Simple & Sinister Kettlebell workout template

This is a template for the Simple & Sinister practice as described by Pavel Tsatsouline of StrongFirst in the book. I highly recommend you read the book and adopt this template for your training.

To follow this program you need to be able to perform Kettlebell Swings with both and single arm, and Turkish Get Ups. If you don’t know the moves, learn first.

Simple & Sinister program is super simple in essence and extremely hard in practice: do 100 kettlebell swings and 10 Turkish get-ups every day.

Exercises in this template

There are 3 types of swings and 3 types of Turkish get-ups. You can rearrange them as you want but try to keep goal swings and goal get-ups on the same day only once a week.

Heavy Swings 2 hand

Pick the heaviest bell you can safely swing, hold it in both arms, do 10 swings, then rest till the end of the minute. Repeat 10 times. By the end of each minute, you should be able to talk freely without huffing and puffing, if you can not, increase the rep time to 1.5 or 2 min.

Long Swings 1 hand

Pick a kettlebell you can safely swing with 1 hand, do 10 swings per arm starting with a non-dominant one and rest till the end of the period. Repeat 5 times. Again, you need to be able to talk by the end of a minute.

Swings 1 hand

Perform 10 sets of 1 armed swings in 30-second intervals, change hands after each set. If you can pass the talking test after set 6, you probably need a heavier bell.

Get-ups

Pick the heaviest bell you can safely do 1 Turkish get-up in your non-dominant hand. Perform 1 get-up per minute changing hands after each rep for 10 sets. Do your best, but it’s okay if you won’t be able to do all 10 reps at first.

Press get-ups

Pick a lighter bell you can do 8-10 overhead presses with. Do Turkish get-ups 1 per set but increase the complexity: when you are on the ground, do 3-5 chest presses, when you are standing 2-3 overhead presses.

Carry get-ups

Pick the same bell you use for press get-ups, in the standing position walk 10-15 meters carrying the bell over your head, and then get down.

Warmup

The warmup consists of 3 exercises performed in 3 rounds. Pick the lightest weight you have for prying goblet squats and halos. Perform halos 5 reps on each side.

Here are the videos on how to perform these exercises:

• Prying goblet squats

• Hip Bridges

• Halo

The goals of the program

The program has 2 goals. The “simple” one, and the “sinister”.

The simple goal for men

Perform 10 sets of 10 one-armed swings in 5 minutes and 10 Turkish get-ups in 10 min with a 70lbs (32kg) kettlebell.

The sinister goal for men

Do the same with a 106lbs (48kg) kettlebell

The simple goal for women

Perform 10 sets of 10 one-armed swings in 5 minutes with a 53lbs (24kg) kettlebell and 10 Turkish get-ups in 10 min with a 35lbs (16kg) kettlebell.

The sinister goal for women

Do the same with a 70lbs (32kg) / 53lbs (24kg) kettlebell.