64-year-old grandfather completes 10,000 kettlebell swings in record time

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A 64-year-old grandfather has set a record for the quickest time to complete 10,000 kettlebell swings -- while waiting for a hip replacement.

Jack Gilchrist set about completing the Worldwide Kettlebell Challenge -- to do 10,000 swings in a month -- but found he was racing through them.

The fitness-crazed Englishman completed it in just 21 days, a feat he said experts told him is unheard of.

So now he's set his sights on doing 100,000 of the super-strength swings in around 200 days.

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Each swing sees him hold a 56-pound metal bell in each hand, swinging them in a skiing motion while moving in and out of a semi squat.

His grueling fitness regimen comes despite waiting for a hip replacement for two years -- pushed back by pandemic restrictions.

Gilchrist, of Chorley, Lancashire, said: "People normally do 500 [swings] a day for 28 days, taking weekends off. The most I’ve ever done is 1,200 in a day. I’m 64 this year and the kettlebell swings only form a small part of my daily workout. I walked over 800 miles in the first lockdown last March."

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"The 10,000-swing challenge is worldwide and has been going on for years," he added. "It’s for all sorts of athletes across all ages. At the start of this last lockdown I thought ‘I’ll give that a go’. It was really hard, but such fun, and my immediate thought was ‘I reckon I could do that every day for a year.’"

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"When I first started, I was struggling to do sets of 10 and now I can do sets of 50 pretty easily," he continued. "I look younger than I do in pictures of me in my 30s."

Jack Gilchrist, from Chorley, Lancashire, U.K., completed the Worldwide Kettlebell Challenge in just 21 days. (SWNS)

Gilchrist said he started his first 10,000-swing challenge on Nov. 9, 2020, and completed it a week early on Dec. 6.

The gym fanatic decided to keep going and aim for 100,000. He's currently 81,430 swings into it and is due to finish in around a month, on June 6.

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He's had just 29 rest days since he started -- mostly to allow his hands to recover.

"In the first month, my hands got ripped to pieces. It was hard, but my God, it was good fun. It’s a dynamic, powerful exercise where everything comes from your core. Your secondary muscles like arms come into it a bit."

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"I don’t think I’m phenomenally good. There is just never a back door as far as I’m concerned. I feel that ‘life’s too short’ goes for everything -- relationships, health, everything. I’ve had my bio markers measured, and I am physically in the condition of a 35- to 37-year-old man," he said.

This story was originally published by SWNS.