I'm on the 7th day of the program (i.e., 3,500 swings into it). I'm doing it exactly as written except my gym uses kettlebells measured in pounds not kg so I'm using 50 lbs rather than 24 kg (53 lbs). My two strength moves are the 1-arm KB press (50# each arm, i.e., first left then right = 1 rep) and the double KB front squat (2 x 50#).
These are not equal; the FSQ is much more taxing. I selected them basically for reasons of convenience; it's very quick to move from the swings to the strength moves with minimal time wasted in between. (For obvious reasons, the 1-arm press includes two 1a 50# cleans, and the FSQ includes a 100# double KB clean.) I do them on alternating days, i.e.:
Day 1 - swings w/1a presses
Day 2 - swings w/FSQ
Day 3 - off
Day 4 - swings w/1a presses
Day 5 - swings w/FSQ
Day 6 - swings only
Day 7 - off
So when I say I'm on the 7th day of the program I mean I did 1-7 above, then repeated 1 and 2; tomorrow will be an off day.
I'm also doing something inspired by a separate blog post I found where Dan suggests that on each round of 10, you focus your attention on the eccentric overspeed downswing; on each round of 15, you focus on the up swing; and on the 25, you focus on the plank. (On the 50, I just focus on getting through it!)
The program contains two ambiguities, but for both, I think I know what Dan meant. First, the text of the article, he says you take the 30-60 second rest after each round of 10, 15, and 25, then a 3+ min rest after each round of 50. But when he actually lists examples of how it would work, he puts the 30-60 sec rest after the 50 (and no rest after the 10, 15, and 25!). I'm doing it per the text. Second, he doesn't specify whether to take the 30-60 sec rest *before* the strength move (i.e., 25 reps, then 30 sec rest, then 3 reps of strength move) or *after* it (i.e., 25 reps, then 3 reps of strength move, then 30 sec rest). I've been doing the latter since it makes more sense.
Here are my results so far after 1/3 of the program:
- My time-to-complete has decreased. (That said, it takes me longer on the FSQ days than the press days.) I sometimes take less than 30sec rest after the short sets, and for the first few clusters, even after the 25 I often just need 30sec rest. By the last cluster I definitely need 60sec after the 25. Also, whereas on the first few days I would often take more than 3 min for the inter-cluster rest, now I just do 3 min each time.
- Cardio: My resting heart rate has definitely decreased (from 58bpm to 50). Also, whereas on the first few days my HR would spike very high (for me, at age 46: as high as 168bpm) during/after the set of 50 and I'd basically collapse in a puddle on the floor for most of the inter-cluster rest, now it just spikes "moderately high" (150s) and I take the rest periods standing and/or stretch as Dan suggests.
- Haven't had any obvious body composition changes yet.
- Haven't seen any major strength changes yet; the strength moves are still hard.
- Grip seems to have improved. (See next item.)
- The hardest part is of course the 50. The first two days I did it, I could only get through 50 consecutive on the first cluster and then had to break it up into pieces. Starting on the third day, I was able to get through all 50 all 5 times. A good mental trick is to count *down* from 50 to 1; it seems to help me not lose hope. The main difficulty is the grip.
- The 25 is a different type of difficulty. Whereas the 10 and 15 are pretty easy, and the 50 is a mental slog that you will apply your full mental strength to surviving, the 25 is in-between and hard to find the right mental state. (Sort of like how it's hard to pace a middle-distance run.)
I should also note that I do a pretty extensive (20-25 minute) warmup because I train at 5:30am and at 46 my body's a little creaky that early.
This is not something I would want to do for the long haul but I'm glad to be doing it as a one-time challenge.