The time has gone by in the blink of an eye; I completed week 4 of 12 of Geoff Neupert’s kettlebell muscle building program today. Completing the last sets of the program has been a challenge for the past two weeks. Since I am using relatively light 26-pound kettlebells, I would like to say the challenge comes from being tired from inadequate sleep, but am afraid that the work is just plain challenging for me.

I have not tested myself by lifting weights outside of the program, but am pretty sure I am getting stronger. That is amazing considering that the working portion of my workouts has been as brief as 4 to 6 minutes. That means the working portion of my training week has been about 15 minutes per week. From warmup to finish, my workouts are lasting less than 30 minutes. Before I committed to this program, I was training 5 days per week and usually about 90 minutes per session.

After I complete all 12 weeks of this program, I expect to increase the volume of my training, but not back to the level I punished myself with before. Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel is right – you can make good progress without grinding endlessly.

I have found something to do with all the time my lighter workout schedule returned. I began taking classes in Iyengar Yoga at Mainstreet Yoga and practicing at home daily. My kettlebell coach, Michelle Luna, recommended I take one yoga class each week, but I liked it so much I’ve been going Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

Today’s workout is my heavy day – four sets of the following with 90 seconds of rest between each set:

Double clean x 5
Double military press x 5
Front squat x 5
Double push press x 5
Front squat x 5

I am working with the 12 kg (26-pound) kettlebells. The load moved in this 100 rep workout is 5200 pounds.

Michelle coached me through this workout, which typically makes things harder. She had me do my cleans from the floor to keep my hips engaged rather than using my knees and swinging the kettlebells up. She stopped me from lowering the kettlebells as far as I ordinarily would to maintain tension during the military presses. She scolded me for dipping too deeply and coming up on my toes during the push presses, so my last sets were harder than the first set. It is amazing how roughly 4 minutes of work time smoked me. We spent some time practicing Turkish getups with no weight. My form has improved as a result of my stretching and yoga practice, but now I am feeling tightness in my hips that I never experienced before. All in all, a good day.