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Old Forum Dan Johns "the 10000 swing kettlebell workout" article from t-nation

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I started out doing only three rounds of 10-15-25-50 with a 24kg. The 50s were really hard but I pushed through.

After a week or so I started swinging a 32kg for the 10-15 sets

Then moved onto using the 32kg for 10-15-25 and just did the 50 with 24kg

By the 20th day the sets of 50 with 24kg were the easy bit. The only problem was my sweaty grip ...but it was a lot stronger than when I started.

Through the whole thing I only did 3 rounds / 300 swings a day (total 6000 in 20 days) due to having a young baby and therefor poor sleep and pretty poor eating / free time / etc etc
 
forearm/grip fatigue is minimized with one arm swings. give it a shot on the light and medium weights and see.
 
I started the second round of this programme today, this time with the 32kg. After following it to the letter with the 24kg, I may "add some blue" to it in just two aspects:

- use 2 days on, 2 days off, not 2 days on, 1 day off like before

- allow myself to initially swing the 32kg single-handedly on the 50 reps and alternate L+R.

The goal will be to end up doing the 50 consecutive reps with two hands comfortably, but I feel the step up to the 32kg is already quite a big one and I don't want to push myself too much to start with.

Fat loss is still the goal and I intend to undereat on my days off (mainly boiled potatoes, don't ask), and eat normally on the days on (meat, veggies, kefir). The leaner I get, the more I am convinced from experience it is all about diet and not so much exercise, so that is why I plan to take two days off where I restrict calories and only do some walking.

Today swinging the 32kg for 500 reps felt fine. I took my time with it, well over an hour, so let's see how much I can cut that down in a month's time.
 
My "blue" is using a three day per week schedule instead of four.  I'm going to continue until the twenty workouts are up.
 
I started this plan a couple weeks ago after working on the PM for a couple months.  At that point, the only KB I owned was a 20kg, so I was performing the workouts with a couple ankle weights strapped onto the KB, bringing it up to 49 lbs.  The first workout or two were rough on the grip/cardio, but I progressed quickly and within a week I had dropped 10 min (from 43 to 33 min on workout time).  

I ordered a Rogue 24kg and received that last week, but right now my workouts are hovering around 36 min total (Goblet Squat version).  I like to stick to programs as they are prescribed, because I don't pretend to be smarter than those who come up with them, but I also want to make sure I'm getting max benefit out of the workouts.  At the end of the workout, I'm definitely feeling it in my forearms and hammies, but not completely exhausted like the first few workouts.

Should I stick with the program as is and continue to lower my rest times, or should I boost the numbers of the strength exercises between the swings?  Or boost number of swings? I can move up in weight to 60lb when I work out at work, but at home I'm stuck with the 24kg. 

 

 
 
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.)

 
 
Hey everyone, a few people at my jiu-jitsu academy have been talking about doing this,  so I have two more tournaments then I'll be free to undertake this challenge. The only thing I worry about with this much swinging are developing muscular imbalances. All thoughts and opinions more than welcome.
 
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