I decided to run this program/challenge whilst I was waiting for my 5/3/1 Forever book to make it’s way from the US to me here in the UK. Having run Dan Johns Easy Strength for Fat Loss programme I thought doing the 10,000 KB swings in a month challenge would be an interesting challenge and one I was genuinely unsure whether I’d be able to hack physically and mentally. I’d also never run a KB specialist program before and wanted to tick it off the list. I wanted to further lean out and thought this program would do the trick.
Setup:
I like to keep my training days pretty consistent where possible so I ran 2 days on, 1 day rest, 3 days on, 1 day rest.
I programmed a strength movement to run with the swings in the form of 5x5 ramped sets. These were planned to be SSB squats, Swiss Bar Bench, Chins, Z press and TBDL’s
I have 4 KB’s, a 16kg, 20kg, 24kg and 28kg bell
Diet:
As I wanted to continue with the fat loss I’d experienced on prior block I continued with a deficit diet but nothing stupidly aggressive. I also ensured I ate before training.
Week 1:
The first session was a day after getting back from holiday. I’d not done much work in the week I had away and nothing in the way of KB swings as I’d only taken my resistance bands with me. The night before I was having dreams about not being able to complete the session or losing count of reps. The first session was the most challenging one, think the most swings I’d ever done in a session was about 200 and I used the 16kg and 20kg bells more than I wanted. I also went for squats first up. The next day I was in real pain all over most noticeable in the hammys/glutes and traps. To be fair after about 50 swings I felt better and got the session in. Each session that week the overall weight that I’d swung came up as I was using lighter bells less. I couldn’t shake the DOMS all week and was walking like John Wayne.
Using the 28kg bell I managed unbroken 15 rep sets. I’d also be struggling to pick things up straight away after finishing which was interesting when trying to carry kids downstairs. I then couldn’t make a fist by the end of the week. I’d managed to rip the old calluses off my hands which were red raw by the end of the week. Weight wise I’d got rid of the holiday weight and got back to 208lbs which I was before I went away.
Week 2:
Finding it easier to knock out 25/30 reps of 24kg bell and 20 on 28kg. Gripping barbells was becoming a real struggle and skipped TBDL this week. Only real soreness I had left was in my hands and wrist.
Sessions total weight were exceeding 12000kg swung which was my aim as it averaged out over using the 24kg bell for 500. I only used the 16kg bell for one short warmup set and in a game I like to call KB chaos - more on that later. I also introduced a rule that week that said the 28kg bell swings had to exceed those done using 16kg and 20kg bells combined.
The new calluses that had formed had to be cut off as they were ripping anyway. My weight went up to 210lbs despite being in a deficit.
Week 3
Got a 40 rep unbroken set with 24kg bell and 30 reps set with the 28kg bell. Top sets of strength exercises were a struggle as fatigue and grip strength becoming an issue. My right hand ring finger swelled up which was because of my grip sliding due to blisters and sweat.
Week 4
Bit of a limp to the finish at the start of the week with sessions taking over 50 minutes. Decided to up calories which was the right decision as the end of the week was a strong finish. Starting to get wrists aching throughout the day. Also going for the 50 rep unbroken set was a no no as my hands were aching to fuck plus the humidity meant that I was pissing with sweat more than usual. By week 4 i was starting to want this to end quite badly. To combat the problems with my finger swelling I started to tape my fingers up which helped.
General observations
I knew that I needed to have a robust counting method so had an active note in my phone I’d keep count of the numbers on overall and by KB. I also used rounding values of 5 or 0 to make things simpler. This also meant if I went to say 26 reps I had to make 30.
My Apple Watch was showing calories burnt in sessions through the roof. I know this isn’t an accurate measure but I tend to use it as a barometer.
I didn’t have set method of getting the 500 I used a combo of challenging higher rep (+25) sets with higher weight and some lower rep sets with said weights or the 20kg bell. I also played KB chaos where I’d hit reps on all the bells depending on what order I could grab them in which if used with more than 10 reps and done in minimal time was a gasser.
The sweat was pissing off me every time, I mean I was drenched. Each session was hard, I tried to make each one more challenging. The last 50 reps were generally the hardest as fatigue, sweat and desire to be done set in.
I’ve struggled previously with lower back pain, other than some soreness and general creakiness I felt pretty good.
As mentioned I didn’t really lose much weight pretty consistently weighing in around 210. Having said that I look leaner and my trousers are looser. Think my legs and forearms are bigger but top half are a bit smaller which given the lack of volume and intensity of upper body work isn’t all that surprising. I’m good with all of this. Started reading the 5/3/1 book and something Jim said about judging progress my scale weight and calliper’s is bullshit (I paraphrase) struck a cord so stopped weighing myself as the main objective was crush this challenge.
My appetite, and I’m really surprised with this, was actually suppressed. Didn’t really have any issue staying in a deficit from a hunger perspective until back end of last week.
Another goal I had was to complete the required numbers each session and not owe reps. Nearly did this but had one day where I only managed 350 as my 3yo woke up and was upset I wasn’t there and who can say no to being the preferred parent 
I stuck the balance on the following day which was a scheduled rest day in the form of a Livitnov style workout. The conditioning part of that was actually easy.
I’d definitely do this challenge again at some point, if I was playing rugby again I think this would be awesome to do immediately post season as it’s low impact and great conditioning plus also gave me a bit of a recomp. For me however im not gonna miss it and am looking forward to my fingers being normal size and hands not covered in blisters and aching