30 Day Kettlebell Challenge + Printable Tracker

The challenge gave me the motivation to keep going (it was only 30 days) and I’ve always been a fan of the Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri workouts. (I started the challenge a week late because I didn’t think I’d be able to keep track of the counting – your email about using a gymboss timer got me to try it.) Improvements, started off and couldn’t complete the pushups – ok completed them on my knees. By the second day of the second week, I was completing all of the pushups. Time I started off slow, 2 minutes on each round. Dropped to 1:54 the second week, 1:30 the third week, 1:27 the last part of the fourth week, and completed the last two days in 1:23. Times surprised me. Rounds 10, 9, 8, and 7 usually were about the same. Rounds 6 and down were about 5 seconds faster. Also, since I was using a consistent time, I ended up adding pushups to the end, basically, the 3rd weed I finished with 3,3,3, the fourth week, 4, 4, 4, 4 and the last two with 5s.

“The most amazing thing about the challenge was how the body adapted; I went from 16 kg in 18:30 minutes the first round 4 weeks ago to 20 kg in 8:44 the last round. Another great thing about it was/is that it does not take any time at all; max 15 minutes in all to get a real good workout for the whole body. The most challenging part was talking myself into going down to the basement four times a week knowing how tired I was going to be after and during the work out but mind over matter ………”

I really enjoyed the 30 day kettlebell challenge. I loved the fact that it’s so simple yet effective and after a day’s work I looked forward to it, just grab the kettlebell and work away. I only used a 12 kg kettlebell but I started adding burpees to the pushups to make it more challenging. My 14 year old son also joined me after a few days with his 7.5kg kettlebell and we never missed a day thereafter. He loved the discipline of the routine and that we could do it together.We got progressively better as time went on, from 11 mins to 8 mins. We were both weak at pushups but feel much stronger in the upper body now.We are definitely going to include this exercise routine as one of our routines going forward.

With the 30 day KB challenge, I learned that I CAN do something about how out of shape I am!! It didn’t take long for me to see & feel results. As a somewhat beginner, this challenge was just the right thing for me. Thanks for the motivation & workout! Look forward to more suggestions & workouts from you!!

Thanks again for thinking up the challenge, really enjoyed it. The keys to doing it for me were the routine and also the working in a group together. Since it finished I’ve found plenty of reasons not to work out, but got round to it this morning!, did 10 sets of 25 swings with 10 push ups each time, as I finished on the challenge,-was shaking, weak and dazed and took a minute and a half longer to complete! Routine is the answer.After we finished my core was definitely tighter and I felt overall stronger, fitter and had more motivation for things generally. The best way I found for aches and pains was to work through them, maybe easing off a little. Enjoyed telling my friends what I was doing and how I was getting on! Looking out for the next challenge.PS, I’m 55, have done a weekly circuit class for the last 15 years and like to keep myself fit generally

Greatly improved upper body muscle tone, and I can REALLY feel my abs now. My biggest result was snapping me out of the post-holiday “blah’s” where I wasn’t working out much at all.

I had a great time completing the 30 day challenge! I see more definition in my upper legs and through out my back. My strength and cardio has improved as well! Unfortunately I didn’t lose much weight but I blame that on my fondness of beer! Lol

Abs tightened up. Body weight seemed to drop at a more accelerated rate, even with the short expenditure of time devoted to this program. Very catalytic! It has pushed me to explore some other ways to structure KB training.

The main thing I learnt was that I can achieve more than I thought and had been holding back on increasing the weight of my kettlebells for some months in fear of injury. I have been using kettlebells and your app since about May last year but not really pushed myself on the weight aspect. I proved to myself that with the support and motivation I can do better and get some real results.

I learned that short, 10 minute workouts can be wildly productive. I learned that I was woefully out of shape at the beginning, and these short, measured workouts can really show you what might have an effect on performance. For me, any alcohol intake at all, even 1 or 2 glasses of wine the night before was noticeable in how I felt during the workouts and to a lesser extent in my times. I think my biggest takeaway from this will be that there is literally never a day that I don’t have 10 minutes to spare. Awesome quick workout to throw in my repertoire.

Changes I noted have been more endurance, greater cardiovascular volume and muscle strength with a lot more tone. When I started I could not do more than 1 pushup. That has greatly increased since the challenge. My ROM has greatly increased and aches and pains of older age are reduced.

Although I didn’t get down to 10 minutes my best time was over 3 minutes better than my earlier times. And I moved up a weight with the bell. All these press ups have meant that I have stopped doing dips – my shoulder pains have nearly all gone. My warm up routine includes a lot of the things I do for running. As I have been doing this rigorously 4 times a week there has been lots of progress, eg my ankle flexibility is better and rope skipping is a lot slicker and quicker.

Well I loved this challenge so I’m doing it for an extra week this week. Definitely feel my upper body has improved which is what I wanted, shoulders in particular. I too found the grip a problem for the last 2-3 rounds of swings but that still seems to be getting better. Happy with my results, on a 12kg bell I got well under 10mins doing 20 swings each time so I upped it to 25 every round for the last 2 weeks and I’m roughly around the 11 mins mark.

Not on Facebook Greg but I done the kettle bell challenge and fully enjoyed it although I found it difficult every time. I finished off on 20 k which was the heaviest in my Jim times went down form 17 minutes to just over 10. It’s obvious that my stamina has improvedand I feel my back is stronger. Grip was a minor problem but just nearing the end. Great to do something just for a month. I will do one of your apps in the meantime but I look forward to your next challenge.

There were times during the challenge when I didn’t feel like training, but the idea of being part of a very large group motivated me to set aside time each evening and go for it. Overall, a brilliant challenge… Bring on the next one!!

My results(to me) are phenomenal. I have seen all the advances in body shape and size that you have quoted above. I have also switched my thought process to actually loving and looking forward to my KB sessions instead of feeling I HAVE to do them. To put it in perspective, I spent years doing heavy physical work, then the last 14 years doing a far less physical job and trying to compensate with tiresome and lengthy, unstructured workout regimes of many types and with mixed success. I eat a relatively sensible and balanced diet(fresh stuff and no crap) and this hasn’t changed. Despite this, over the years I put on/lost weight etc. During this regime alone (without my usual cycling blah blah!), I have seen real physical progress and feel 20 instead of 40 years old!!! (ENERGISED!)

I am amazed at how my cardio improved over the course of the challenge. I hadn’t monitored my heart rate at all during the challenge but took my heart rate during my normal routine which now alternates swings with a strength circuit… after a brief rest I fully thought it would be in the 120’s. I was shocked when it was in the 90 range. Yaaaaa!! I’m so healthy!

My strength improved; I increased from 10lbs to 20 by wk 2, my time decreased from over 18 minutes to 11 by wk 3. Wk 2 was my most challenging week – I felt the most muscle pain and I pushed myself harder to get my time down. I also increased the weight during this week, which probably added to the difficulty.

The kettle bells have been a god send for me as have knee injury, so running etc is off the menu. The swings did not hurt the injured knee at all. I was really surprised at how my Cardio fitness improved over the challenge. Started with 20kg in 15 mins absolutely stuffed dry reaching with fatigue. Finished up on 28kg in 10 mins. Still stuffed but recovering quickly and feeling fantastic. Dropped 3 kg in body weight as well.

I increased my muscle mass, body strength and the challenge helped me in my weight loss program. The biggest challenge for me was to be able to use the 10 kg which I had only used to do lunges and squats. I had always kept to 6 – 8 kg previously and even going down to 4 kg for single arm exercises. I may now consider buying a 12 kg kb.

My husband, Gord aged 71, took and the challenge from start to finish using a 20 lb kettlebell and starting with modified push-ups. His first time was 19.51 and his last time was 10.56 and no longer on modified push-ups.

This week someone commented that my back got more defined and tapered. Other than your workout my routine didn’t change so I definitely think it had to do with swinging all those kb!! I also had less and less rest time by the end so my endurance improved! Thanks again for a fun challenging month!

Results – a sense of achievement; can actually feel some muscle in my abs and pecs plus can see some formation in my biceps. Thanks to you Greg and my fellow athletes

Really enjoying this and thank you so much as it’s quick, easy and very effective and I look forward to more of your challenges.

My muscle endurance has increased. My waistline has decreased. My core strength has increased. The increase in the explosiveness I now have in doing other types of exercise such as my training in martial arts is definitely noticeable. I am currently training for my black belt test which is in April which is going to be brutal, and this has given me a great lift in my training.

My strength improved in arms and shoulders. I feel like my cardiovascular endurance increased. I bumped up to a slightly heavier kettlebell. My lower thighs tightened along with my waist. Some days are definitely harder than others, usually after having two days off was worse.

Greg I loved the KB challenge. I progressed from 11 minutes on an 8kg to 9 minutes on a 14kg. I learnt not to be scared to push myself, my fitness level improved considerably so much so that I had no aches and pains on the increased weight. My abs are firmer with less of a belly hang and I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to have a week off then start on the 12kg and continue the challenge aiming to get to a 16 by the end of the 30 days.

Although My diet hasn’t changed to much during this challenge well if anything I’m eating too many “treats” daily (normally I have a good balanced diet without too many sweet treats) I can see (and so can my husband) great changes in my body shape, my shoulders and arms are more defined, my tummy is showing shape and my “love handles” have shrunk .. I can also see shape in the top of my legs which I love (I love running and it does nothing to shape my legs like the kettle bells have).

Once again thank you for this awesome challenge !!! My strength and stamina show major improvement, and my students ask me: “What have you been doing? Your back looks awesome!!”