1000 swings in 31.5 minutes

As I mentioned previously...I've got so much going on, and I want to write about my snatching the 16kg on Monday, but I thought I should give a shout out to the fact that my advanced class did 1000 swings in 31.5 minutes on Sat.! No bad huh? Considering if you swing equal work to rest ratio you should be able to complete 600 reps in 30 minutes, we increased that number by almost double.

Double, 1200 reps, would be nonstop of course....which we can do, but 400 of our swing reps were done with a heavier bell than each of our standard high volume swing weights....AND with our standard HV swing weights we experimented with speed swings. 44, 48, 52 RPM's...I'll get to the 56 RPM's at the end of this blogpost.

Here was the original idea for the progression. Each set is 2.5 minutes long, the difference is the fast swings sets complete more total swings by way of pacing than the standard pace of 40 RPM (reps per minute)

10 x 10 = 100 (2 hd sw w/12kg, I accidently picked up the 16kg!)

11 x 10 = 110 (tr w/12kg)

10 x 10 = 100 (2 hd sw w/16kg)

12 x 10 = 120 (1 sw, 1 tr w/12kg)

10 x 10 = 100 (roundabout w/16kg)

13 x 10 = 130 (1 sw, 1 tr w/12kg)

10 x 10 = 100 (1 sw, 1 tr w/16kg)

14 x 10 = 140 ? (*see note)

10 x 10 = 100 (2 hd sw w/16kg)

9 sets, 2.5 each, 1 min. rest inbetween each set = 30.5 minutes not including the final rest period.

(9 x 2.5 = 22.5 min. + 8, 1 min rests = 30.5 total)

* NOTE lol....here's what went down.....

I talk and demonstrate swing pacing in the beginning of my Progarmming the KB Swing DVD, and it is my belief that one can swing as fast as 14 reps per 15 sec. The swings are short, but powerful because you have to stop the bell hard and quick, and then really throw it back behind you sppeding up the dwonstroke on every rep.

BUT....it's not a technique that is relevant for worksets that last longer than 15-30 seconds, or in combination with paced intervals were one is using that 13-14 rep pace with 12-11 or 10 rep paced intervals. What we found out was that although powerful, the absence of a "full" stroke actually made the faster swings more aerobic, and less powerful!

I discovered this because as we started to speed up the pace in our 100 + reps sets (2.5 min sets), I was finding more difficult to count reps as we completed 44 and 48 RPM, but it bcame easier to count reps at 52 RPM! At this point we decided to abandon the 56 RPM pace, because not only was it not giving us the effect I was hoping for in this long workset, but at the slightlylowere RPM of 52 after the first 30 seconds we fell behind barely catching up before the 2.5 min set was over. No way we were going to be able to keep that pace for 140 reps....and that was besides the point anyway.

So, because we had to still complete 140 reps to get to our grand total of 1000 on 9 sets, I set the pace at around 48 RPM and took and additional 30 sec to complete this set. We then took our 1 min rest before finishing our last 100 reps at the standard 40 RPM.

Whew! I hope I explained that clearly enough for anyone that may care, lol!

Since this was my hour long advanced class we continued on for the remaining 20, or so, minutes with press/snatch holds. But it was nice to get 1000 swings out of the way first!