Tunnelblick - alles für den Weltrekord

Tunnel vision - everything for the world record

Is it enough for the Guinness World Record?

Last Saturday from 9:00 A.M to Sunday 9:00 A.M, Aug. 13-14, the world record attempt in most lifted weight in kettlebell swings (as much weight as possible lifted by kettlebell swings in 24 hours) took place at cross equip HQ (Pfäffikon ZH). Stefan Schwitter's strategy (first 75 later 60 minutes with the 32 kettlebell swings and then one hour break) should enable him to beat the already existing record of New Zealander Don Heald with a huge lead. However, this record attempt turned out to be tighter and more nerve-wracking than originally expected.


In the attempt to beat 254,338 kg in 24 hours by accumulating kettlebell swings, Stefan went to the limit.

Cameras, spectators and moderators were ready. So the attempt started with the 32kg kettlebell in Stefan's hands. He swung the first round as planned for 75 minutes with 13 repetitions per minute. At first, everything seemed to go smoothly. In the second round, however, the procedure already deviated from the original idea, because after 60 instead of 75 minutes, the second round was ended early due to sparing reasons.

In contrast to the test run with 12 hours completed by Stefan in July, this time hardly anything went as planned. Already after the first round, the first bladders appeared on his hands, which is why he had to adopt a protective posture at the expense of other muscle parts in the following rounds, holding the kettlebell further forward.The whole third round went solidly, but he also swung only 60 instead of the planned 75 minutes in this round.

In the fourth round Felix Egli (Founder of cross equip and CrossFit athlete) swung along as motivation and mental support and completed 14 - 16 repetitions per minute like Stefan.

The fifth round lasted 60 minutes as planned and was completed with the 28kg kettlebell. In this round Stefan seemed to have found his flow as he seemed to swing without much problem.

But this appearance was wrong and his performance got worse again. According to Stefan, the sixth round was also the worst of the whole record. The round started with a 28kg kettlebell, but ended with a 24kg kettlebell. Stefan completed this round with Felix, but he seemed to be in the most pain since the start of the world record.

Before the seventh round, Stefan had an hour to be treated by Roland Wernli (owner and founder of Physiobase). Stefan was fitted with lots of tape on his hands and given some massages to prevent tension and injury. These treatments seemed to have helped, as after a brief start with the 24kg kettlebell, he decided to switch back to the 32. He still completed the rest of the round in pain, but was able to work his way forward again according to plan.

Stefan took round eight as well as round nine relatively relaxed, as he only completed ten reps per minute with the 24kg KB.From the tenth round there was a change of tactics. He divided the planned 60 minutes into 2x 30. On average, he moved 24kg there with twelve repetitions per minute.

At this point Stefan still had three hours, but he was only at about 221 thousand accumulated kilos. So now he still had about 33 thousand kilos to complete. Now, after each round, we kept calculating new strategies to get Stefan to the record in the best possible way.

In the eleventh round, 20 minute sets were performed and Stefan was able to accumulate many kilos.

In the twelfth and therefore last round there were two options. Either a 45 minute EMOM (Same number of reps every minute) or five minutes on and five minutes off with more reps. Stefan chose the 5'on/5'off method and was able to finish the attempt with about four tons over the current record.

Stefan was able to break the previous world record with a total of 258'134kg. But is it now a Guinness World Record?

To make this record a Guinness World Record we had to follow some guidelines and show them on video. These included, for example, weighing the kettlebells, swinging the KB until it was parallel to the floor, or passing the KB between the legs. We seemed to have met these and the rest of the guidelines, but we are now waiting for confirmation from Guinness, which will take about two more weeks. 

Blogs before the record attempt

Videos about the record attempt


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