A few years back, my training was in trouble.
I frequently had lower back pain which kept me from training regularly.
Which, of course, only served to make my lower back pain even worse.
I don’t know where I heard about it, but somewhere in the back of my head I had the idea of “100 swings per day”.
I was already used to kettlebell swinging and had done them occasionally for years, but never with a frequency and volume, even close to a hundred swings per day.
Before I committed to the 100 swings per day, I gradually ramped up my swinging to several times per week. Sometimes, I would do 100 reps, sometimes less.
Eventually, I decided to commit and kept the habit of daily swinging for 107 days.
It completely transformed my back at the time.
Turning it from a stiff body part that I no longer trusted, to what felt like flexible steel that I had complete confidence in.
I did just a few sporadic deadlift workouts throughout the 107 days, and when I finally stopped the daily swinging and started training deadlifts regularly again, I started hitting PR after PR.
First a bunch of beltless PRs, and then an all-time PR of 240 kg.
If You’re Gonna Do This …
Doing something daily like this is a lot of fun and, in some ways, easier to pull off than remembering to do a workout once a week.
I recommend it for challenging yourself to see if you can do it, but I strongly advise that you ease into it and start light.
If you’re not used to kettlebell swings, don’t jump straight at 100 per day. Begin by doing light workouts a few times per week for several weeks first to greatly reduce your risk of overuse injuries.
And use a lighter kettlebell than you think! Around 15% of your deadlift 1RM might be a good starting point.
And of course, if you try it out, make sure to track your swings in our workout tracker!
