Kettlebell Strength – “Working Strength” Progression

$59.00

  • 7 Week Program, 5 Days/Week
  • Strength programming using only kettlebells and a pull-up bar
  • Deploys MTI’s “Working Strength” Progression
  • This training plan is one of the 200+ Plans included with an Athlete’s Subscription.

Description

This is a 7-week, 5 days/week kettlebell-based cycle with a strength emphasis. The plan also trains work capacity, chassis integrity, and endurance, but it’s emphasis is on strength. 

Strength
This cycle deploys kettlebell-only strength training using a “working strength” progression.

MTI defines “working strength” as the ability to complete multiple reps, or multiple rounds of low reps, at a relatively high percentage of your max effort strength for that particular exercise. (More on theory, thoughts and design of this programming HERE)

In general, instead of keeping the volume the same (sets x reps), in this cycle we aim to keep the load the same, and increase the volume. For example, one week you might finish 4 Rounds of 4 reps of  2-Handed Kettlebell Clean + Strict Press at 24kg, and then the next week I’ll ask you to use the same load and finish 4 Rounds of 5 reps each set.

Also – most of the strength circuits in this cycle don’t include a stretch or mobility drill like you may be used to with MTI Programming. For most strength circuits, we pair the prescribed kettlebell strength exercise with a pull up variation, and ask you to work “steadily” through the circuit.

Don’t over think “steadily” – it’s okay to pause for a rest (you’ll need to!) or get a drink, just don’t try to take 5 minutes between sets, or work frantically through the circuit like it’s a crossfit WOD.

Work Capacity
This cycle’s work capacity efforts are all short, hard, 10 minute efforts – 2 of 3 are shuttle sprint-based, and the 3rd is bodyweight based.  

Chassis Integrity
You’ll complete a 15 minute ART Circuits (Anti-Rotation, Rotation and Total Core exercise) 1x per times per week.

Endurance
This cycle deploys a 3-mile Run for time assessment and follow-on 1-mile intervals. You’ll run 3 miles for time three times during this cycle – beginning, middle and end.

 

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

  • Monday – Strength
  • Tuesday – Work Capacity, Chassis Integrity
  • Wednesday – Strength
  • Thursday – Endurance
  • Friday – Strength
  • Saturday – Optional Endurance (run or ruck)

 

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT

  • Full set of kettlebells. Many of the exercises are 2-handed, so you’ll need pairs.
  • Pull up Bar
  • Backpack with 55 pounds of load for Saturday’s Optional Endurance (ruck)

COMMON QUESTIONS

What if I miss a day?
Begin where you left off when you return to training. This program is progressed – each session builds upon the prior session – so don’t skip a session or skip around. Follow the training sessions in order, regardless.

Where do I find unfamiliar exercises?
See our Exercise Library HERE. The Run/Ruck Calculator is listed as an exercise.

What about nutrition?
See our Nutritional Guidelines HERE.

Can I see sample training?
Yes. Click the “Sample Training” tab to see the entire first week of programming.

How do I access the plan? Pdf? Online? App?
You can access the plan through our website or app (Mtn Tactical Fitness), both via username and password.

Can I print out sessions to take to the gym?
Yes – you can print a week of programming at a time

More Questions? Email: coach@mtntactical.com

 

DISCLAIMER
Before beginning any exercise program, consult with your physician to ensure that you are in proper health. Physical training contains inherent risks including, but not limited to, muscle strains, tears, physical and bodily injury up to and including death. This training program is not meant to provide medical advice; you should obtain medical advice from your private health care practitioner. If you are unable to assume these risks then you should not engage in this training program. No liability is assumed by Mountain Tactical Institute, Inc, its owners or employees, and you train at your own risk. Mountain Tactical Institute makes no warranty, express or implied, of any kind in connection with this training program.

Required Equipment

Required Equipment




  • Full set of kettlebells. Many of the exercises are 2-handed, so you’ll need pairs.

  • Pull up Bar

Sample Training

MONDAY
SESSION 1
Obj: Strength

Warm up:

2 Rounds

Training:

(1) 6 Rounds

  • 4x Kettlebell Front Squat - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 2/4x Pull Ups

(2) 6 Rounds

  • 4x 1-Arm Kettlebell Press - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 3/6x Chin Ups

(3) 6 Round

  • 4x 2-Handed Kettlebell Clean - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 4x Renegade Row @ 25/35# dumbbells or 12/16kg kettlebells

(4) 6 Rounds

(5) 6 Rounds

Comments:

"Grind" Through these circuits. Unlike many of our strength circuits, most of these today don't include "working rest" in the form of a stretch or mobility drill. Work steadily, but not frantically. Most important is to get up heavier weight. Working steadily and with purpose, you should be able to finish this training session in 60-65 minutes.

 

**************
TUESDAY
SESSION 2
Obj: Work Capacity, Chassis Integrity

Warm up:

3 Rounds

Training:

(1) 10 Rounds

(2) 15 Minute Grind

 

****************
WEDNESDAY
SESSION 3
Obj: Strength

Warm up:

2 Rounds

Training:

(1) 6 Rounds

(2) 6 Rounds

  • 4x Kettlebell Military Press - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 4x Kettlebell Horizontal Row - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6

(3) 6 Rounds

  • 3x 2-Handed Kettlebell Snatch - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 4x Renegade Row @ 25/35# dumbbells or 12/16kg kettlebells

(4) 6 Rounds

(5) 6 Rounds

Comments:

"Grind" Through these circuits. Unlike many of our strength circuits, most of these today don't include "working rest" in the form of a stretch or mobility drill. Work steadily, but not frantically. Most important is to get up heavier weight. Working steadily and with purpose, you should be able to finish this training session in 60-65 minutes.

 

**************
THURSDAY
SESSION 4
Obj: Endurance Assessment

Warm up:

4 Rounds

Training:

(1) Run 3 Miles for Time

Record Finish Time

 

************
FRIDAY
SESSION 5
Obj: Strength

Warm up:

2 Rounds

Training:

(1) 6 Rounds

  • 2x Kettlebell Craig Special - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 2/4x Pull Ups

(2) 6 Rounds

  • 8x Kettlebell Floor Press- increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 3/6x Chin Ups

(3) 6 Rounds

  • 4x 2-Handed Kettlebell Clean - increase load rapidly  each round and aim to get at your "hard but doable" load by round 3, and us this load "across" rounds 3-6
  • 4x Renegade Row @ 25/35#

(4) 6 Rounds

(5) 6 Rounds

Comments:

"Grind" Through these circuits. Unlike many of our strength circuits, most of these today don't include "working rest" in the form of a stretch or mobility drill. Work steadily, but not frantically. Most important is to get up heavier weight. Working steadily and with purpose, you should be able to finish this training session in 60-65 minutes.

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1)  Mission Direct

Gym numbers mean nothing. All that matters is mission performance. 

To this end, MTI’s fitness solutions and programming are not boxed in by convention, tradition, orthodoxy, public opinion or any other artificial constraint driven by inside or outside forces.

We begin with the raw fitness demands of the mission and build a fitness solution which directly prepares the athlete for those demands.

 

2) Fitness Solutions Built from the Ground Up

MTI’s programming is not “re-tread” bodybuilding, football, CrossFit, kettlebell, strength or general fitness programming. We’ve built our fitness programming for mountain and tactical athletes from the ground up.

The Fluid Periodization methodology we deploy to concurrently train multiple fitness attributes is completely original and has continued to evolve and improve over the years.

Our mid-section training methodology, Chassis Integrity, is also original, as is our endurance programming, 7 strength training progressions, tactical agility, and work capacity programming.

Our mountain sports pre-season training plans, tactical PFT, selection, school, course, and fitness improvement training plans across military, LE and Fire Rescue are MTI-developed, tested and athlete-proven.

Over the years hundreds of athletes and coaches have taken our advanced programming and unit fitness leader programming courses and MTI is widely recognized within the mountain and tactical professions and fitness media as a thought leader in fitness programming for military and tactical athletes.

 

3) The MTI Method

→ Research: MTI begins program design with extensive research of the fitness demands of the mission, sport or event, identifies the exercises and progressions which sport-specifically meet those demands, chose end-of-cycle goals, and program backward to design the training plan.

→ Deploy & Assess: We deploy the training plan “Lab Rats” at our Wyoming facility. Training session and cycle issues are identified and fixed as we work through the training plan. Post cycle we assess the programming’s effectiveness and efficiency. We keep the stuff that works, and fix or toss the stuff that doesn’t.

→ Publish & Assess Again: Plan is published for purchase as an individual training plan and made available to our subscribers. Feedback/results are assessed.

→ Iterate: We take what we learn from lab rats and athletes, re-visit, update and improve already published training plans. Several of our individual training plans are on their 4th or 5th version.

 

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MTI exists to “Improve Mountain and Tactical Athletes mission performance and keep them safe.” To that end, we have developed a unique research methodology aimed at identifying real world areas of improvement and identifying immediately deployable mission-direct solutions. Click HERE to learn more about MTI’s Mission-Direct Research methodology, and Here to read about just few of our research efforts.

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MTI’s library of 200+ sport-specific fitness plans for mountain and tactical athletes is unmatched. Resources range from specific programming for tactical special forces selections, to specific plans for climbing Rainier and Denali, to general fitness solutions such as running improvement, to post-rehab from injury.

Over the past decade, MTI has partnered with hundreds of athletes throughout their individual mountain and tactical careers, and provided fitness solutions as they face new mountain objectives, tactical schools, selections, PFTs and deployments, and came back from injury.

 

7) Worldwide Influence

Our work is not limited to US Athletes.

We’ve developed selection-specific training plans for Canadian, UK, Australian and German Special Forces Selections and worked with individual military personnel from Scandinavia, South, and Central America.

Canadian, Australian, UK and western European law enforcement and fire/rescue athletes have used MTI programming for mission-direct fitness.

On the mountain side, Alpinists from Japan to Slovakia have consulted with MTI and used MTI’s programming to prepare for mountain objectives.

 

8) Mission Performance beyond Fitness

MTI’s exists is to improve Mission Performance for mountain and tactical athletes and keep them safe. 

This focus on “mission direct” solutions, enhancements and improvements drives our work and research and extends beyond fitness solutions to include training, leadership, gear, team culture, and safety. 

Fitness is just one area of our work.

Our non-fitness research has included tactical cultures, combat uniforms, and gore-tex performance, and effect of stress on marksmanship.

Our work on defining what it means to be a Quiet Professional has had penetrating influence and driven healthy conversations with both mountain and tactical professionals.

 

9) Direct, Honest, Clear Answers

Since 2007 we’ve taken and answered dozens of questions weekly from mountain and tactical athletes. We’ve saved these individual Q&A’s and now thousands are archived on our site.

We’re not salesmen, and our answers are noted for their directness, honesty, and clarity. Our stuff isn’t for everyone. If we can help, we’ll let you know. If we can’t, we’ll let you know that, too.

– Rob Shaul, Founder

 


All of the Above is Backed Up By Our Promise: Our Stuff Works. Guaranteed.

Our Stuff Works. Guaranteed.

By Rob Shaul

I received notes frequently from athletes hesitant to purchase a subscription or training plans asking me to sell them on why they should make the purchase.

While I understand the question, I’m not a salesman – so I can’t put a hard sale on anyone for our programming.

I can tell them the process we go through to design our programming.

We begin with extensive research on the fitness demands of the event, identify the exercises and progressions which sport specifically meet those demands, chose end-of-cycle goals, and program backward to design the plan.

Then we test the cycle on ourselves and our lab rats here in Wyoming. We document, note what works and doesn’t work, re-assess, and make changes and modifications.

Then we publish the programming in the form of one of our plans or as part of our subscription daily training sessions for tactical and mountain athletes.
We don’t stop there – our daily programming is the “tip of the spear” for our programming evolution. We use these sessions to learn and make continuous improvement.

As we learn more and improve, we go back, and update the sport-specific training plans on the website. For example, we’re currently on Version 5 of our Ruck Based Selection Training Plan and Version 3 of our Dryland Ski Training Plan and Version 4 of our Big Game Back Country Hunting Training Plan.

We understand our programing isn’t cheap, but we believe it’s a great value. The $79 for the Ruck Based Selection Training Plan, and $39 for the Dryland Ski Training Plan reflect the, research, work, innovative theory, iteration, testing and feedback we’ve put in and received to make these plans effective.

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Here’s our guarantee:

1) Individual Training Plan Purchase:
If you purchase an individual training plan, follow it as prescribed before your season/event/pft/selection, and if you don’t feel you were physically ready for your season/event/pft/selection, and/or didn’t see dramatic improvements in your early season performance, we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

2) Athlete’s Subscription
If you purchase an Athletes’ Subscription, follow the training sessions as prescribed, and are not satisfied with the quality of the programming, notify us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

Questions?
Email: rob@mtntactical.com

COMMON QUESTIONS:

Do you have any reviews or testimonials from athletes who have used your Athlete’s Subscription
Yes. Click HERE.

Is it true you guarantee your stuff works?
Yes. If you purchase an Athletes’ Subscription, follow the training sessions as prescribed, and are not satisfied with the quality of the programming, notify us within 30 days of purchase, and we’ll refund your money, no questions asked.

How is MTI programming different than CrossFit?
This is a common question. Read our answer HERE.

You have a lot of competitors. Why should I choose MTI?
MTI is driven to improve mountain and tactical athletes’ mission performance and keep them safe. This emphasis and focus on mission performance sets us apart. Read about more that sets us apart HERE.

If I purchase a plan or subscription, how do I access the programming?
All of our plans are online, accessible via username and password.
You can log in through our →Website  or Mobile App →IOS and Android.

Do you have downloadable .pdf’s of the training plans?
No. But you can print the programming, by week, from your browser. You access individual training plans online via a username and password.

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Yes, we do. Available for IOS and Android.

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You can do it yourself. Instructions HERE.

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If you add new plans or update existing plans after I subscribe will I have access to them?
Yes. We are continuously adding training plans and packets (2-5/month) and updating plans. With your subscription you’ll have access to all new plans, new courses and plan updates.

What Equipment is Required?
Click the “Required Equipment” tab to find out what equipment is required for the specific plan you are interested in.

Where do I find unfamiliar exercises?
See our Exercise Library HERE. The Run and Ruck Calculators are listed as exercises.

What about nutrition?
See our Nutritional Guidelines HERE.

Can I see sample training?
Click the “Sample Training” tab to see the entire first week of programming.
You are encouraged to do it before purchasing.

What if I have more questions?
Email rob@mtntactical.com

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