I was using a handle and base grip, so the keg was horizontal. Bear hug would probably be better for my goals, though.
Man, I’ve done the press-push-jerk drop set before but with a bar, and it got wobbly. With a DB would be awful haha.
1 Like
It sucked, but holy moly were my shoulders ever pumped. So were my traps.
1 Like
21/03/2020
Keg carry
- 5x40 yrd @ 150
1-arm DB press-push press-jerk
- 3x to failure per arm @ 50
Kroc row
- 1x10 @ 95
- 1x25 @ 95
Goblet squat
- 5x10 @ 95
Band dislocations
- 1x25
- 1x15
- 1x10
Notes:
- Added one bag of sand to the keg, and it made it feel much heavier. Called it at 5 runs.
- The DB pressing continues to be torture. But I know I’ll get stronger shoulders out of it. Same with the Kroc rows and my back.
- Think I’m gonna add some curls and tricep work to bro it up.
- I’m also hoping to keep doing banded dislocations at the end of my workouts to help my shoulders. They’ve been a little iffy lately and these have helped in the past.
23/03/2020
Well, because I hate my life, I decided to start and complete the 10k swing challenge, @flappinit.
Today’s assistance: KB press @ 53lb, 2/3/5 format
Total time: just over 44 minutes
Total swings to date: 500
Notes:
- This first day was fascinating for a number of reasons. Firstly, it reenforced my statement that conditioning for me, even if I train it at the bare minimum, is not an issue for me. I’m built for conditioning and endurance. The big weak point was my grip and my lower back. The sets of 50 had to be broken up with quick breathers between bunches of reps, because my grip would start failing. Also, because of previous back injuries, even though I braced and hinged, my lower back would fatigue. Not fun.
- I need to complete this challenge for a few reasons: 1) I’ve got too much “chub” for my liking right now. I’ve never been this chunky and I don’t like it. 2) A challenge like this in the past would’ve been a breeze. While, as I said, the conditioning wasn’t as tough as I thought, it was tougher than I’d like. 3) I need to commit more time to mobility. I’ve seriously let that slide recently and I’m waking up stiff and uncomfortable. I was stretching last night and positions I used to have no trouble getting to caused me to cramp up badly. Sacrificing strength and size for mobility isn’t something I’m happy with.
1 Like
Nice dude!
Make sure that your hinge has a perfectly neutral spine, no arch whatsoever, and that when you snap your hips forward you’re not leaning back. If you’re performing them in front of a mirror, keep your neck neutral and don’t let it bend to look at yourself as you hinge, just let your head go down and let your eyes track instead. You’ll start fine, but after rep 40 of the 50-rep set, those 10 reps can do more damage than the 90 before them.
1 Like
24/03/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: 20 yrd keg carries @ 150
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 54:50
Total swings to date: 1000
Notes:
- You’ll probably notice this was almost 11 minutes longer than the first day. Firstly, the keg carries took longer than the presses, and I took the full amount of recommended rest between clusters and sets. Secondly, my back was fucking dying. Like, not usual muscular fatigue, actual pain. This meant I had to take some time to slow down the clusters and work through each rep individually to nail technique.
- I found out if I tuck my hips under HARD at the top, and keep the swings a little shallow, I can mitigate the pain by about 90%. Also, pairing a million swings with heavy keg carries probably wasn’t the brightest idea, but I need to keep them in my rotation for my goals.
- I tried a few different carries, and the only one I found that put the least stress on my low back was a completely horizontal carry, but that unfortunately meant the edges of the keg were jamming into my biceps. Got some nice bruises this morning.
- There was a point where I was so frustrated with my back that I almost quit halfway through the 3rd set. I actually said out loud, “I’m done.” But I refuse to quit. I’m seeing this through.
1 Like
26/03/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: 1-arm DB rows, 1/2/3 @ 95
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 44:37
Total swings to date: 1500
Notes:
- Well that’s more like it. Spent some time studying how I was swinging versus RKC and Strong First guys. Turns out I needed more knee bend and to try to “throw” the kettlebell behind me on the down swing. Made a huge difference on my back.
- I can see myself hating this challenge in a couple weeks, though…
1 Like
27/03/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: goblet squats, 1/2/3 @ 95
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 44:16
Total swings to date: 2000
Notes:
- Shaved 30 seconds off my time. Felt good but damn, my grip was shot. Almost lost the bell once or twice. It’ll be nice to have 2 days off.
- I think part of the back pain might actually be overly tight glutes. With all the previous deadlifting, front-loaded carries, prowler work, constant standing at work, and now a billion swings, my hips are preeeeetty tight.
30/03/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: keg carry, 20 yard @ 150
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 55:54
Total swings to date: 2500
Notes:
- Seems the workouts with the keg carry are simply going to be longer, which makes sense; carrying 20 yards takes more time than executing 1-3 reps of something. I also need longer rest times. Just shifts the workout from solely conditioning to more of a strength-endurance focus.
- All in all though, the workouts are feeling better. I still get to the end of the second set of clusters and want to quit, but by the time I push through the third the feeling goes away.
1 Like
31/03/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: 1-arm DB push press, 1/2/3 @ 75
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 41:31
Total swings to date: 3000
Notes:
- I don’t know what happened with this workout, but I knocked almost 3 minutes off my best time. Grip is still the limiting factor, but my legs and lungs are starting to laugh.
02/04/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: 1-arm DB row, 1/2/3 @ 95
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 37:56
Total swings to date: 3500
Notes:
- Hot damn, smoked my time from the previous workout. The big thing today was that I was, for the first time, able to get through all sets of 50 swings without having to pause due to failing grip.
03/04/2020
10k Swing Challenge
Today’s assistance: goblet squat, 1/2/3 @ 115
Additional work: Band dislocations, 50 total reps
Total time: 36:53
Total swings to date: 4000
Notes:
- Pushed the pace, managed to cut just over 1 minute off yesterday. Back was not happy towards the end, though. It was fine yesterday, however.
- If I were a girl looking for booty gains, I would run this challenge. My ass is going to be enormous after this. Which is an issue because I already have a huge shelf butt.
Dawg, welcome to my life. My wife cannot walk by me without smacking my butt, sometimes in public 
I hope your back is still feeling better. The part where you talked about tucking your hips hard (though I know you refined your technique right after that), there’s a difference between snapping and tucking your hips. You should attempt to keep your hips tucked WHILE hinging, if that makes any sense. If you try, with no weight, standing with hips tucked, then hinging but making a VERY conscious effort not to let your lower back go into extension WHATSOEVER during the time, you’ll find that hinging may have been causing you to arch while you hinge. This is going to WRECK your SI joints and your lower back, especially with a 50 lb weight between your legs, increasing all the shearing. Practice a bit hinging while keeping your hips tucked, letting your hips, shoulders, and head all stay in one perfect line and moving in unison.
BY THE WAY: If looking at some strong guys fixed your swing without back discomfort and you now feel fine, disregard everything I said and use whatever cues are working for you. Do not fine tune what’s already working based off of my suggestion, haha. Just didn’t know if ‘my back feels better’ means better relative to terrible, or better as in actually healed. Because this program should reinforce posture and FIX back pain, not exacerbate it, believe it or not.
1 Like
This was one of the exact things I started doing that helped me. The back pain normally flairs up towards the end of the session, as my hips and hamstring get fatigued and can’t maintain position throughout the entire swing. Today was just a case of not paying enough attention to form; bad habit, but I was mentally fatigued.
1 Like
Yeah, I tried to make a forceful brace right before catching the weight on the downswing every time.
But there’s no two ways about it. You can’t do 10,000 reps of anything without losing your focus a few times.
Another tip that helped me was to keep my neck neutral - it’s kind of instinct to keep looking at a fixed point while you bend over, but when your neck goes back, your lower back tends to arch as well. You can let your eyes track, but keep your head in the same place. Still though, you’re coming up on halfway through and shaving your time down fast. Your swing-only days are gonna surprise you.
1 Like
06/04/2020
Done with the 10k swing challenge. I got halfway through the first set today and just suddenly stopped and went, “Why the hell am I still doing this?” So I just stretched out my hips and shoulders instead and felt far more satisfied.
I needed to stop this challenge for a few reasons, but mainly just because I hated it. I hated it after the first workout. Not in a “this is hard” kinda hate, just a simply “this isn’t enjoyable” kinda hate. Training is a passionate hobby for me. I couldn’t justify torturing myself over a hobby.
It also, aside from the grip component, wasn’t helping my goals at all. My goal it to become fullsterkur. Which means I need to lift and carry a giant-ass stone. I couldn’t put the effort into carries that I needed to while I was swinging myself to death.
While some people have needed to put their goals to the side while this epidemic runs its course, I don’t. I have a keg that I can keep loading sand into and train my carries. I also have enough plates and loadable dumbbell handles that I can get lots of assistance work done. If I want to keep working on conditioning, there are a million other ways I can do it aside from swings.
2 Likes
Being smart and understanding why you train. Good on you man. Skál!
1 Like
Yeah man! The only reason I started it was to get rid of some fluff and get my conditioning back up to pre-winter levels. But there’s so many other ways I can do that while still training for the Húsafell.
1 Like
You can probably be a little more specific to the Husafell, too. Fun fact, I got to mess around with some sailors’ stones in Iceland. That shit was no joke. They used it as a test to see if you were strong enough to be a rower on a ship. My wife passed the test by carrying a 54kg stone 10 feet and loading it on a pedestal. I was seriously proud. haha
1 Like