Story of The Molten Rock: Kettlebell Long Cycle World Record Attempt 2011

My preparation for the Long Cycle kettlebell competition, Zagreb, Croatia, January 8th 2011

By Katarina "The Molten Rock" Helcmanovska, IKFF CKT


After the World Championship in Italy on 6th November 2010 (I competed in snatch only) my next competition will be Long Cycle in Zagreb, Croatia on 8th January 2011.

For those less familiar with Girevoy Sport (kettlebell sport) Long cycle is clean and jerk repeated over 10minutes period. Women compete with one kb and change hands once (ideally midset), men compete with 2 kbs. The aim is to perform as many repetitions as possible without putting the kettlebell down.

My long cycle (LC) training started on 9th November 2010. I did 8 minute sets with 24kg Kettlebell and managed 83reps. I was confident. LOng Cycle is my favourite exercise. My last LC comp was early March 2010 and I only competed with 20kg and did 115 reps. I haven’t done much LC training since but I’ve been doing a lot of jerk in my biathlon training and I knew clean is not a problem for me so this time I wanted to compete with 24kg.


Katarina "The Molten Rock" Helcmanovska Representing




Journey of A Thousand Steps...

Only after 1 week of training I managed to do MSWC ( master of sport world class) numbers 112reps. It came easy and I thought: “Is this it? I achieved the numbers, what do I do know? “ But my coach Gregor Sobocan had different idea. He suggested that I will do 130 reps in january. Now that was a challenge. Going at 13rpm for 10min with 24kg is not easy and I had less than 2 months to be ready!

I started training 5 days a week, despite having a full time job. My training is pretty simple: LC sets, jerk, one arm swings, BB jump squats and box jumps. Not much else involved just changing the length of sets, rest period and weight of kb. On Sundays when 2 of the gyms where I train ( 1 PT and OLF) are closed I do incline sprints in my local gym. On Saturdays I would normally attend Cj’s and Sabina’s Full Throttle class but because I don’t have much time left til the competition I now concentrate purely on my LC training.


Now I have only 1 day before I fly outleft and I’m feeling confident. Two weeks ago I managed to do 122reps (with 24kg) which is already more than the official best 116reps done by Svetlana Krechyk. As well I did 10min set with 28kg, 81reps total. Using a heavier kb helps make the 24kg feel lighter. I will do a 10min set with 24kg this week and I’m hoping to get 130reps.

Svetlana Krechyk In Action



At the end I just wanted to say that my intense LC training definately made me overall stronger. I noticed this when I attended the Full Throttle class before Christmas and teh exercises I would previously struggle with felt pretty ok. I look forward to competing in the Zagreb Competition, and setting new standards for womens Kettlebell Sport.