German Volume Training – day 2

There are two guys I have consistently turned to for expertise with kettlebells and pushing my fitness: Steve Cotter from IKFF and Mike Mahler. My current workout program is from Mike Mahler’s article about his DVD training program The Kettlebell Solution for Size and Strength this work has been a killer, I love it.

With the holidays my schedule is far from consistent, so I haven’t been able to stay consistent with the alternating days. I am just starting the German Volume Training section, weeks 5-8. Today was the second workout of the program, day 2.

The program appears simple on paper. Three exercises: double kettlebell military press, pullups, and turkish getups. Not bad, now consider that the first two are ten sets of ten; read that again, ten sets of ten repetitions.

I can feel it in my shoulders already. Just like day 2 I’m going to be feeling this for a couple days. I like how Mike Mahler puts it in his description of this section:

Use the same weight on all ten sets and do not increase the weight until you can do ten sets of ten with the same weight. This program is of course very effective, but extremely brutal. Ten sets of ten on exercises such as squats and deadlifts are real pukers and great way to handicap you for the rest of the week. I remember the pain of getting up in the morning the day after doing GVT for legs.

Double Kettlebell Military Press

I miscalculated the weight to use on the military press. I pulled out my double 16kg kettlebells and was able to do only the first two sets with ten repetitions. After that I had to drop reps; going to eight reps for two sets then staying at 5 reps for the rest of the sets.

Pullup

I’m still working on building my pullups and decided to stick to Crossfit-style Kipping Pullups. I knew I would be able to come close to nailing ten sets of ten of these … I was close.

By the eighth set my grip was just about dead. I did manage to get all of the sets done, but had to split the last two sets up into mini-sets of 5 with short breaks to switch grip or just rest my hands.

Turkish Get Up

This simple looking exercise still surprises me. After doing just a few the entire body is engaged and worn out. It is a great exercise to work your core and build the solid foundation for practical fitness. I think this exercise along has helped my snowboarding ability this season; nailing those 360s.

Mike Mahler drops this exercise down to three sets of ten. I was already dragging from the first two exercises, so I should have dropped the weight. Instead I stuck with my 20kg kettlebell and just dropped the reps. I completed three sets of three.

About Troy Pesola

Troy is the founder of Cube.Dweller.Fitness. He's an innovation catalyst in several areas of life including business, marketing, and process improvement. Outside of work he's actively involved in fitness, health, and living vibrantly in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.