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High Repetition Kettlebell Swings

Kettlebell Training

The kettlebell swing is a amazing exercise that can build power, strength, improve conditioning and accelerate fat loss.  

Swings are packed with benefits.  

Kettlebell swings have been a staple exercise in my workouts for the past 13+ years.  

I started by swinging a 24kg kettlebell, and have since moving on to 28kg, 32kg and 44kg swings of varying intensities and volume.  

Within 4 weeks, I noticed the impact kettlebell swings had on my physique.  

And I wasn’t using fancy workouts, just a simple 15 seconds on/ 15 seconds off for 24 rounds.  That’s a 12 minute workout, with 6 of those minutes being dedicated to swings.   

Long story short, adding swings to my workout regimine helped to burn fat off of my body while building functional power, improving my posture and delivering a potent form of conditioning. 

Swinging kettlebells has also improved my running.

Kettlebell swings are a total body exercise.

In the beginning, I rarely swung my 28kg bell beyond the 15-20 reps in a work set.  

Overall, my workouts 

Then I started reading testimonials where people described how high rep kettlebell swing workouts (several days per week) was torching fat off their bodies. 

Who doesn’t want to burn a little more fat off their body?  I sure did, and still do, let’s get lean people. 

Of couse, nutrition is a crucial part of fat loss, so factor that in. 

Over the years, I’ve gone pretty far down the rabbit hole with swings.  High rep swing workouts might eclipse 300-400 reps in a session, using heavier kettlebells.  

Note:  Tread lightly using high rep swings too frequently.  Give your body chance to recover and avoid injury.  

—> Here is a short list of my observations and findings while using high rep kettlebell swing workouts <—

1)  High rep kettlebell swings builds grip endurance.  

2)  Might be a good idea to perform self administered soft tissue work on the forearms using a lacrosse ball or a percusion massager like the TheraGun. 

3)  I got lean pretty quick, which is predictable because kettlebell swings work a large number of muscles and burn a significant number of calories in these high rep workouts.  

4)  Take adequate rest between sessions.  Give your low back, glutes and hamstrings a chance to recover from the increase volume.  Foam roll, percussion massage, accupressure mat, active mobility training and long walks are a good idea.  

5)  2-3 high rep swing workouts per week is enough to create noticeable changes in body composition and conditioning.  

6)  Postural changes were interesting.  Standing position seemed like my hips were further forward and my shoulders pulled back.  

7)  15-20 minutes is more than enough time to accumulate a shit ton of swings.   

8)  Don’t be afraid to move up in weight and attack heavier kettlebells.  

I’d consider a high rep swing workout to be 100+ reps or more.  

Taking that number and scaling it for a beginner,  40-50 swings might be high rep for your experience level. 

If you’re advanced, 200+ swings might be your target for that day.  

It depends on your conditioning level and familiarity with the kettlebell swing.

Here’s a good kettlebell swing workout:

Baseline Kettlebell Swing Workout

Workoust like this are deceptively challenging.  

In the early round the rest periods feel long, but in the later rounds the rest periods don’t feel long enough.   

Fatigue is a hell of a drug.  

Using this workout, you’ll accumulate 100 swings in 10 minutes.  

That’s plenty to create a training effect.   

Choosing kettlebell weight.  20-24kg for men and a 16kg/20kg for women.

This is not the law however.  If you need to go lighter, do it.  Need to go heavier?  Do it.  Feel it out and make that decision as needed.  

This workout uses a fixed work:rest structure.  Wear a heart rate monitor if you have one.  A heart rate monitor can provide valuable information on work and rest periods, along with pinpointing how hard you’re actually working according to heart beats per minute.  

Using a heart rate monitor, I’ll perform the swings, finsih, then watch my heart rate monitor until the BPM decresases to 130bpm before starting the next round.  This method will make rest periods short in the beginning and tends to increase the length of rest later in the workout as fatigue accumulates and your body needs more time to calm down.  

Here are a few other workouts I’ve played around with. 

Other tips for high rep swing workouts

Don’t make the mistake of swinging too light of a kettlebell.  

The hips are powerful , size up the kettlebell and challenge yourself.  

If you have several different weights, you can start the workout with the heavier kettlebell and transition to the lighter bell as needed.  

It’s all based on feel.  

If you’re swinging super high rep marathon sessions with too light of a kettlebell, there’s diminishing returns.  

Instead of swinging 500 reps and feeling fresh at the end of the workout, lower the reps while increasing the weight.  

The increase in load will challenge your body plenty, and over time, the volume will increase.  

Repeat this process and you’ll be swinging the 40kg BEAST in not time.  I bet your body will reflect this progress.  

Just remember, the rules of progressive loading apply to kettlebell swings also.  

Again, this is a basic progression with loading, similar to what you’d use with traditional resistance training.

Heavier kettlebells will require greater effort to move the kettlebell through the arc of motion.    

Kettlebells are amazing for building power, improving posture and fat loss.  

Swings, while not the best for building lean muscle, are known to and can build muscle.  

Don’t count kettlebell swings out for building SOME muscle.  Just know there are better exercises.  

Deadlifts, squats, vertical pulling, rows, horizontal pressing and overhead pressing are best for building muscle because muscles will spend more time under tension through the full range of motion.  

Kettlebell swing are great for fat loss, if…   

… you’re in a caloric deficit.    

It doesn’t matter if you’re getting into a  caloric deficit via the swing workouts, or you’re a badass and entering workouts already in a caloric deficit.

You cannot out-swing a calorie surplus and expect to lose fat.  The math will work against you every time and you’ll go insane.  

People fight the calorie deficit thing all the time, like there’s some other secret sauce that can only be found by spending $97 on a fitness guru’s fat loss product.  

The caloric deficit is NOT EVERYTHING when it comes to fat loss, but it does play a HUGE role in burning fat.  

Huge.  

Sleep, hydration, protein intake, eating whole foods over processed foods (as much as possible) will deliver “best” results.

If you found this article wondering if high rep kettlebell swings are a good idea… 

… yes, they are.  

Just make sure you approach these workouts with some common sense, making sure you’re familiar with the swing itself and not overdoing the volume out of the gates. 

Increase the reps gradually, find the sweet spot with the weight, attack the workout. 

Integrating several high volume swing workouts per work alongside decent nutrition will deliver awesome athletic and aesthetic results.  

Cheers to high rep kettlebell swings!

KG

A Self-Limiting Barrier to Fat Loss and Performance: “If I Had ________ Than I Would Definitely _________ ” Syndrome

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This will probably be the easiest post that I ever compose on this blog.

The idea is clear and I think that most of us can relate to it, at least at some point in our lives.  Heck, maybe we feel this on a daily basis.

It’s a common barrier to fat loss and performance.  

As the title of the blog shows, “If I had ____ I would definitely be _____” is a self-inflicted syndrome.  

Some common examples go like this:

  • If I had more time to workout, I would definitely be in better shape.
  • If I had a membership to that new gym on the other side of town, I would definitely be in better shape.
  • If I had more money to go 100% organic with all of my food, I would definitely be able to see my abs.  
  • If I had more equipment at my house, I could perform all of the best exercises and engage in all of the best workouts that the magazines talk about.
  • If I had more fitness apps on my iPhone, I would be able to make much greater gains in much shorter time.
  • If I had better fitness apparel, I would re-dedicate myself to my movement.
  • If I had those supplements, I would be able to drop the weight and exercise more frequently.

If I had _____ I would definitely_____” Syndrome.

It’s a syndrome brings us to our knees, cripples us, leaves us uncertain about whether our goals are worth all of the effort. 

We convince ourselves into thinking that the grass is greener on the other side, and then when we get to the other side, we realize that the grass is the exact same color.

Use exactly what you have right now, where you are at right now.

If something is worth doing, it’s always worth the effort.

Don’t get caught up in the minutiae of building health, wellness and performance.

Because there is a lot of minutiae.  If you’re a beginner, all you need to know is enough to get started.  If you’ve already started, all you need to know is enough to keep going.  

You’d be surprised at how taking a few minutes to re-examine your training options can open doors to new challenges and a refreshing movement experience.  But you have to be willing to open your eyes to all of the things that you do have going for you (time, equipment, space, a roof, mobility, etc) versus dwelling on all of the things that you don’t have.  

If you’re wondering where you can find new ideas for your training, comb over the archives of this blog.  I have been posting for a little over a year.  There are more than 150 posts to read on Range of Motion.  Bookmark it in your browser or better yet, sign up to get an update whenever I post.  

A lot of the posts on this blog contain workouts and effective exercise variations, some performed by yours truly and others I outsourced because I didn’t have the video or someone else was more effective at demonstrating.  Eat your heart out.  

One big culprit of “If I had _______ I would definitely ________” Syndrome are fitness “secrets”.  There are no secrets, there is only what you know and what you don’t know.  And you don’t know what you don’t know.  Ok?

If you’re really in an exercise slump, redirect yourself back into the movements that you avoid and hate the most.  Chances are quite high that those same movements might be the missing link in your training success.  More often than not, this advice will hold up.  That which you dread just might that which you need.  

Just a few simple thoughts on a Monday.

Go do something great today.  Go ahead, you have time.

Less thinking and more doing, and I will do the same.

 

Cheers to wiping “If I had ____ I would definitely ______” Syndrome off of your shoes at the front door before entering!

 

 

KG

The Freak 5K

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This past weekend marked my second experience at the local “hardcore” mud run… also known as the:

The Freak 5K

Yes, The Freak 5K was held once again this past weekend in Chippewa Falls, WI.

First let me say that this race is not easy.  What it lacks in distance, it makes up for in volume of obstacles and elevation change.  Each team was required to carry a keg the entire 5K, which added an element to the race also.  Someone mentioned that The Freak 5k had the same number of obstacles in about 1/4 of the distance of a Tough Mudder.

Freak 5K Map

Second, let me say that I only have one gear when competing in races.  No matter how much I say that I am just going to run for fun and enjoy myself, as soon as we leave the starting line, my competitive side appears and I basically black out from that point on.  I’ll step on heads to get out of the mud pits, ask slower racers to move over on narrower paths and elbow the males and females alike to get to the front.  I honestly hate losing and also hate seeing other people push it harder than I am, especially when I know that I have another gear.

I wrote an article a while back about the idea of staying “physically prepared”.  I enjoyed writing that article, and I feel that it loosely represented my philosophy on staying fit for demanding activities… whatever those demanding activities may be.

For The Freak 5K, I tweaked my training about 2 weeks prior and added a few longer distance aerobic based runs into the normal training regimen.  Why?  Just to make sure that my body had a few training sessions to adapt to the demands of running.  Personally, I respect running but I am not a fan.  It’s not my go to hobby for killing time and I rarely have a good time during a run.

I was told by someone before the race that the Cross-Fitters would do the best because they train for everything and it is hardcore training.  I always chuckle when I hear this.  Cross-Cult has got people believing everything these days.  Our guys dusted all of the “hardcore” cross-fitters on Saturday.  It’s hard to imagine that performing 50 continuous hang cleans or 100+ box jumps “unbroken” wouldn’t be enough to help someone power through a race like that no problem.

A workout is more than burying yourself in a pile of fatigue.

So, I took it as a personal challenge to torch everyone on the course after I heard this comment.

Here is a brief commentary on how we maneuvered the through the race…

On the starting line, my team chose to leave the starting line last for our wave, to avoid raising any tempers early on in the race.  Most people flail around like idiots in the mud pits, so I was on board with waiting for the flailers to move through the pits before we entered.  Shortly after the mud pit was a 35-40 foot dirt hill that was nearly a complete vertical climb.  Nice.

We made our move here.

Passing numerous teams on the dirt hill, we made our way into the woods.  The entire time passing competitors who were proudly sporting Cross-Fit t-shirts like they were tattoos.  Badges of honor.  Ha.

The demands of a condensed run course like The Freak 5K are interesting.  By far, the most difficult aspect of the course was the elevation change.  The course designers did a great job adding to the volume of hill climbing.  I bet we climbed 50 yards up and down for nearly 100 yards of horizontal travel.  It was brutal.  Up hill climb was exertion and focused breathing while the down hill was recovery into the next climb.  We made it through in good shape.

Freak 5K Elevation Change

So it turned out that we met up with a local high school wrestling team who we trailed for the remainder of the race.  The guys were in good shape, but we could have been relentless assholes and passed them a couple of times in sketchy spots.  We didn’t and it chaps my ass that we got stuck waiting for them to scale multiple obstacles, 20 foot lake plunges, 50 yard slip-n-slide, etc.  At these obstacles, we were typically forced to go single file, which is difficult to swallow when you are competing to win.  It really takes the wind out of your sails.

Our keg crossed the finish line 2nd behind the wrestler’s keg, by a matter of a few seconds.  I would like to note that we ran with 3 guys, taking turns carrying the keg for varying distances.  The wrestlers had 5 guys, doing the same.  No excuse, just saying that the rest factor could have played a part in how fresh they were toward the end.  God I wanted to bring home the trophy.  Next year.

Regardless, what I learned was this:

1)  Cross-Fit makes you good at… Cross-Fit… Training isn’t a sport, training is a means to accelerate at sports.

2)  I can train minimally still perform well at a demanding obstacle course-based race like The Freak 5K.

3)  I can keep my workouts to less than 30-40 minutes a session and still push it to the edge for 55 minutes no problem.

4)  Hip extension is everything, so train your butt muscles to be powerful extenders of the hip, add in some stability and mobility while you’re at it.

5)  It doesn’t take long to make adjustments to your training to acclimate to a specific demand if you’re training regularly.

6)  Trail running is superior to beating the pavement for building athletic qualities.

7)  Along with #3, simplicity in your workout regimen and your nutritional regimen yields great results.

8)  The ability to put your mind in a place where it is resilient to the thought of losing or quitting is essential to pushing yourself physically and squeezing  more out of your performance (black out and go for it).

9)  Life and sport happens on your feet… Make damn sure your lower body is strong, mobile and stable while taking care of your health/function of your muscles/joints.

10)  Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone with regard to physical exertion, you’re capable of enduring much more than you think you are.

11)  Never lose the desire to compete and avoid being average.

12)  Beer tastes great after a race like that.

13)  Spectators shouldn’t stand so close to the mud pit located at the bottom of the 50 yard downhill slip-n-slide when I slide down with a keg on my lap and toss it prior to water contact. (sorry old guy in the Levi’s with the new Polo shirt)

 

 

Cheers destroying your next race and The Freak 5k!

KG

The Shark Tank, Results and How Both Can Impact You

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Photo Credit:  stressfreekids.com

I love the television show “Shark Tank”.

I love everything about it.  

Here is how it works:

1)  The entrepreneur enters the “shark tank” (a room to present to five different successful millionaires) seeking to gain valuable business partners and investment capital for their business.

2)  The entrepreneur makes their product/idea pitch.

3)  Post-pitch, the sharks give feedback and ask questions about the business/idea.

  • The feedback is either sharp and harsh, or encouraging and curious.
  • The questions heavily pertain to past revenue, experience, growth potential, evaluation of the business, etc.

4)  The Sharks decide whether the idea is valuable enough to earn them profit on their investment.

I am absolute fascinated by people who find their calling and begin creating and designing gadgets, apps or services that can solve everyday problems, improve old products or pave the way for a new way of doing things.  I have such a respect for an entrepreneur that can sacrifice everything for their passion, refusing to give up through thick and thin.  It takes amazing courage to build a dream from scratch and see it through to the end.  

Many of these people have given everything to pursue the American dream.  

That’s passion.  

Another aspect of Shark Tank that I love is the negotiations.  Sure, the pitches that introduce the entrepreneur’s idea to the Sharks (who are millionaire/billionaire investors themselves) are great, but the negotiations after all of the glitz and glamour is what I get sucked into.

The questions from the Sharks are direct and typically no non-sense.  The Sharks want to know if the investment opportunity has gotten results in the past and what the plan is to grow on those results (the forecast).  The entrepreneurs that do the best on the show tend to answer the questions with sharp, crisp and clear answers.  They have a plan and they have results to show positive growth and execution of that plan. 

Those who respond with wishy washy answers get crucified on national television.

You’re probably wondering why I am talking about the Shark Tank on a active/fitness related blog…

… and to that I say: settle down and let me get there.  It might be choppy.

Here is an un-organized collection of my thoughts that I had earlier today…

As I briefly touched on above, shortly after the entrepreneur shares their product or idea, the Sharks take their gloves off and begin poking and prodding into exactly what they- the entrepreneurs- need (money and connections to influential networks), why they need it, what they will do with it when they get it, and most importantly, their past efforts and the results of those efforts.  

I have seen countless entrepreneurs lose out on investments by the Sharks just because they didn’t have results (sales/income/revenue) from their product or idea.  Maybe the product is being treated too much like a hobby, or maybe the entrepreneur has got some serious flaws and gaps in their business and how they have been going about growing it and scaling it.  

Either way, the Sharks always crack me up because they can sniff out flaws in a matter of minutes, and a few simple questions.  The numbers add up.  The numbers make the flaws glaringly obvious.

What have I learned from Shark Tank is the difference between an entrepreneur who is rejected out of the board room and an entrepreneur who makes a deal, and acquires one of the Sharks as a business partner…

Results matter.

If the entrepreneur hasn’t sold jack-squat in years, the reception of their product/idea pitch is typically lauded at.

In the fitness world, I hear and read a lot of people talking about how “results based” fitness is a scam.

Really?  How?  

How is getting the results that you seek a scam?  

How is stripping fat, running your first 5k, followed by your first 10k, followed by your first half-marathon, restoring function and posture, etc… a scam?  

We measure success in anything based on results.

I can see how getting the results that you seek at the expensive of bodily harm might be a scam, but I would call that recklessness, absent minded or possibly neglect.  

There is plenty of that going around for sure.

If you set out on a journey to build a body (and I don’t mean stage show bodybuilding) and you are getting great results… Why would you change anything that you are doing until you observe that change is necessary?  Don’t stay in your comfort bubble forever, but stick to the plan if it is working for heavens sake.

Again, you have to be getting results to maintain your same course of action.  

If you’re a person that is interpreting this as pass to continue the same ineffective workout habits that incorporate the same weight for the same amount of time for the same days per week…

… you are mis-understanding what I am trying to say, and maybe it’s an error in my ability to communicate effectively.

I wrote an article a while back where I described a 90 day kettlebell complex training program where I basically leveraged the same kettlebells (24kg Lifeline KB’s) for a full three months, making gains the entire time.  If you read back into some of my older posts, you’ll find that I love acting as the guinea pig.  

I will always try something on myself before I ever recommend anyone else to do it.  Not everyone can say that.  I am willing to put myself through the gauntlet prior to suggesting someone else try it.  I take pride in that.  That’s how I formulate my opinions on certain things, one of those being some aspects of Cross-Fit.  

That being said, I always caution everyone that what I do while training is not always a good fit for what they should be doing, and what their colleagues are doing in the gym might also not be what they should be doing.  Do what you can do, not your what your network can do or the random fit guy at the gym can do.  You’re not him, you’re you.

Sidenote:  I actually know a cosmetic surgeon in town locally who tries all of her techniques on herself first, prior to offering it out to her paying customers.  How bad ass is that?  She puts herself through the gauntlet before bragging about it to her customers just to make a buck.

I have a deep respect for that.  This surgeon’s face is constantly puffy and inflamed from all of the new treatments, but hey, at least she can say that it works or it doesn’t, which makes her far more credible to the patients who come to her for solutions.  Again, I love that.

Back to it…

During the 90 days of kettlebell complex glory, I leveraged the same general movements while I continued to tweak the reps, time under tension, sets, recovery time, etc.  

My results graph was steadily climbing in a positive direction , so why would I alter anything.

I know that staying in the vortex of the same workout for 90 days might sound crazy, and I definitely could have bumped up weights during that time, but I couldn’t resist giving it a go.  

What is the worst that would happen?  Maybe I would simply flat line and maintain my current fitness and body composition levels?  So what?  I was lean going in and the experiment wasn’t going to make me less lean or less strong.

Tweaking the variables can really take a program a great distance, and I think manipulating the variables of exercise is far less scientific than most people think.  Often, the point of improving your body, both performance and aesthetically, is to simply add or subtract.  Add weight, add time under tension, add reps… or… subtract rest period time, subtract volume, subtract paralysis by analysis.  

The last subtraction point is a huge hold up for most people’s results.  What are you waiting for?  The next big study?  We lean on studies and research like crutches.  It drives me nuts.  It’s like we can’t take action until we can justify it with a massive study.  That my friends, is an excuse in disguise.  You can call it being educated and precise, but in my world, someone who doesn’t take action and bases it on lack of research is an excuse maker.  

Trust me, you don’t need a landmark study to justify swapping an hour of TV time for a decent sweat.  And if you’re a person that wishes that you could shrink down, swap fat for muscle and become more athletic, then your results are sitting on the couch right next to you.  

Exercise + eating properly + H20 hydration = Authentic Health.

It’s that simple.  Screw complexity.  Follow the above formula for four weeks without falling off the wagon and see what happens.  You won’t be disappointed that is for sure.

Results require action, and the right kind of action.  On Shark Tank, the interesting part about some of the products/ideas (and the people that are behind them) is that they aren’t bad products/ideas and the business owners are putting in massive amounts of effort and time. The business plan/strategy is just plain wrong.

In these situations the Sharks have the jam to call these people out when they have sold less than $10,000 in 4 consecutive years of being in business.  That’s a red flag that something isn’t right.

Then you’ll get people that have sold $10,000 in their first month after launch, and they just don’t have the capital to take things to the next level.  Very interesting to see those situations.

Sidenote: In the case of building fitness, you don’t need capital.  That’s the beauty of it.  You can honestly get amazing results by buckling down and doing the work with your own bodyweight.  Heck, if you’re on a tight budget, I will even recommend going for a run.  

Running isn’t all that bad really, we sort of blow that out of proportion, just don’t expect to build much muscle by running.  Many times, running along with other long duration represents the entrepreneur who is willing to put forth the effort and time for their results, yet always ends up disappointed because they are operating off of the wrong business plan.  

Is that you?  I bet that statement connects with some of you out there… no doubt about that.

If you’re just starting to get serious about being purposefully active and building your fitness… and you’ve got decent mobility and stability where you need it while being proficient with the lifts, you are probably good to go.  In fact, you’re more than good to go.  Start with a simple strategy and build out from there.  Once you lay a solid foundation, the rest of the house can be built over time without crumbling.  

For example, building strength is simple, it really is.  It isn’t always the most comfortable process and it takes effort to continue added weight over time, but it is simple.  Building cardiovascular endurance is simple.  It isn’t always enjoyable to shave time off of your efforts, but it is simple.  

Sidenote:  Exercise professionals often overreact and preach about the details a little too much for my liking (I am guilty of this).  Sometimes I feel like it might be because they are dry on content or looking to stir up the pot somehow.  I love attention to detail as much as anyone, but it gets old after a while.

Segue…

So as the Sharks on Shark Tank seek investment opportunities that have seen results in acceptable periods of time, so should the person who seeks fitness.  Results are damn important.  If you aren’t seeing results, something is not right with your plan.  Your strategy isn’t working for you.  

People who are fit despite busy careers and family, while working in a much needed social life also, have effective plans.  

Go back to the drawing board, analyze your strategies and get back to it.  

But remember, results matter.  

 

Cheers to results and The Shark Tank!

 

KG

(Sorry for being away for so long)