A Washington fitness studio swung for the stars last month and landed a world record.
Eleven women and one man at Energy Fitness Studio on Adios Drive set out to break the current world record for the most weight lifted by kettlebell swing in one hour by a team.
They not only broke the record, they quadrupled it.
“I was pretty confident we were going to double the previous record,” said Energy Fitness co-owner Trenton Sweet.
“Everyone at the gym was really starting to evolve with their kettlebell training, getting pretty strong. We started doing a lot of in-house competitions and challenges. I wondered what we could go for as a team,” said Sweet, which led to his interest in the world record attempt.
The team trained with the kettlebells – a weight-training tool resembling a cannonball with a handle – for 12 weeks prior to the event held in May. The weight of the kettlebell varied from 15 to 60 pounds.
“The amount of weight was decided by each person depending on their confidence in their strength level,” Sweet said. “They each settled on a weight they could swing for an hour. It was not based on body weight, but what they achieved through training.”
Studio co-owner Kaitlyn Sweet used a 15-pound kettlebell, which accounted for a little over 10% of her body weight. She said she felt euphoric after finishing.
“I felt really excited and accomplished. You are so exhausted, but have so much adrenaline going.”
Trenton Sweet received notification from the World Record Certification Agency on May 19 by email stating, “We are thrilled to inform you that the total weight that you provided, which is 209,072.13 kg (460,915.89 pounds) has significantly surpassed the Guinness World Record of 52,068.85 kg (114,792.16 pounds).”
The previous record was set on June 15, 2024, in Bari, Italy, by a team of 12.
Both of the Sweets were confident the team would break the record.
“I knew we would, but I didn’t know we would break it by that much,” said Kaitlyn Sweet.
Because of the cost associated with having a Guinness World Record representative on site, the group opted to video the one-hour event using two camera angles for the judges to review and certify the results remotely, which took about 10 days.
Asked how he felt after swinging a kettlebell for an hour, Sweet said, “Absolute exhaustion. Everybody was exhausted. We had an ice plunge set outside and pretty much everyone did the plunge and then laid there to cool off.”
Team members included Krystle Gavin, Bianca Niccolai, Rachel Ferry, Samantha Carobine, Legend Thurman, Lisa Bruce, Kaitlyn Sweet, Trenton Sweet, Camilla DeFelice, Brittany Martin, Laura Glomb and Payton Etier. They will celebrate their accomplishment with a group dinner.
In addition to kettlebell training, Energy Fitness Studio offers yoga and barre.