Former Bend resident breaks world record for kettlebell swings

Published 9:45 am Thursday, June 27, 2024

Former Bend resident Tammy Kovaluk recently broke two Guinness World Records for most weight lifted by a kettlebell swing in a one-hour and 12-hour time frame.

At Foundation Health and Fitness in southeast Bend this past Saturday, two world records fell.

Tammy Kovaluk, a trainer and strength coach from British Columbia, Canada, and a former longtime Bend resident, broke two Guinness World Records for most weight lifted by a kettlebell swing in a one-hour and 12-hour time frame.

With a 40-pound kettlebell, the 49-year-old completed 1,758 swings in one hour, and then did 7,133 over the course of 12 hours. The record is gauged by weight, meaning her 1,758 swings in the first hour equated to 72,253.8 pounds, while her 12-hour record reached 293,166.3 pounds.

“I had the dream of beating the men’s record, but that was too out of reach,” said Kovaluk, who was a little nervous entering Saturday because she was dealing with a sore back. “But I did break the female records.”

Kovaluk broke the previous records of 66,271 pounds for one hour and 99,208 for 12 hours.

The kettlebell record is just the latest entry of endurance sports feats for Kovaluk. Throughout the years, Kovaluk has competed in amateur boxing, cross-country running, triathlons (including the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 2009) and elite obstacle course races.

Kovaluk will have three Guinness World Records to her name, having already set a record for most chest-to-ground burpees (6,116) in a 12-hour period in 2021 in Bend. That same day, she also set the world record for burpees in a 24-hour period (6,260), which has since been broken.

“I’m a big believer in visiting the pain cage,” Kovaluk said.

In January, she began training seriously to try to break the kettlebell record. Leading up to the attempt, she had to settle in on a weight she wanted to swing thousands upon thousands of times. Forty pounds was the sweet spot.

Then she started building a training regimen in which she alternated days of lighter weights and more volume to get her form down with days of more weight but fewer reps.

After close to 2,000 swings in the first hour, Kovaluk, who lived in Bend from 2016 to 2023 before moving back to Canada, had to start pacing herself for the next 11 hours. While dealing with sore hands after the first couple of hours, she settled into doing 25 reps then taking a two-minute break, before doing another round of 25 swings.

“Your body goes through these phases. After the first hour I was super obliterated,” Kovaluk said. “I didn’t want to go anymore. Then I had to reset my goals a little lower. The next couple of hours were tough and I did some smaller sets.”

By the end, her hands were so beat up from gripping the handle that she said her friend who is a nurse gave her treatment similar to a burn victim.

But the sore muscles and the battered hands were worth it in order to break the records after 12 hours of exercise.

“I was feeling relief that it was over,” Kovaluk said. “I didn’t get that excited until afterwards. I was just satisfied.”

Marketplace