Well, whether we like it or not , month 2 of 2025 is in kettlebell full swing.
I’ll potentially be releasing a new program within this quarter .
I had some excellent feedback and some pretty negative feedback.
The excellent is probably what you’d expect, which I’ll tell you more about in a future email, but the bad?
Well… it was generally something like this:
“I couldn’t complete the program because I got injured.”
“I couldn’t complete the program because I had an injury going into it, and I thought I could manage it .”
Now, let me just say this upfront:
THERE IS NO GOOD REASON YOU SHOULD GET INJURED WHILE TRAINING .
But “Bad Reasons?”
There are plenty of them.
Trust me, I get it.
I’ve been injured plenty over the years. (The exception being the last 15 years where I’ve been injury free.)
So what are these “Bad Reasons?”
They fall into one of three categories.
The first?
[1] Poor Recovery:
Again, for the 55th-11th time, we need to remember, it’s not how much work you do that makes you leaner …
It’s how much you can recover from that work.
Many guys get into trouble because they think “more work = quicker gains.”
If you’re using PEDs, then almost certainly yes.
But for the rest of us - almost certainly not.
As a baseline, you need 7+ hours a night of sleep. Period. End of story. Amen.
(Less than 7 hours increases fat retention and breaks down muscle [1] - the exact opposite of what we want.)
If you’re not getting at least that, then you’re “suffering” from Poor Recovery.
Next, eat protein. Lots of it. (We’ll cover more on this some other time.) THEN…
TRAIN HARD on THREE separate days each week . That’s it.
Not 6 days a week, two hours a day, like Ah-nold (Schwarzenegger) recommended in his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding.
That works great for steroid-using guys in their 20s with no families and no responsibilities - which is what Arnold was when he was competing in bodybuilding…
But it doesn’t work in the real world for guys like us who have jobs, run businesses, and have families.
In truth, back in the “Olden Days,” the 1930s through the 1960s, most of the strong men, like those on the US Olympic Weightlifting Team, including the legendary Tommy Kono, (2x Olympic Champ, 6x World Champ) trained -
And repeat after me if you’ve heard this before -
INTENSIVELY on 3 non-consecutive days of the week. ;-)
So if it worked for guys back in the pre-steroid era, it can and will work for us - for you too.
The ONLY “ trick ” or “work-around” I am aware of to this if you really want on training more frequently?
To increase the number of days you train a week to four or five, or even an intense 6 …?
Is to cut your training duration in each session by a third to half.
For example, 3x 30-minute sessions (90 minutes) becomes 4x 20-25 minute sessions or 5x 15-20 minute sessions.
This “spreads the work ” which for many, helps you better handle , even speed up your recovery.
But, I want to strongly encourage you -
If you haven’t committed to a FOCUSED, HARD, THREE, Non-consecutive days of the week training plan will do for you…
Test it out for yourself.
I think you’ll be amazed what slowing down, getting 7+ hours of sleep a night, adequate protein, and “only” training 3x week can do for your strength, muscularity, and conditioning.
Next time, we’ll talk about a concern I see on forums, social media, and Zoom sessions that’s rampant in Kettlebell-land.
Stay Strong,
Geoff Neupert.