How to do the kettlebell swing

How to perform the kettlebell swing exercise

The kettlebell swing is the bread and butter of all kettlebell workouts, and makes for a intense and exhilarating workout, kettlebell swings help develop strong posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, back, shoulders) muscles and boosts cardio vascular endurance.

If there’s one technique that you had to learn, it would be the kettlebell swing.

 

The kettlebell swing trains all the muscles that you would normally use for a vertical leap, except you transfer the explosive force onto the kettlebell to move it up. The kettlebell is important as it allows you to do the exercise over several repetitions and progressively increase the load, to improve your work capacity.

Because of this the kettlebell swing is a fantastic workout for improving your broad jump and vertical jump as well as your sprint, it is also a fantastic exercise to improve and assist your squat and deadlift maximum lifts as well.

To begin you take a wide stance, with your feet roughly 1.5 times your shoulder width, and toes pointing slightly outwards, this is important to make space for for the kettlebell to swing backwards and the wide stance gives you stability during the upper portion of the lift.Squat down with your back completely straight (do not confuse this with vertical back), and lift up up the weight,[remember to keep your head straight and look across the room while you perform the exercise], squat up and stand erect with your shoulders back.

To begin the movement of the kettlebell, you should squat down (pushing your hips back) until the kettlebell is well clear of your groin,and flick the kettlebell back between your legs,this is the only time you use your arms to push the weight across,to begin the momentum,the arms should not move the weight during the swing.At this point in the swing, you should have your forearms push up against your groin and the kettlebell extending out behind you. After the kettlebell reaches it’s peak decline, you will simultaneously squat up and thrust your pelvis forward

Which will cause your back to righten vertically which causes the kettlebell to propel forward. You should aim reach chest height. On the right, this is the optimal height you want the kettlebell to be in for the Russian kettlebell swing, for beginners this is the preferred heightFor repetitions you simply let the kettlebell fall back into it’s arc, while you hold the bell with your extended arms at all times, as the kettlebell lowers, you squat down slightly with your hips back and repeat from

The target repetition for this exercise is 20, but when you first begin aim for 30 repetitions with a light weight in order to learn the technique

Note: during the swing, you do not use your arms to lift up the weight, the swing is not mean to work your arms, the arms simple role is to act as the carrier, and bit like a rope hanging a pendulum and does not use any force of it’s own.

Variations

Single handed Swing: The single handed swing is a good exercise to do to taget different muscle groups on your back as your body rotates a little to balance the weight. The single handed swing is easy to do after your have mastered the double swing, but remember that you will need to use your hands to align the weight in the centre so it does not bang into your thigh.

Swapping hands: When doing the single handed swing it’s possible to change hands mid swing, when the kettlebell swings up at the highest point, it will for a brief moment pause before it swings back down again, during the peak, you can change hands, but remember to practice this outdoors on grass beforehand

Rope swing: Athletes from weight training background have a tough time allowing their arms be a passive driver in an exercise, so tend to lat raise or lift up the kettlebell with their arms. A good technique to check yourself for this is to tie a short towel or rope around the kettlebell, and hold either end. Now when you swing the rope/towel should be in line with your arms if you’re swinging correctly, if the rope is not aligned it means you’re doing the exercise wrong. Make sure the rope isn’t too long that the kettlebell bangs onto the ground.