Hi everyone,
I finished yesterday, here's my two bits:
My goal was to try and do all sessions before breakfast. This was tough as I start my day early, and I have to stay up until late.
Picked 24kg bell. This turned out to be just the right size for me.
My strength moves were chin ups for pulls, and dips for pushes. To keep things simple I only did these. (I did goblet squats for warmup.)
Time. I started the program on 31st of October and wanted to finish by this week, so I had three sessions with only swings.
1st session took me 44 minutes (without warmup and cooldown). I rested a lot at first, around 1 minute between the first three sets and 3 minutes after the set of 50 swings. First I reduced the 1 minute, then after a while the 3 minute rests. My best time with strength moves was 33 minutes, with only swings 30 minutes.
Grip. It was really challenging to do 50 swings at first. At the end it is still challenging, but more fun
Obviously, the chin up days were tougher than dip days, because of grip fatigue. (I had some pain in one finger from around day 11, but I guess rolling a log over it a few weeks earlier didn't help much.) My grip definitely got stronger I could feel it improve almost every time.
Additonal. I printed out the cues for the 4 sets. Something like this; Set 1: hike pass, glutes. Set 2: throw the bell forward. Set 3: plank. Set 4: breathing. Put this on the wall and was reading it while I rested. This was the best thing in the 4 weeks as it kept me very conscious of my form and made my rediscover a few things:
Injury history is always important. I've noticed a slight imbalance in hip movement. It made my realize that my right ankle injury, which I almost forgot was the cause. Some extra stretching and knowing that it caused some problems along the chain helped a lot.
Swings work the whole body.
Rest (the grip) while the bell floats.
More abs.
More glutes.
I know these are obvious, but for me re-learning these was the best experience in the four weeks. I feel this program deepend my understanding of the swing. It was well worth the effort and I will do this program again in the future at least once a year.
Dan Jon, thank you.
(By the way, weight: -1 kg, waist: - 3cm.)