Sunday 29th March (AM)
Decided I should try something completely different during this isolation phase and so Dan John’s 10,000 swing challenge! My plan is to do one day on, one day off, so it’ll actually take me just over 6 weeks to do all 20 workouts.
On this first session, I managed to do all 10/25/25/50 clusters unbroken on the first round, and then broke up the 50s on all the subsequent rounds.
Did chinups between clusters (1/2/3), and then took the full rest time (1m between clusters and 3m between rounds). Didn’t check the start time, but I think it took about 55 minutes altogether. I could probably have cut the rest times on the smaller clusters, so definitely room for progression.
I don’t actually have a kettlebell so I had planned to swing a dumbbell instead, but because I only have a plate-loaded one the shape is a bit funny and doesn’t lend itself to swinging very well. I settled instead on swinging a single 20kg plate- worked pretty well, but my the end if was pretty uncomfortable on the hand, and because I had to keep my arms pointing forwards, my biceps felt like they took a beating.
Looked into the technique for double swings, and might give double 10s a go next time instead.
Edit: weighed in at 12st 11.4lbs in the morning
Updated pictures as of this morning. Only about 9-10lbs down on my starting weight, and really not changed that drastically, but I’m happy that I can see improvement from my starting pictures and those from 2 months ago. Most notable I think is the lack off ‘spill over’ from the love handles in the back photo.
Still got the tilted shoulders issue, although this time the pictures were taken at a funny angle which may not be helping…
Tuesday 31st March
Second 10,000 swing challenge workout: used the double 10kg plates this time which seemed to be much kinder on my biceps tendons and hands, but more awkward to swing - it felt like I had to come down further, almost like a half squat, to allow my knees to push out far enough for the weights to swing through my legs. Generally a lot more to think about so my form probably wasn’t as good, but it was feeling smoother by the end, so hopefully it’s a short learning curve.
Managed to hit 10/15/25/30+20 on every round of swings, with maybe a 10s pause tops on the last cluster each time. Did half-kneeling single arm overhead presses with 8ish kg dumbbell between clusters, using a 3/4/5 rep scheme - slightly higher than Dan John recommended, but as the weight wasn’t too heavy I thought this would be OK. The plan is to up the weight slightly each workout, so I might drops the reps further on down the line.
Stuck to 1m rest between clusters and 3m rest between rounds, and got the whole lot done in 53 minutes. I can definitely shave some time off the rest in between rounds, but I’ll wait until I’ve done one complete go-through before trying to change it up.
Edit: weighed in at 12st 12.6lbs in the morning.
Thursday 2nd April
Third 10,000 swing challenge workout: stuck to 10/15/25/30+20 clusters throughout. Grip started struggling towards the end, especially on the last couple of rounds of 50s.
Did 2/3/5 reps of TRX pushups between swing clusters- don’t have dipping bars so thought these would make a resonable substitution. Actually found them harder than expected, although I think a big part of it is the straps meet at a single point, so you effectively have to press out and around yourself (if that makes sense). Scraped my arms up a fair bit too which was unpleasant.
Maintained 1m/3m rest times, albeit cutting off a few seconds here and there. Got the whole workout done in 51 minutes.
Weighed in at 12st 12.2lbs in the morning.
Saturday 4th April (AM)
Birthday workout! Fourth 10,000 swing challenge workout: still doing 10/15/25/30+20 clusters of swings with double 10s, and feeling like I’m getting into good rhythm with these. Glutes don’t get nearly as pumped as on the first couple of workouts, and grip’s not doing too badly (albeit still got quite a few hot spots, and a small bit of skin has come off one thumb).
Back to chinups for this workout with clusters of 1/2/3 reps. Kept to 1m/3m rest times, though shaving time off here and there, and got the whole lot done in 47 minutes which I surprised myself with- chinups do take less setup time though, and the reps are lower than the other exercises, so that probably accounts for it.
Weighed in at 12st 13lbs in the morning. Had a bigger breakfast than normal as a birthday treat which hopefully accounts for most of the increase…
Monday 6th April
Fifth 10,000 swing workout: same swing clusters and rest times as before, plus 3/4/5 half-kneeling presses @ 8ish (each side). Got the whole lot done in 50m, which seemed decent (and 3m faster than last time doing this).
Lost count on third round of 50s and think I may have done more reps than I was supposed to because my forearms started burning like crazy, but then it wasn’t so bad in the next round.
Weighed in at 13st 1lb in the morning! Weight shot up over the weekend of bad eating (pizza, crisps, lots of chocolate flapjacks, and generally just a lot more food than normal), but hopefully if I get back on plan then this will come back down…
Wednesday 8th April
Sixth 10,000 swing workout: same rep breakdown as before with 2/3/5 TRX pushups in between. Cut a little bit more rest out and got the whole thing done in 48 minutes.
It was really warm today so the garage was pretty stuffy which made things a bit tougher, and I was sweating loads by the end of the second round. Lots another bit of skin, off my little finger this time, and got a couple of hot spots on other fingers which I think may come off next time…
Weighed in at 12st 12.8lbs in the morning - getting back to where I was before the birthday treats
Friday 10th April (AM)
Seventh 10,000 swing workout: same rep breakdown as before on swings with 1/2/3 chinups in between. Kept rest times at 0:45 between sets and 2:45 between rounds, and got whole lot done in 42 minutes which is a massive improvement on the first workout!
Weighed in at 12st 11.4lbs in the morning
Sunday 12th April (AM)
Eighth 10,000 swing workout: same rep breakdown on swings but only 2/3/5 reps on the DB presses, with weight upped to 10.5ish. Did end up doing 3/3/5 by accident on a couple of rounds because I wasn’t concentrating properly. 2 reps is really nothing, but I’ll keep upping the weight and it’ll probably have more of an impact later on.
Kept same rest times as before, and finished in 45 minutes which felt like a good effort,
Weighed in at 12st 12.6lbs in the morning
Tuesday 14th April
Ninth 10,000 swing workout: same rep breakdown as before on the swings. I feel like I could maybe push the reps on the first round of 50s, and possibly the second, but I think the cumulative effect would be detrimental on later rounds so I’m not keen to move away from what’s worked so far. I guess part of the challenge includes doing them unbroken though, so perhaps I’ll aim for that through the second half of the challenge, rather than just chasing times.
Did 2/3/5 TRX pushups between sings and kept rest times the same as before - just managed to get it done in 45 minutes.
Grip really fatigued in third round of 50s, and I really struggled to maintain a decent cycle rate on the last round. Left shoulder was a bit achey from the very beginning, but didn’t seem to negatively impact anything.
Weighed in at 13st 0.8lbs in the morning - feeling the effects of the Easter weekend…
Thursday 16th April
Tenth 10,00 swing workout - at the half-way stage! As per the last entry I decided to start pushing up the reps on the last cluster to try and get to 50 unbroken; this time around I broke them up into 10/15/25/35+15. Grip really struggled doing the 35s, but the extra 15 were not problem.
Did 1/2/3 chinups between sets, and managed the hole lot in 41 minutes, keeping rest times the same as before - surprised this happened as tit wasn’t the aim, but I think I needed a short break in the round of 50s before hitting the final 15, than when I did 30+20, so it worked out a little quicker overall.
Left shoulder started giving me some issues though, following on some last session, and is still quite painful today (Friday). Not sure if it’s cause by the swings or something else.
Weighed in at 12st 12.2lbs in the morning. If I can just control my eating over the weekends, I would probably be ahead at this point, rather than going in circles. Don’t think my physique has suffered at all though (not that it’s particularly impressive otherwise).
