Coach Dan John wrote an article about a “10,000 swings in 20 days workout” he was doing with a group that inspired me to test my readiness to do 500 kettlebell swings in a day… You have to complete 500 swings per day for 20 days to reach 10,000.

So I did:

Two-handed swings
16 kg kettlebell – 25 x 20 = 500 reps, 17,500 pounds

Chin-ups – 5 x 1 = 5 reps

Clean and Press
16 kg kettlebell – 10 x 1 = 10 reps, 350 pounds

Goblet squats
16 kg kettlebell – 8 x 2 = 16 reps, 560 pounds

Get ups
8 kg kettlebell – 2 x 1 = 2 reps, 36 pounds

I performed a strength move after every set of swings. I found myself hinging more neatly to keep from stressing my grip the longer I went on. Knowing that I had to complete 500 made me more careful. I dropped to my smallest kettlebell for the get ups because I am coming back from a right shoulder injury. These were my first get ups in a very long time. They went well and I can move up to at least the 12’s immediately.  The overall workout took me 43 minutes. I broke a sweat after the first 200 swings and had to dry off to stay comfortable between sets of swings during the last 300. The overall workout went well, but I don’t think I am ready to complete 10,000 swings in 20 days yet. My palms heated up and were a little tender afterwards. I probably need to give them time to adjust to more swings than I have been doing lately.

I have been performing a minimalist program over the past several weeks – 100 swings, 5 pull-ups, 10 goblet squats, 5 push-ups. Done in about 13 minutes! The workout included a brief warm-up, 5 sets of 20 swings, each followed by one pull-up, and the goblet squats as one set of 10 to finish. Later, I would perform 5 push-ups after taking a shower. I performed this workout 5 days per week, since it was not very demanding.

My pullups got stronger and I felt good about training 5 days per week… I could make myself train 13 minutes even if I got off schedule during the day and could not train before lunch as I usually do. But this is more of a maintenance program and I want to reach a higher level before shifting to a maintenance program.

So here are my thoughts: Go to 200 swings per day this coming week and see how it goes. If all goes well, move up to 300 swings the following week. If that goes well, jump to 500 swings per day the next week. The challenge with moving up the volume is finding 43 minutes even on days when my schedule goes off course. I may have to target Monday through Friday and allow a Saturday makeup day if I miss a workout during the week.