Good luck with the challenge.
I’ll be here supporting and telling you to get back in, if you start to tremble and talk about quitting.
It’s only a month, the first week you’re fresh, the second will be hard then you halfway and can see the end.
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@mortdk thanks for your support. Already feeling not so fresh though haha.
18/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 2
10 swings
30-60s rest
15 swings
30-60s rest
25 swings
30-60s rest
50 swings
~3 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 55 mins
Second day in the books. I woke up this morning with some of the worst DOMS I’ve had - not so much pain wise but the fact it was my whole posterior chain and how stiff it made me. My wrists are also really sore, I think from how I was holding the kettlebell. After playing around with my grip a bit it stopped hurting around halfway today so hopefully that’s sorted for future.
In the article it suggests doing strength exercises in between swings for advanced lifters which obviously I am not, therefore I’m not going to do them every workout. At the minute I’m thinking every other one and I am still not sure whether to do overhead press each time, overhead press and front squat alternating or four exercises like his example in the article.
@duketheslaya just looking back through my log and saw this last August. You’ve come on a lot haha.
Oh woah Haha
20/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 3
10 swings
2 press ups
30s rest
15 swings
3 press ups
30s rest
25 swings
5 press ups
60s rest
50 swings
2-3 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 50 mins
Felt more like a conditioning workout than high rep strength work that I was stumbling through this time. It’s crazy how quick my body is adapting from being run it into the ground, maybe there’s something to learn here.
The first workout I was struggling to get up after the 3 mins rest whereas here I was stopping the clock early after 2 mins and somewhat ready to go. Today was still tough but in a different way. Before I felt like my soul had left me and I had nothing left whereas today it was because parts of me were aching or I was out of breath. If this is the change after two workouts I’m looking forward to what twenty will do if I keep pushing them. And it may just be my eyes but I already feel like my belly is less ‘fat’.
Finally, worth noting is that I haven’t done the 50 reps unbroken yet. Day 1 it was 10-20 reps, take 10 breaths then 10 more reps, repeat to 50; day 2 was 10-25 reps, take 10 breaths, 10-15 reps, repeat to 50 with the reps depending how far through the workout I was. Today was 25 reps, 10 breaths, 15 reps, 10 breaths, 10 reps for the first four rounds and 30 reps, 10 breaths, 10 reps, 10 breaths, 10 reps for the last with 30 being my rep PR so far. Also I definitely didn’t do all sets of 25 unbroken in the first workout and I don’t think I did in the second either, today I did.
3 Likes
22/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 4
10 swings
1 press
No rest
15 swings
2 presses
30-60s rest
25 swings
3 presses
60s rest
50 swings
2-3 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 51 mins
Nearly a time PR. The heat really wore me down today and I looked like I’d walked in the shower with my clothes on at the end.
The last round in particular had two interesting moments. First, lowering the weight for the first rep of OHP I went dizzy as I bent my arms and next thing I know I’d fallen into the rack, I don’t think that’s happened before. Second, during the set of 25, as silly as it sounds I feel like I almost had an out of body experience. Around rep 15 everything sort of stopped hurting and all I was concentrating on was counting to 25 - I’m kind of disappointed I stopped there because I feel like I could have gone on forever.
3 Likes
23/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 5
10 swings
5s rest
15 swings
15-45s rest
25 swings
30-60s rest
50 swings
~2 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 40 mins (PR)
Concentration curls: 15x5, 10x5
Hammer chest press: 10 close grip - 10 medium grip - slow eccentric with hold at bottom x 20kg
Tricep push downs: 1 set to failure
Big PR and it was even hotter than yesterday. I even had the energy to do a bit more afterwards.
I’ll start recording PRs with the time from now on and keep separate ones for days with swings only and with different exercises in between.
2 Likes
25/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 6
10 swings
2 press up
No rest
15 swings
3 press ups
10-30s rest
25 swings
5 press ups
30-60s rest
50 swings
1-2 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 39 mins (PR)
Had to really work in the last round for that PR. Checked the clock after finishing round 4 and had 6.5 mins left if I wanted a PR. The last two days I did the first round in about 5 mins while fresh but the shortest rest I had had yet was about 2 mins between rounds. Rested 1.5 mins and then went for it and made it with about 30s to spare.
27/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 7
10 swings
2 goblet squats
No rest
15 swings
3 goblet squats
10-30s rest
25 swings
5 goblet squats
30-60s rest
50 swings
1-2 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 37 mins (PR)
Still going strong coming up to half way. A few interesting things to note at this point:
-
My grip has been the limiting factor these past two days whereas I never had trouble before. I don’t think it’s related to anything outside of the gym. My theory is that at first my conditioning was the thing holding me back but my grip was getting enough time to recover whereas now my conditioning has caught up and my grip is being challenged.
-
Mentally it’s getting tougher to go to the gym. As I’ve seen people mention it just gets plain boring after a while. Once I am in the gym it’s not too bad - I don’t give myself time to get bored and it makes a good motivator to be as quick as possible so I spend less time there. Actually getting up and going to the gym which is the hard part though.
1 Like
28/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 8
10 swings
No rest
15 swings
0-30s rest
25 swings
15-45s rest
50 swings
1 mins rest
5 rounds of above
Time: 28 mins (PR)
Hammer chest press (5s eccentric): 2x5x30, 15x30, 8x30
Tricep push-down: 10x20, dropset: 20x30-10x25-15x20
Concentration curls: 20, 15x5
Rear delt swings: RP to 50 reps with 3kgs
Another big PR, knocked nearly 25% off my last workout’s time. Conditioning wise I feel great and as with yesterday my grip was holding me back here and was very close to failure quite a lot.
Tomorrow is an off day, Tuesday is on and then Wednesday to Friday I am away for a wedding. Depending what time I get back on Friday I am hoping to get a workout in then. Regardless, after the break I think I’m going to do one more workout with this 16kg bell then go up to 20kg.
I like the idea of doing the majority of the last half of the challenge with 20kg and somewhere towards the end doing one more day with 16kg just to see how quick I can go. I also quite want to try one workout with a 24kg bell too to see what I should be using.
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CRUSHING the time PRs my man. I actually didn’t have any PRs after week 2, I think, until the very end. I’d definitely say you’re ready to up the weight to the 20-24kg range.
@flappinit thanks! I think a lot is down to how unconditioned I was to start with, I keep expecting to hit a plateau soon.
I do feel like I’m cheating a bit now with a 16kg bell. A part of the article resonating with me as I did the extra work today was that if you feel like you can do more you’re not going fast enough or using a heavy enough kettlebell. I certainly couldn’t have done more grip stuff but I did still have enough energy for some chest and triceps so I’m not sure. I think a couple more workouts pushing my grip to the limit should help it and then it and my conditioning will both be limiting factors.
Whatever happens, from day 11 onwards I will be using the 20kg bell. That gives me half the challenge with it and if I do one workout with the 24kg and one with the 16kg I’m going to say they average out to 20kg too. If things go extra well I might even do a few with 24kg - I probably should anyway because it looks big and scary.
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Yeah, I only had standard bells here in the US so I did the 50 the whole time (the 24 is about 52) and it was tough, but next year I’ll use the 55 and then my whole challenges will average out to 52.5, haha.
@flappinit I don’t think I’ll want to do it again anytime soon (anytime in the next few years). The results have been good so far but it’s getting very boring.
Saying that, there’s a 32kg bell at my gym and earlier I was thinking how it would be good to complete a day with that sometime. While it’s not fun doing the workouts back to back I could see myself doing it occasionally to keep my conditioning in check.
30/07/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 9
10 swings
1 press
15 swings
2 presses
25 swings
3 presses
50 swings
2 rounds with presses, 3 rounds with swings only
Time: 38 mins
Sled push/pull:
5x1/1x30 + 10kg weighted vest
As little rest as I could manage (~about 30s after runs 2 & 3)
Drop set
1/1x30
1/1x20
1/1x10
Bit of explaining to do for this one. Round 1 I went at like normal and did it in about 5 mins but it was hard, like round 4 or 5 hard. Come round 2 my body feels like it’s broken - my grip is nearly going on the 10 reps, I’m wobbling everywhere with the presses and feel like I could be sick at any minute so I made the decision to take the rest easy and drop the swings.
I left the clock running but didn’t look at it. It felt like I’d taken an hour so I was surprised when it only took 38 mins. Every other workout so far has been near max effort. I could maybe have gone a minute faster on some, but I’ve been pushing myself hard. Looking at it in terms of your ‘floor’ and ‘ceiling’ like people sometimes talk about with strength, the previous workouts were near my ceiling. Today was near the ‘floor’ and yet I am only 1 minute behind what was my PR three days ago. That in itself is a victory for me.
Since I felt bad for taking it easy I added the sled stuff at the end and it killed my legs but was a lot of fun. I also did the last set of 50 swings unbroken which is the first time I’ve got the 50 in one go.
2 Likes
04/08/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 10
10 swings
0-10s rest
15 swings
15-30s rest
25 swings
30-60s rest
50 swings
Rest 1 min
Time: 38 mins
Had a great few days away for the wedding. Ended up drinking lots, eating lots of rubbish, having little sleep and walking loads, most of it up and down some massive hills. All that meant I ended up pretty worn out on Friday when I got back so I gave the gym a miss. Saturday I meant to go to the gym but forgot it closed early until I turned up there which brings us to today.
Started off ok but had a big slump during rounds 3 and 4 where I just ran out of energy. Tomorrow is going to be the first session with a 20kg bell and I’m nervous.
Forgot to mention so far but I weighed myself before the challenge and I’ve been weighing myself now and again since.
With the exception of one time where I was 1lb lighter I’ve been the same weight every time. I’m getting comments saying I look slimmer and/or more muscular from quite a few different people though.
I definitely feel and think I look skinnier too and I’ve gone back to wearing some older t-shirts that used to look a bit too tight around my belly.
04/08/19
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 11
20kg kettlebell from here until end of challenge unless mentioned otherwise
10 swings
0-10s rest
15 swings
15-30s rest
25 swings
30-60s rest
50 swings
Rest 1-2 mins
Time: low 40 mins
As mentioned, today I went from a 16kg bell to a 20kg one. The 16kg has a thick handle so the one on the 20kg bell is about the same diameter, if not a tiny bit less but slightly wider. I definitely noticed a difference and the first swing caught me off balance a bit. The first two rounds in particular were probably the hardest of all the workouts on both my grip and glutes.
I use a stopwatch on the internet on my phone for my workout time and have my phone’s stopwatch app open to time any rest between sets. Unfortunately I put my phone on airplane mode by accident after the third round and only realised at the end so I lost connection to the internet stopwatch with my workout time on. After round 3 it was 28 mins which puts me on track for somewhere around 40 mins total which was my goal going into the workout.
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More than halfway through! Keep digging deep and going for those time PRs!
@flappinit thanks for your support! It’s good mentally to know I’m over halfway and I’m excited to chip away with this heavier kettlebell.
10K Swing KB Challenge - Day 12
10 swings
2 press up
15 swings
3 press ups
25 swings
5 press ups
50 swings
5 rounds of above
Time: 45 mins
Lateral raises: 25x3s, 30x3s
Dumbbell curls: 10x5s, 15x5s
First two rounds I got done in 11 mins which is on par, if not a bit faster, than my 16kg swings only PR. Round three started ok but I’d been getting a more and more pumped lower back since the beginning and by the 25 rep set it was starting to cramp and for the first time in the whole challenge I was struggling to get enough pop to even swing the kettlebell to shoulder height.
Things got pretty rough very quickly from then on and I felt like I’d be turned off. Mentally it was one of the toughest moments of the challenge and near the beginning of round four I was having an internal battle, considering what would happen if I just left it there. Thankfully I didn’t and while it isn’t a PR, the effort was still there.
By the end my hamstrings and glutes were/are fried, maybe from three days back to back, maybe not, but I’m taking the next two off which is why I did three days on in the first place. Next workout I’m going to be aiming for my 16kg swing only PR.