THE AMERICAN SWING

 BY BRANDON HETZLER, SFG TEAM LEADER

“All great truths begin as blasphemies” —George Bernard Shaw

The American swing (or the overhead swing – OH Swing): Is it good or is it bad? This is a tougher question to answer than it appears on the surface. Often times, it leads to a larger, deeper set of feelings about more than a swing – it gets at Crossfit. Which may cause the answer to the original question to be more about which side of the riot line people fall on – either VERY pro OH Swing (Crossfit is AWESOME!) or VERY con OH Swing (Crossfit is ruining the world!).

Neither side actually looks at it for what it is – a MOVEMENT.

Once we accept it as a movement and not an emotional opinion about Crossfit, we need to apply movement principles. Are deep squats good or bad? Anyone that knows anything about movement knows the answer is “Squats aren’t bad, but ‘your’ squat may be bad”.

Gross generalizations about any movement are a sign of ignorance (regardless of whether you are Pro or Con). If we are going to apply movement principles, the top priority is movement quality. I don’t just mean just do the OH Swing correctly every time and all problems surrounding it are solved, I mean: what is your general movement quality?

Translation: if you haven’t assessed movement quality (cough-FMS-cough) then now is the time to shut your mouth in this argument — you have brought a fake knife to a gunfight and are just going to sound like a blabbering idiot whose strategy is to just talk louder and louder.

Now, the Hardstyle swing (HS Swing) has an FMS tie-in courtesy of Brett Jones and Gray Cook. Unless you are a 2 (or symmetrical 2’s) on the following components of the FMS, the HS Swing should temporarily be avoided:

• ASLR (Active Straight Leg Raise

• DS (Deep Squat)

If we can agree that the movement of the OH Swing is the same as the HS Swing up the point where the bell is at shoulder height, we can safely make the same statements about the OH Swing regarding FMS requirements (remove your heels from the ground, I’m discussing the movement — not the teaching principles. If this already has you up in arms it is a sign you are a little too emotionally-tied to your stance – it’s not a significant other — and you really ought to remove yourself to a remote cave for the next month until you calm down).

Now we have to look at the overhead component, and this is where most of the ‘CON’ people base their argument. Putting anything (kettlebell, barbell, sandbag, rock, drunkard, etc) overhead requires a significant amount of shoulder mobility and trunk stability.

(Side note – The shoulder mobility and trunk stability I’m referring to are FMS-based terms and are much broader than a mobile glenohumeral joint and a strong core. If you are unclear on this, I would suggest investing in your knowledge and getting the text “MOVEMENT”.) This is also the point on where the FMS requirements get a little less crystal clear.

So, here are MY recommendations of the FMS requirements needed to safely perform the OH Swing variation:

• 2/2 ASLR

• 2 DS

• 3 TSPU (Trunk Stability Push Up)

• 3/3 SM (Shoulder Mobility)

Why the 3 and 3/3 requirements on the TSPU and the SM and not just a 2 or a 2/2? A 2 –or symmetrical 2’s — is the minimum requirement for movement quality.

M-I-N-I-M-U-M.

If you want to put a kettlebell overhead ballistically with minimum movement quality – go for it! It will be your injury. You will at some point hurt yourself, not an ‘if’ but a ‘when’. It may begin as low back “tightness”, but it will progress to pain. Or it may begin as elbow discomfort, but it will progress to elbow pain. It will happen.

We can also take one of Pavel’s cornerstone tenets to training — look at the similarities of what the very successful people do. Those individuals that repeatedly and successfully put things over their head — regardless of the manner in which they do it — all share the commonalities of thoracic mobility and trunk strength. Olympic weightlifters, gymnasts, old-school strict military pressers and heavy bent pressers all approach how they get their loads overhead a bit differently, but share those mobility and stability commonalities.

If you meet these FMS requirements and have the desire to do the OH Swing – by all means  do it. Learn the technique and go. If you don’t meet these requirements, then learning the technique isn’t an option – yet. You need to fix you movement quality issues first before layering on the movement capacity (volume, load, etc).

If you are still with me, you have probably realized that I have managed to avoid answering the question and pointed my finger and the blame at the FMS. What if someone doesn’t know or administer the FMS? Simple – learn it and apply it. Any fitness professional or healthcare provider (that live in the world of movement — ATCs, PTs, Ortho PAs, Chiros, etc) not up to speed with the FMS is woefully ill-equipped to adequately do their job. There are A LOT of MDs out there that finished in the bottom of their class and still make a living as a Doctor, I’m just saying I wouldn’t ever go to them. There is no way to account for every single person’s level of education, but just like the OH Swing and the FMS discussion everyone needs a minimal level of education. The FMS is a minimal requirement if you want to discuss movement (with me) or fix movement problems – which are EVERYTHING orthopedic in nature. Otherwise we don’t speak the same language.

Back to the point – if you have mobility issues in the thoracic spine and/or shoulder then getting overhead easily and effortlessly is going to be limited – that extra motion will have to come from somewhere else.

Option 1: Enter Lumbar spine hyper extension (lordosis). As soon as the L-spine hyperextends (which will allow the arms to appear to get overhead) the pelvic floor shuts down and the trunk cylinder (normally referred to as the ‘core’) loses its ability to stabilize.

Nothing good happens here. Performance drops, injury likelihood increases and competencies begin to pile up to accomplish the movement.

Option 2: Bend the elbows and chicken neck the head. While this doesn’t compromise the L-spine or affect the pelvic floor it does put the shoulder into — in the words of Kelly Starrett DPT — a “douchey” position. This strategy opens the door to shoulder impingement, elbow issues, wrist issues, neck pain, headaches, and a plethora of other bad things.

Doing swings of any style should be like the first line of Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails recorded it first and has the more popular version, but Johnny Cash wrote the song):

“I hurt myself today,

To see if I still feel.

I focus on the pain

The only thing that’s real.”

Training will cause physical discomfort – pain is a problem. Joint pain after or during training, or a movement, is a sign of a problem. That is an entirely different article that I’ll leave alone for now because it gets into deep seeded psychosomatic issues that relate to the misconception of pain and progression.

Then there is the “if you want to swing overhead, just snatch instead” argument. This can be a very good point, and very appropriate for those people that don’t meet the FMS OH Swing requirements. Since the KB Snatch is a 1 arm movement, there is a little more wiggle room when it comes to the mobility requirements – both hands aren’t fixed to the bell.

This is also a completely different movement pattern (even though they visibly appear the same) that is now very asymmetrical and introduces rotational forces into the system. This is important because it gives us a completely different stabilization strategy which is less reflective of the TSPU and more reflective to the Rotary Stability component of the FMS. The snatch probably is a more appropriate drill for more people — in general — but this doesn’t mean it is the only ballistic option to get an object overhead.

In general, like anything else, you can’t say that OH swings are good or bad. For some people (2 DS, 2/2 ASLR, 3 TSPU, 3/3 SM) they are appropriate and beneficial. For others they are just bad. It goes back to applying the right drill to the right person at the right time for the right reason. I’m sure there is someone on the globe that can benefit from the clamshell exercise – even though my personal opinion is that about 527 exercises exist that are better and more efficient than the clamshell. Maybe in addition to New Kids on the Block and the Cosby Show, the 1980’s gave us the greatest gluteus medius exercise ever – I’m just too jaded to admit it. My point – No exercise, no matter how much we personally detest it or idolize it, is good or bad for everyone. Period!
 

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Brandon Hetzler is a Certified Athletic Trainer that oversees the Sports Performance Program for Mercy Sports Medicine in Springfield MO, and is an instructor in the Masters of Athletic Training Program at Missouri State University.  He is an SFG Team Leader and also holds the CICS and PM credentials.

Brandon is one of three individuals that created the Movement Restoration Project which promotes restoring lost movement to ALL individuals.  To find more information, go to their Facebook Page (Movement Restoration Project), or to find upcoming workshop dates check www.functionalmovement.com.