My Training Plan

A five-day week of barbell strength, kettlebell work, steel mace, and easy cardio — built to run indefinitely.

Overview

Five training days a week across four pieces:

• Barbell strength (2 days) — the strength anchor: deadlift, squat, presses, pulls.
• Simple & Sinister (3 days) — kettlebell swings + Turkish get-ups for hip power, grip, unilateral stability, and conditioning. Minimalist and built to run alongside the barbell work without interfering.
• Steel mace (Sat finisher) — rotational / anti-rotation work the bells and barbell don’t cover.
• Easy cardio (off days) — casual biking for heart and endurance, kept easy enough to aid recovery rather than compete with it.

It’s a forever plan, not a cycle to finish. Nothing here has an end date — the progressions just keep going.

Equipment on hand: pair of 25 lb bells (~11 kg ea), one 20 kg bell, 15 lb steel mace, barbell + dumbbells.

Weekly Schedule

Fatigue notes:

• Wed S&S falls the day after Tue deadlifts. If low back or grip is cooked, drop to swings-only (skip get-ups, move them to Sat) or lighten the bell. Don’t grind it.
• Sat is the one heavier KB day; it gets a full rest day after.
• Each barbell day has a buffer around it so posterior-chain fatigue doesn’t stack.

Easy Cardio

Optional, casual — just balance for all the weight work. Bike on Thu and/or Sun, 30–45 min, conversational pace (able to talk the whole time). No intervals, no long rides, no progression to chase. One or two easy rides a week gives the full heart/endurance benefit and helps recovery rather than competing with the lifting. The only rule: keep it easy enough that it never becomes a hard effort.

Barbell Days

Barbell A / B — same session both days:

1. Pull-ups / dips supersets — 5×3, assisted, 45 lb
2. Deadlifts — 3×3, 255–285, progressive
3. Squats — 3×3, 205–225, progressive
4. Chest press / bent-over rows supersets — 3×5, 55 lb dumbbells (each hand)

Plateau watch: 3×3 on squat/deadlift is low volume. If the barbell numbers stall for ~4–8 weeks, the fix is on the barbell side — add a back-off set or a 4th working set on squat/deadlift. Adding kettlebell volume won’t break a barbell plateau.

Kettlebell Days (S&S)

Warmup — one round of each, using a 25 lb bell:

• Goblet squats — 1×10. Hold the bell at your chest, elbows inside your knees at the bottom, sit straight down between your hips. Pause a beat at the bottom; this is opening the hips more than building strength.
• Hip hinges — 1×10. Bell held at the chest or hanging in both hands. Push the hips back (not down), soft knees, feel the hamstrings load, stand tall by squeezing the glutes. This grooves the swing pattern — do it deliberately.
• Halos — 5 each direction. Bell held by the horns, upside-down, circled slowly around the head. Keep the ribs down and core tight so it’s the shoulders moving, not the low back arching.

Work:

• One-hand swings — 10×10, alternating hands each set (100 total). Hinge and snap the hips to float the bell to chest height — it’s a hip drive, not a front raise, so the arm stays relaxed. Bell floats up, gravity brings it back, you hinge to catch it. Set the bell down and switch hands between sets. Rest as needed early; the long-term goal is all 100 in ~5 min.
• Turkish get-ups — 10 total, 1 rep per set alternating sides (5 each). One full rep = floor all the way to standing and back down, one bell pressed overhead the whole time. Move through each position slowly and pause — this is a skill lift, not a burner. Take as long as you need per rep; there’s no tempo to chase. A full get-up runs ~30–45 sec each side when done right.

That’s the whole session on Mon and Wed. Saturday adds carries and the mace finisher below.

Saturday Add-Ons

Carries (after swings/get-ups): 3–4 rounds farmer or suitcase carry, ~40 yd each. Use the 25 lb pair for farmer, single bell for suitcase. Suitcase (offset, single bell) is anti-lateral-flexion core work that carries into squat/deadlift bracing.

Mace finisher (~5–8 min, after carries): 15 lb.

• 360s — full circle behind the head and back. Start 5–10 per direction, strict. Learn this first; the pass behind the head is the whole skill.
• 10-to-2s — shorter pendulum arc, gentler on the shoulder. Build volume here once 360s are controlled.

The mace feels much heavier than 15 lb because the load sits way out past your hands. Learn the 360 slow and film it from behind. Rushing or going heavy early is how the shoulder gets tweaked.

Loading

Swing/get-up loads don’t map to barbell numbers — start conservative. The stimulus is the 100-swing volume, not the weight. Ramp the bell over weeks, not days.

Swings: 20 kg is the only bell in range — use it, but if 10×10 one-hand feels ragged, do two-hand swings at 20 kg until the hinge is clean, then move to one-hand. Don’t let the bell turn the swing into a squat.

Get-ups: start with a 25 lb bell from the pair, one per session. Get-ups punish ego — a bell you can’t control overhead is how shoulders get hurt. Under-load on purpose. Next jump is the 20 kg once both sides are solid.

Double work (later): the 25 lb pair unlocks double swings, double front squats, and matched farmer carries once the basics are automatic.

Form References

• Pavel, Simple & Sinister (the source; cheap).
• StrongFirst free swing + get-up tutorials (YouTube).
• Film the hinge and get-up from the side before pushing weight.

Weekly Tracker

Log the load used per session. Bump swing weight only when 10×10 feels crisp; bump get-up weight only when reps are controlled on both sides; bump the mace only when 360s are strict and smooth.