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My gym closes over the winter break, so instead of finding another gym, I decided to try Dan John's 10,000 Kettlebell Swing Workout. Since I only had two weeks instead of four, I set out to do 5,000 swings before my gym reopened.

Being the lifetime intermediate free-thinking creative that I am, I decided to do five straight sets of 100 swings instead of the clusters that Dan recommends. I felt the larger sets would save me from having to constantly start and stop, and let me get into a groove to hone my swing technique. To start conservatively, I rested for double the time it took to complete each set, and did no other exercises between sets.

About me: 33/M, ~320 DOTS powerlifter, former rower. I don't have my aerobic base from rowing anymore, but I still have big hands and a tolerance for boring, painful workouts, all of which came in handy for the program.

Workout 1: 38'54"

I did my first two sets with a 16kg bell to get a sense of how much it was going to suck. It didn't, so I switched to my 24kg bell for the remainder of the program. Then, it began to suck. The last 20-30 swings of the last two sets were tough to hold onto and involved quite a bit of huffing and puffing, but the rests were long enough to recover from set to set. My lower back and forearms were pumped to death by the end of it, and I was starving hungry - fearful being recovered for the next workout, I ate and slept as much as I could. I took a day off and then began the two-on-one-off structure that Dan recommends thereafter.

##Adding Movements Given the (relative) success of the first workout, I decided that for subsequent sessions, during the rest period, I'd do the following superset:

• Dumbbell curl 1x25
• Dumbbell French press 1x25

I only had a single 15lb dumbbell so it was four sets total in about three minutes, after which I'd rest the remaining two before starting the next set of swings. Dan recommends a compound exercise between clusters and sets, but I didn't have anything heavier than my 24kg kettlebell, and didn't want to aggravate my shoulders with pushups or push presses. Plus, who doesn't love big arms?

Workouts 2-7: 34'27"

The first back-to-back workout scared me, but it ended up being fine - I was eating and sleeping well so it was mostly just the workout anxiety I had to contend with.

Over these workouts, the main antagonist of this program began to rear its head: boredom. By the fifth workout, I felt I'd adapted to the stresses of the program, and was no longer dealing with awful soreness or workout anxiety. I hummed through the sets of 100 and felt disappointed that the challenging part of the program was over. So, I resolved to spice things up.

#Workout 8: 27'36" I decided to try getting my workout time as low as possible. I dropped the arm workouts between sets, and alternated sets of 50 and 100, with 90s and 3min of rest after each respectively. This let me get under 30min without trouble. While I was still bored of the workout itself, I liked where it was heading, and started thinking about getting my time under 20min.

#Workout 9: 19'09" To get under 20min, I needed to cut rest times as short as possible, and make the sets as big as possible. But I couldn't just do back-to-back sets of 100 without blowing up my forearms - so I came up with the following set scheme:

• 100 > 50 > 50 > 100 > 50 > 50 > 100

With 60s rest between each set, the two sets of 50 would give me a chance to recuperate my grip between the sets of 100. This would get me under 20min with some wiggle room if I could hold onto the kettlebell throughout - which I did! I was pretty anxious before this workout, but it ended up not being as difficult as I thought. It still sucked, but not as badly as I feared. With a sub-20min time under my belt, I was pretty satisfied, and decided that for the tenth workout, I'd take it as a victory lap, and do the OG program than Dan lays out just for fun.

#Workout 10: 27'55" This is where I discovered that I was an idiot and should have just started the program as Dan had laid it out. With nothing left to gain, I did the 100-swing clusters of 10/15/25/50, with sets of 2/3/5 16kg single-arm kettlebell push presses in between. Feeling confident, I decided not to rest within clusters, only resting for 2min between clusters.

I finally understood. The swings made it difficult to push press. The push presses made it difficult to swing. The clusters forced you to work while recovering from another movement. All of my trunk stabilizers were ablaze. I had committed the sin of confusing journey with destination. I felt alive.

Lessons Learned

The first lesson is, do the program as it's laid out before you make any adjustments. While I'm glad I did the challenging sets of 100 and really nailed my swing technique, I feel like I missed out on a lot of the journey by trying to "optimize" my path to 5,000.

The second lesson is, push yourself. As soon as you feel like you're comfortable with the workout, start making it difficult for yourself. If you feel like you could beast out more swings per set, don't do that - play to your weaknesses. Cut your rest times or something instead. Suffer!

With regards to swing technique, it took me about 3,500 swings to feel dialled-in. You really want to "catch" the kettlebell with your hamstrings in the bottom position - don't try and slow it down with arm-to-thigh contact. And when you "snap" into the "upright plank" position, it's important to lift your chest up and look ahead, or you'll cheat yourself out of that end range of motion, and your glutes will be sad.

Conclusion

I am glad that the program "clicked" eventually - better late than never. Next year, I will challenge myself with doing the full 10,000 in the two-week period (715 swings/day, anyone?), or stick to 5,000 and treat myself to a 32kg bell. And this time, I'd just do what Dan says and go from there.

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