Day 537: From Kettlebell Swings to Planks

After a week that was stuffed with a lot of meetings, it was nice to only have one meeting today so that I could put my head down and focus on getting through a number of deliverables. 

I was able to stay productive the entire day before finally running out of steam around 30 minutes before I left for the day. While I’d like to think that I am fairly productive every day, there are those special days when you get into a zone. Today was one of those days for me and it was definitely needed. 

As soon as we came home I changed, grabbed my kettlebell and walked over to the gym for my second to last kettlebell swings workout for this challenge. 

I switched up from 20 rounds x 25 reps to 5 rounds of 20/30/50 reps. It is the rep configuration that one of my friends is using and so I decided to try it. I was able to improve my time by more than 1.5 minutes. The big reason for the improvement in the time was cutting out one 30 second rest for each round. 

Tomorrow I will finish up the 10,000 kettlebell swing challenge. It has been a lot of fun. While I have improved in several areas, I think my grip, forearms and lower back have benefited the most from the challenge. 

Once finished I will be gearing up for another challenge, the #PlankForCBD challenge, that is being run by a friend of mine. The concept is simple: donate a minimum of $10 and do a plank every day (with rest days built in) for the stated amount of time, which increases as the days/weeks go on. 

It would be awesome if we had more people join the challenge since it is only $10, the proceeds will go to a great cause and it gives you an excuse to strengthen your core. For more information, check out this Google Doc. The rules are on the second tab. 

I will continue doing other workouts during the plank challenge but am looking forward to incorporating planks back into my workouts after not actively doing them for a couple of months.