an adex ordered. I do sets of 5 reps of each motion. This is also the first exercise program I have willingly done with no PT order etc in years. I also already see improvements (stopped needing a back rest in my chair, posture, and starting to see muscle definition). Any recommendations on a methodical way to increase the weight without going to fast? I kinda assume at some point I will hit a plateau.

Thought about swapping to KB 4/week and clubs 2/week or 3/week. Honestly it doesn’t seem appealing to me decrease the club swings because they bring me zen and challenge my mind at the same time.

At this rate I will go through the clubs 7ish times before I increase weight on the kettle bells.

I had to drop down to 5lbs on my presses because 10 was hurting my arm. Trying to decide if I’m just going to do different weights for the press vs the squat and dead lift or if I’m going to lower the box and work the weight up once I complete my first rotation through the kettle bell program.

Weights: Clubs 3.5lb Presses 5lb Box Squat and Dead lift 10lbs

Sorry for rambling, all this is to say I would like your recommendations and/or general thought on how I have laid the program out.

Hey guys I've a decent collection of kbs and looking to add to my equipment with clubs.

I've a single 15lb on order. What's in your collection? Should I bite the bullet and get the second club starting or stick to sa exercises?

About a month ago I started doing SA club twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays or Sundays. Basically I do 5L/5R inside circle, outside circle, shield cast for a set number of rounds, and I add a round every session till I hit 20 and start over with a slightly heavier weight. So far so good, I am currently at 14 rounds at 10 lbs.

Questions:

1. I am relatively new to clubs/mace etc, and found that blisters are forming where my pointer fingers meet the palm at the very top of where my hand grips the club. Is this where calluses naturally form for club training? Or am I likely doing something wrong? I am used to the top of my palm callusing up from KB training but have no frame of reference for club training.
2. I am contemplating changing from rounds to pure TUT and just setting a timer as it is sort of a pain to keep track of rounds. The system I devised to keep track of rounds is to draw a series of lines on a white board before I start and as I complete a round I briefly let the club rest on a shoulder and I drag a finger through the line on the white board so each line break corresponds to a completed round. Curious if anyone has devised a more graceful way of keeping track of things

Does anyone have thoughts on doing hardstyle workouts with a competition kettlebell? I have a collection of cast iron hardstyle bells with the standard jumps in weight: 16kg, 20kg, 24kg, etc.

I'd like the jumps in weight to be lower than 4kg increments. I'm interested in something like the Kettlebell Kings adjustable competition kettlebell.

I've never used a competition bell, so I am curious if anyone is working out with competition bells doing hard style workouts and if there are pros / cons to this approach.

I’ve recently purchased Mark’s two hand club program, and I’m thinking of how best to run it. My thought is to do it alongside a double KB C+P program (Giant or Strong). Three days a week. Kettlebells, then clubs on lifting days. And then walks/rucks/recovery on off days.

I feel like adding in some single arm club work would suit well on off days, too.

Hi!

I saw MWs post about the single club PDF. What are your thoughts and or experiences with that PDF?:)

I am training just for health and fun, so it seems to be rather specific (duration) and untypical for MW....

Thanks in advance for any help!

best wishes!

Anyone else purchase MW's intro to heavy club program from Effective Strength and Conditioning?

I have the program, but I am on perpetual backorder purgatory with Adex.

https://effectivestrengthandconditioning.com/collections/best-sellers/products/introduction-to-club-bells-by-mark-wildman

I know that one of the Tetris videos Mark mentions that your heavy day should be 50-80% of the work capacity of your light day. The question I have as you add a round each week to the light day do you recalculate the volume for the heavy day to keep with the same percent you started with, or are you ok to also add a round to the heavy day as well?

An example:

I'm doing a heavy day of Clean & Press of 5 sets of 4/3/2/1 @ 20kg which yields a work capacity of 2,000kg. On the light day I'm doing 6 set of 5/4/3/2/1 @ 16kg, yielding a work capacity of 2,880kg. This would make the heavy day ~70% of the light day.

If I add a set to both, the work capacity changes to be 2,400 / 3,360 = 71%. Does it matter that it changes each week?

Hey all, first time posting. Doing so on behalf of David F over on the YouTube comments when he ran into an issue getting the thread piece unjammed on an Adex club. After researching with Don of Adex, he got the following and I offered to post it here to Reddit for ease of search.

Here are the options from David F's comment (find the original comment at this video https://youtu.be/Eb-Fee7lgkg):

"Here are 3 options Don from Adex suggested:

1. hold the club like a hockey stick on your left side and bop the edge of the threadset against a rubber mat such as gym flooring or block of wood by doing a hockey shot

2. hold the club upright on a bench or stool and use a rubber mallet and strike the threadset on the right side to jar it loose

3. use a glancing hand heel strike on the right side of the threadset to bump it loose"

If this helps anyone, be sure to go over to the video linked above and leave David F a like.

Edited: Grammer

These are like a Hydrocore, but tubular, so they're 'sandbag shaped' (and about 1/3 of the price).

I think they're usable for many exercises from MW's Hydrocore & slam ball series, along with many sandbag exercises, particularly the rotational lunge, which the DVRT people view as the sandbag's canonical exercise.

But I don't know the best way to start using one - which is where MW's "Order of Operations" videos are invaluable...

Any ideas?

So I thought I saw MW post recently in response to a YouTube comment that he’d be offering programming PDFs, possibly for purchase. The implication being the app development is taking too long, and he saw the PDFs as a stopgap. Or that’s what I took from it, skimming through the comments.

Has anyone seen any more concrete info on this? I’d like to be able to give the man some money, but the pricing on the app in its present state exceeds what I think I’m willing to pay for it for now.

My beta access looks like it’s up shortly. Between the programming in the beta I’ve written down and his YouTube content, I’ve settled into a solid ABCD groove that I can likely run for quite a long while, finished app or no. If I decide to hold off on the app, I’d feel better about using the beta programs if I could offer some compensation via another channel.

I wonder if he’s ever thought about a Patreon account. I have no idea if fitness people use it, but some of my favourite podcasters have been able to use it to transition away from ad based revenue streams.

When doing one handed circles with 20lbs, my hands keep slipping. I tried washing my hand and the handle, but I get 2 reps and then it starts slipping again. What have people done to their clubs to remedy that? I have the fat handle if that helps. Thanks

Hello. I am seeking input on the benefit(s), if any, of adding an Adex club to my workouts based on my fitness goals.

Some brief background. I'm a 45-year-old professional who has a sedentary job. My overall health is moderate, I am about 20 lb heavier than desired. I have a young family, a 3-year-old and a 1-month-old, which requires a good bit of activity.

My fitness goal is thus. To be able to do the things I need to around the house and to play with my kids in ways that are enjoyable for me (think not too painful or difficult).

My current fitness plan is kettlebells with volume cycles. I plan on adding density cycles, I just haven't gotten there yet. I'm comfortable with the six basic kettlebell movements and feel decently capable of programming for myself in this area.

My question is this: Would adding a club to my workout help me better achieve my fitness goal? Kettlebells help me work in two planes of motion, forward / backwards and up / down. I'm wondering if club training in the side to side plane would help me reach my fitness goal.

Any thoughts?

After watching Mark’s video on the farm boy strength program I purchased an Onnit sandbag and integrated it into my workout. After 2 sessions the handles starting ripping off and that was just carrying to sandbag to the workout area. After 5 workouts the zipper popped open and filler bag split splicing sand everywhere.

Anyone have recommendations for a better sandbag?

I’ve been testing the app and it definitely seems like it’s not ready for release. Feels like a beta to me. I’ve experienced multiple issues so far:

1. Really slow loading times
2. App crashes periodically. This happens multiple times a day.
3. Wrong video shows for the exercise. Specifically, it may be an exercise for the left side but the video shows the right side.
4. Entering notes or tracking progress is very clunky.

I love Mark’s content and his YouTube videos have been a great help so I hope the company he hired to develop this app can get it working better.

I just completed my first workout and the grip demand was no joke. I only have a 15lb club at the moment and I didn’t have the strength or stability for one handed exercises yet. I have a couple lighter clubs on the way though.

Thanks to Mark, I’ve migrated almost completely away from barbell workouts and discovered kettlebells and clubs.

Programming. Long post.

Greetings.

I'm an overweight beginner looking for some clear(er) guidance on programming vis-a-vis Mark Wildman's notes on the topic. My endurance is extremely bad, so I decided to start with a 12 kg kettlebell instead of 16, which may be good for technique, but now that I actually tested it, it is rather light (I can press it overhead 12-15 times, more if I pushed myself hard), and I also have a 6 kg steel heavy club, since Mark recommended it also to fix flat feet and other sorts of asymmetry and core issues (which I do have, since I occasionally have some lower back pain). I have seen the following videos on the topic:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UBuwKo3jvY
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L99sVERGT34

I have several questions relating to these. First of all, despite being 30-35% bodyfat, my mobility seems fine and I can squat, especially if it's front-loaded like a kettlebell squat. I can also swing (especially with only 12 kgs), and although I never tried, I think I could do get-ups.

1. Do I need box squats and suitcase deadlifts then, or should I replace them with squats and swings?
2. How can I incorporate training with a 6 kg heavy club into this? I have no experience with it. What would be the workout frequency, sets and reps and progression over time?
3. He doesn't say anything about the number of days one should train like this, yet it seems like training every day would quickly be overwhelming on the volume (I don't exactly know, I have no experiential knowledge), because I see it doubtful currently that I could recover after doing 8x8 squats until the next day for 9x8 squats.(I'm saying this since it appears to me that the program would progress by increasing sets every workout (every day?) by one while keeping the reps the same, and then starting over but increasing the reps by 1, i.e. first cycle would be 3x3, then second cycle (NOT second workout) would be 3x4, then third cycle 3x5, etc., up until 3x10 (the end of which is 10x10) -- again, I understand how sets change and reps are constant within a cycle, I am talking about several cycles here).

Yet getting from 3x3 to 10x10 would take quite a while (64 workouts), especially when not training every day.

Please keep in mind, I am not overly attached to Mark's fatboy program, I also welcome any other recommendations, especially where I get to practice the main lifts [i.e. not Simple and Sinister]. Overall my goal would be to quickly get into a "proper" beginner program which includes clubs after doing this initial phase of some technique work and increasing my endurance (I get out of breath so easily it's ridiculous), such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ydDLj-n2WI(although it is also somewhat confusing that this is only about frequency, and set/rep schemes and progression are not discussed; if anyone could clarify or link to the videos where the progression for this particular program is explained, I'd be thankful).

​

Any recommendations?

I've had shoulder issues for years resulting from an injury in the army back in 2000. Recently started doing KBs for the first time and I've been trying Turkish getups. My form is slowly starting to come around but my left shoulder has issues even with 12 kg.

I'd hate to go lower than that for weight because it doesn't seem to provide much of a workout. I'm considering just sticking with 12s and doing low reps to keep practicing but also looking to add some additional exercises to beef up the shoulders to provide stability. Any recommendations?

Lots on kb channels about looking after your hands & the issues with calluses. The Wildman has good advice too. The strategy I use doesn't seem to be super popular, but it totally works. Not sure why folks don't like it, perhaps because it's not raw enough, or its seen as cheating some how (let me know in the comments!)

Gymnastic grips. They work perfectly for me, for C&P and snatches, especially for heavier weight. I'll use bare hands for a 16kg bell, but heavier than that I use the grips for those moves.

The brand I use is "Bear Complex" via Amazon. Plenty of others available. I feel $30 is money well spent to not miss weeks of training from shredded hands. No shaving, no moisturizing, no worry, no rips, no blood. Maybe a slight loss of "authenticity" but I get in a lot more reps than if I have to worry about my hands, so training volume is increased.

Give them a go (or let me know those reps don't count unless it's barehanded) 🙉

I'm using an 8kg club for SA progressions. I'm finding it very hard to get past 10 rounds (100 reps of each move left & right). Has anyone got suggestions for getting past the grip fatigue factor?

Doing 5 reps each SA shield cast, inside circle, outside circle (level 1) OR 180° pull over, inside & outside SA pendulums (level 2).

1 round is each 5 reps of each move, left & right. Total 30 reps per round.

Trying to take as little breaks as possible, but start adding them in after 5 rounds. Grip totally blows up after 10 rounds.

Mark talked about getting to a total of 600 reps, 200 reps per move. Has anyone got there? Tips on pushing through the grip issue?

Would lead to a very very long workout. I'm taking 20 mins to get to 100 total reps per exercise. I don't want to be taking 50 mins! Thoughts?