Hit 300 swings/day! Thanks to all of you for motivation, support, & feedback!

jim_68

New member
Got to 300 swings in a session much sooner than I thought I could :).

Context: I'm 5' 8", 127lb, never did anything with weights before Feb 2022. My first form check was on March 17th, about two months ago.

Started with S&S, realized I can barely do TGU with a 4kg dumb bell. But the swings felt great, so did 10x10 nearly daily. Along with goblet squats, stretches, etc.

This cycle to go big on volume was inspired by reading @iamasinkingship blog posts & Bud Jeffries (RIP) book "I will be Iron". Aided by form checks here on /r/kettlebell. Thanks to folks on this sub & r/kettleballs encouraging me to do more!

This cycle so far:
  • D1 - 16kg 120 2H swings/session - 20x5+ amrap 20 about 12 minutes
  • D8 - 16kg 362 2H swings - emom 20x15 + amrap 30, 32 about 24 mins
  • D9 - 20kg 310 2H swings - emom 10x15 + 10x15 + 10 took total of 28 mins
  • D10 - 25kg 210 2H swings (14*15) + 16kg 105 2H swings - took ~27mins
These are near daily workouts (6/7 sometimes 7/7). Was doing 10x10 with 16-20kg before this for a couple of months. Dropped the weight to focus on volume for a cycle.

Left hand grip is the bottleneck to do more. Forearm is literally mildly swollen 😂 No soreness anywhere else in the body - quads, hams, glutes are doing fine. Doing some stretches through the day to stay loose.

With some advice from /@hunter101 planning the following cycle:
  • Alternate bell weights - 16kg, 20kg, 24kg (t-handle)
  • Keep moving between high weight lower rep and low weight higher reps, while increasing reps each time, ie 400 reps with 16kg, next day 300 with 20kg, next day 250 with 24kg, then back to 16kg and 450 reps, etc.
  • Get to 20x21 EMOM with 24kg & 500 EMOM with 20kg (end of simple swing program by Geoff Neupert), but with a different path
Focusing primarily on swings to improve posterior chain, and increase work capacity - ie kg moved per session. I do 4x5 squats or presses as well alternate days, just to keep those muscles working. My push press 5RM is 8kg, so will pick that up in the next cycle once I get to 500 swings/day and my posterior and forearms are stronger.

Side note: I have a 5km fun run scheduled in early June. My last one in Jan I did a brisk walk, since my HR would go up to 160 within a couple of minutes of mild jogging & I'd be huffing and puffing. Let's see how this swing training carries over to the run itself!
 
@jekyll Thank you!

Your work on the r/kettleballs wiki was a big reason for me to think of higher volume, or I'd have continued with 10x10 for a few more months!
 
Update: My 5km fun run was right on target, wanted to complete it in 40min, and did 40:18. I got confused about the distance left at the end, or I would have run more in the last 500m.

There was no running practice I did for this. Only kb and mainly swings.

Happy with the conditioning cross over impact.

For future runs that my better half signs me up for, I might do some litvinov sprint training with kb swings.
 
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