Anna works hard, no question about that. She’s tough as they come.
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Agreed. If I had her work ethic I’d definitely look a lot better. But alas, I’m mentally weak 
. I have done a burpee before though, so there’s hope.
I did a lot of them in the Marines. There’s a reason people hate them so much - they’re the single most effective and miserable bodyweight move one can perform.
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For what? Conditioning?
Overal general preparedness. Conditioning, strength, endurance, mental toughness. Pair Burpees with pull-ups and you would need nothing else to hit every muscle and become an absolute machine.
I should add that the burpees we were made to do involved a full ROM push-up and a jump, not a hop that barely clears the floor, vs the flop n’ flail that I see lots of people doing, but even then, being able to drop quickly and get up and move quickly are skills that prove useful in sticky situations.
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I still maintain that I have never seen an actual burpee in real life. But I have seen about a million of those flop-n-flails you describe.
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I recommend, once you’ve got through the initial pain, blasting through the first couple of clusters while you’re fresh. That’s where you can take seconds out of it. And it helps a lot to get to 10 minutes knowing there’s not that much left to do
I hate burpees with a passion, I only started doing them with dark horse and to make matters 100x worse, I just realised after reading this I don’t even do a burpee! Not even a flop and flail burpee - I’ve never noticed the push up bit of them!
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I defnitely get floppy by the end, but I always make sure to do the full push-up and jump
Now, do you see what you just did there?
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Are you saying I’m “micro” “soft” 
I think the safe answer to that is “no”
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When I do KB swings I use at least half my weight. Granted, I’m not doing 500 of those
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I’m fat. If I did that I probably couldn’t even swing the damn thing . Might could do KB deadlifts though lol
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Was inspired by this thread, and I’m between programs just getting some work in. Thought I’d post my take on this workout here as well (also put it in my training log). I only have a 35 lb bell, which Dan John says is the suggested weight for a woman. Well, screw it, that’s all I’ve got.
I wanted a method I could easily keep track of, and get some extra work in. I did it like this:
5 rounds of:
25 swings
10 pull ups
25 swings
10 bodyweight squats
25 swings
10 push ups
25 swings
10 ab wheel roll outs
In all: 500 swings, 50 pull ups, 50 push ups, 50 squats, 50 roll outs.
Total time: ~48 minutes.
Notes: even with only a 35 lb bell, this really gets the grip and forearms burning. I wasn’t pushing it for time, but I also wasn’t lolly gagging too much. The 10 pull ups was the hardest of the extra work, but with plenty of breaks between these sets it wasn’t bad. Overall? I liked it, but can see if I moved up to a 24 kg bell and did this for 20 workouts, it would be a killer.
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I would really recommend a set of 50 reps and a 24 kg kettle bell. This is where the real work comes. I can see the swings as some kind of a glute/ham/grip work for amazing athletic gains. You really learn to activate the glutes.
I think the posted plan in t nation is optimal, because you have heavy sets of chins, front squats, dips and OHP to maintain muscle and strength while developing elsewhere.
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I don’t doubt the 50 reps with a 24 kg KB would elevate it to another level. I just don’t have one, and I’m kind of toying with some different types of workouts now before starting another program. One of these days, I do plan on having the proper equipment and running it as written.
Just reviving the thread to say they closed the gyms again, so I’m doing the full-body option in DJ’s revised version of the challenge:
this version leans into the strength movements between rounds of swings more.
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I read the thread, I didn’t see where you mentioned the KB weight you used. I’ve been messing with KB for the last week and was trying to figure out what size to go with. I’ve been using the 52.9lb KB and that doesn’t seem heavy enough for me. Today was 20 swings followed by sled pull and I repeated that 10 times. I was exhausted afterward, but still felt like I could have gone heavier.