On June 19 Tammy Kovaluk broke the world record for most weight lifted by kettle bell swing in 12 hours.
After 10,105 reps of kettle bell swings for a total of 416,326 pounds swung, the record was hers.
“The women’s record I did it kind of halfway through. The men’s record was like 11 and a half hours,” said Kovaluk.
The previous mens record was 410,896 pounds.
In 2021, Kovaluk broke two Guinness world records for most chest to ground burpees by a female for both 12 hours and 24 hours.
“I’ve also done some insane races. I find it that it just helps my personal mental growth to kind of go into that cave every few years and it’s also changed me a lot as a person,” explained Kovaluk.
Specific preparation for the record attempt began in February.
“I would mix in endurance sets, longer endurance work, heavy short intervals and then a lot of strength work, just to help with injury prevention,” said Kovaluk. “The longest workout I did was three hours so it wasn’t that long, but I know my body has endurance.”
In the week leading up to the attempt not everything went as planned.
“Every 10 years or so something comes on and I get a headache and my back gets really painful,” explained Kovaluk. “A week before it hit me again and I just got better two days before (the attempt), so I was not feeling very confident but in hindsight it helped me really recover from the training so I felt super fresh.”
While attempting a record like this, she says it can also be challenging mentally.
“Thinking short term goals. It really helped having a really positive environment and having people help out and then just focusing on the next hour because it was over daunting otherwise,” said Kovaluk.
Not only is it important to stay focused mentally but she says you have to fuel your body as well.
“It was quite hot, that was the hard part. I was feeling very nauseated and then at that point it was just like (eating) salty chips when I can and it was getting harder and harder to get it down. Coca-Cola for some reason helps settle my tummy,” said Kovaluk.
Along with coke and chips she also had fruit, pickle juice and some gels.
As Kovaluk battled through the heat she thought of her good friend Rai Moreno.
“He’s battling lymphoma. So sometimes when I was really suffering I was like I’m not going through chemo. My friend is probably feeling worse than I am right now. So I wanted to dedicate it to him,” said Kovaluk.
The post record celebration didn’t go the way Kovaluk thought it would.
“I remember I was like, I’m gonna have beer and pizza and (after) I was so nauseated. The next day even it took me a bit to come around.”
The world record attempt was completed at Iron Heart gym where Kovaluk is a personal trainer. Richard and Jenny Chippendale are the owners of Iron Heart gym and were major supports throughout the day. During the day many people did kettle bell swings or push ups along side Kovaluk.
“Bringing a whole community together… It’s such a positive environment, to just have everybody together and joking around. You end up building better friendships out of these suffering attempts. It was very cool to see,” stated Kovaluk.
As for the record being officially verified, all of Kovaluk’s logbooks and witness statements must match and be sent in with the entire 12 hours of footage.
“That’ll take me a couple weeks (to put together) and then it takes them like three months (to verify it),” explained Kovaluk.