The more the merrier!
I’ve tried these, and I just can’t bear them long enough to be considered anything like squat work. They might be worse than front squats!
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 8 of 12
Sunday - 16 October 2022
Workout: Swing, 1315-1345 (30 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing
b) 15 swing
c) 25 swing
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 23:44
Swings: 9000/6000(-ish)
Still fasted.
Shaved 31 seconds off my last swing-only workout: Kept between-set breaks below 15 seconds and the between-round rest periods right around 60 seconds—just enough time to un-cramp my hands! There’s still a tiny bit of room to shave off time before I just have to go for 100 straight…
Finding it kinda hard to believe I’m at 9000 swings already!
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 9 of 12
Monday - 17 October 2022
Workout: Swing & press + penalty round, 0520-0600 + 0725-0735 (40 + 10 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 1 press
b) 15 swing, 2 press
c) 25 swing, 3 press
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 32:06
Swings: 9600/6000(-ish)
Fasted. I may have found the end of my rope, folks: I had to fight hard for the first rep in the set of 3 presses in the last round, my knees dipped on the last rep of that set, and I could feel my ROM shortening again on the last 15 or so reps of the last 50-rep set. Granted, I also shortened the between-round rest periods to about 50 seconds this morning, and that’s just over 90 seconds off the total time of my last swing & press workout…
But at what cost? Crappy work? That was obviously a bit aggressive, and I need to adjust accordingly.
Anyway, you know the drill: A penalty round soon, then a swing & dip workout much later this afternoon.
Edit: Penalty round done in 4:37, press felt strong, good swings. And I’m setup for this afternoon’s work now, too.
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I think they’re an acquired taste. I found once I started using sleeves I quite enjoyed them, plus I think they look pretty badass.
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For sure! I saw a video of @aldebaran doing these in another thread earlier today (but I forget where and I can’t find it now), and “badass” is the only appropriate word!
6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 9 of 12
Monday - 17 October 2022
Workout: Swing & dip, 1720-1815 (50 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 2 dip
b) 15 swing, 3 dip
c) 25 swing, 5 dip
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 38:40
Swings: 10200/6000(-ish)
So that’s 10.2K swings across 17 workouts in 9 days. Not bad.
I was deliberate about slightly longer between-round rests here, but I’ve definitely hit some kind of wall: I couldn’t have moved faster this afternoon if I had wanted to. All the reps were clean, though, and I was just a bit less than 60 seconds slower than my last dip & swing workout a few days ago. Oh, and I didn’t use any chalk at all but my grip held up alright, so lots of little victories—and one big one—today!
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Effort is effort. Congratulations on doing these 10 K! Will you do a little write-up?
Ooooh now you got me tempted. I’m going tonight to a gym where there’s an axle. I wanted to do a max Spider squat, but I’ll probably swith for Zercher then, because it is waaaay more enjoyable with an axle 
Just like the hook grip, it takes some times. At first I would have my hoodie on, or sometimes even use the pussy pad. Now I don’t really care. Using some chalks in the elbows can help as well
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Thanks, mate! I’m planning to do a quick summary at the end of my 12 days, but I’ve got another 2.5 to go and I’m hoping to exceed 13K by that point.
Glad I could be of service.
6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 10 of 12
Tuesday - 18 October 2022
Workout: Swing & squat, 0520-0600 (40 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 1 front squat
b) 15 swing, 2 front squat
c) 25 swing, 3 front squat
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 31:33
Swings: 10800/6000(-ish)
Fasted. Maybe I’ve been underfed, because my appetite caught up with me yesterday and I didn’t stop eating until I went to bed. All good stuff, and I wasn’t forcing feeding, but I just couldn’t get enough!
Super-solid morning: Shaved just over 80 seconds off my previous swing & squat workout, and all of the reps—swings and squats alike—just felt good. I’ve got 2 workouts left before I will have completed the 20 Rx sessions (at +1 round each), and I should be able to get in 3 more beyond that before we leave, which means I could hit 13.8K by the end… That’s now the goal, anyway!
That, and the stupid BB curls—bah!
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Damn, you’re killing this!! I’ve been really enjoying swings lately too.
Me….
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Would you put up a video of what you would call a good set of swings and a bad set? Just curious. I feel like a swing is a swing, but you have done penance for poor form.
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@anna_5588 - Thanks! Despite yesterday morning’s performance hiccup, I’m still feeling good. The super-short rest periods didn’t help, but mostly I think I just hadn’t eaten enough on Sunday—because of the way the day went, I really only ate dinner. Certainly made up for that last night, though!
@jdm135 - Hah! Don’t rely on me for “good” anything as it relates to technique. Dan John has a great video in the original 10k Swing Challenge article, and I’m doing some swings in the video posted here, but at the end of the day, I think my “bad swings” probably look more or less like my “good swings”—I was sensing some degradation in the bad swings, but really “good v. bad” and my self-imposed penalty work was about mindset and my (lack of) willingness to push harder.
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 10 of 12
Tuesday - 18 October 2022
Workout: Swing & chin-up, 1625-1705 (40 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 1 chin
b) 15 swing, 2 chin
c) 25 swing, 3 chin
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 32:10
Swings: 11400/6000(-ish)
That’s 32 seconds off my previous swing & chin-up workout, and my grip held up!
One more workout in the 20 Rx by the original 10K Challenge, then I’ll be moving through sessions of swing & press/dip and swing & squat/chin followed by a single all-swing session to finish out the 12-day run!
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 11 of 12
Wednesday - 19 October 2022
Workout: Swing, 0530-0600 (30 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing
b) 15 swing
c) 25 swing
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 21:10
Swings: 12000/6000(-ish)
12K swings across 20 sessions in 11 days, or more than double my original swing goal in fewer days than my original time goal. Awesome!
I was aiming for a 3:30 per-round average and came in at just over 3:31 per, so not too bad. Good, solid swings throughout, too. Kept between-set breaks to about 10 seconds (but let that slip to 20 between the 25- and 50-rep sets), and kept the between-round breaks between 30-40 seconds (but that started to slip closer to 50-60 seconds after Round 4).
Even so, I dropped a massive 2:34 off my prevous swing-only workout—not a bad way to finish up the last session of the original 10K Challenge!
Still have a day and a half before we leave, so now it’s on to the “extra” sessions…
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Heckuva job man. Nice work!
What’s next?
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Thanks, man!
Vacation!
6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 11 of 12
Wednesday - 19 October 2022
Workout: Swing & press/dip, 1715-1755 (40 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 1 press (odd)/1 dip (even)
b) 15 swing, 2 press (odd)/2 dip (even)
c) 25 swing, 3 press (odd)/3 dip (even)
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 33:15
Swings: 12600/6000(-ish)
Crap—I totally messed up by doing too few reps on the dips. I didn’t realize that in the moment, only just now as I was typing things up. 11 days in and NOW I feel like I cheated!
Not sure what I’m going to do about that… Nothing tonight, that’s for sure!
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 12 of 12
Thursday - 20 October 2022
Workout: Swing & squat/chin + penalty, 0525-0610 + 1215-1240 (45 + 25 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing, 1 front squat (odd)/1 chin (even)
b) 15 swing, 2 front squat (odd)/2 chin (even)
c) 25 swing, 3 front squat (odd)/3 chin (even)
d) 50 swing
e) 90-second rest
Time: 36:25
Swings: 13200/6000(-ish)
Man, that one might’ve been worse than last Monday AM—super low on energy this morning. At least I got the reps right today.
I’d say, “One more left!” except that I’ve decided to redo the dips rounds from yesterday, so: “Only two more left,” I guess. More as it comes…
Edit: Still fasted. 3 rounds of 10/15/25/50 swings & 2/3/5 dips in 16:44. Call it “make up,” call it “penalty,” call it “yesterday’s actual swing & dip work,” I don’t care—it’s done, and so now I can say: One more left!
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Finish line is in sight!
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6K(-ish) Swing Challenge - Day 12 of 12
Thursday - 20 October 2022
Workout: Swing, 1550-1615 (25 minutes)
6 rounds of:
a) 10 swing
b) 15 swing
c) 25 swing
d) 50 swing
e) Minimal rest
Time: 19:30
Swings: 13800/6000(-ish)
Okay, that’s that. I absolutely crushed my previous swing-only time of 21:10 by 1:40; it wasn’t quite 600 swings back-to-back-to-…-to-back, but it was as close as I want to come!
So I come upstairs still huffin’ and puffin’, but manage to nonchalantly say to my wife, “Well, that’s 13,800 swings in 12 days,” and—I kid you not—she says, “What? You’re not going to go back downstairs at some point tonight to round out an even 14,000?”
Are you f-ing kidding me!?!
Well I am now, thank you very much…
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot: I did an extra 10 swings in the last set of 50, just to make sure. So that’s technically 13810/6000.
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