500 swings on a Saturday

Last Saturday I wanted to get in a quick workout but didn’t want to do something that blasted my upper body or leg muscles so I got the bright idea that another quick workout of kettlebell (KB) swings would get the job done.

I’ve shared here previously of my 300 KB swing workouts and my first thought was why not doing another one.  But then I became afflicted, like other do, that if one is good then two must be better. 

Where did this lead me?

Instead of a 300 KB swing workout, why not try for 500 KB swings and that’s what I decided to do.

After serious study, I concluded that using my 20kg KB was the proper implement for this workout.  I also decided that I wanted to try and get these 500 swings completed in 20 minutes maximum.  So a little math told me one way to do this was to perform rounds of 20 rep swings every 48 seconds.  That’s what I did.

With heart rate monitor strapped around my chest and an online interval timer set and ready to go, I began my 500 swing journey performing them hand-to-hand style.

Less than 20 minutes later, actually 19:41, I swung my 500^th swing and felt a sigh of relief that this Saturday early afternoon workout was done.  It was a good one and I definitely felt lower-back muscle fatigue during the latter rounds but was able to keep everything there locked and tight for my safety.

For my heart rate (HR) monitor fans – this is me – my starting HR was 105 bpm (57% of my maximum HR), average HR was 161 bpm (87% of my maximum HR) and peak HR was 175 bpm (95% of my maximum HR). 

Not bad of an anaerobic cardio conditioning workout for the 20 minutes invested.

This is a good workout that I’ll do again but only once in a while rather than more frequently like every week.  I really liked this workout of 500 swings on a Saturday.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum