GVT Day 4 – 80 Military Presses, 100 Pullups, 30 Turkish Get Ups

Wow! My arms are still shaking from this workout. I’m on the 4th workout in the German Volume Training (GVT) portion of a 12 week Kettlebell program. The program is from Mike Mahler’s DVD The Kettlebell Solution for Size and Strength.

Persistence is paying off. Today was much better than last time I did this workout. I improved on all three exercises.

Double Military Presses

I managed to stick with the 16kg kettlebells for the double military presses and I pulled off ten sets of eight with good form. The double military presses work the shoulders and arms most, but like all kettlebell movements your entire core is engaged to keep you stabilized.

Pull Ups

Mike Mahler’s program prescribes kettlebell pulls, where you hang a kettlebell from a dip chain and do pullups. That’s a bit much for me, so I modified it and am doing kipping pullups. Kipping pullups are a variation that I discovered through CrossFit that engages the entire body.

Today I managed to pull of ten complete sets of ten without having my grip die on me. It felt awesome to actually be able to complete 100 pullup in a single workout.

Here are two great videos that do an incredible job explaining the kipping pull up. The steps are:

1. Swing
2. Getting Vertical with knees-up
3. Turn-Hips Over – bridge with the hips, this gets you up over the bar.
4. Push straight back.

Steps 1 and 2

Steps 3 and 4

Turkish Get Ups

These are total body killers. I kept the same weight, sticking with the 20kg kettlebell, and managed to increase my reps from 3 to 5 per side. So overall I did three sets of 5 each side for a total of 30 TGUs.

With how my body is feeling this program will definitely increase my strength and size. Bring it!

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.