When you join our studio to train, based upon your goals, we determine the recommended frequency for your workouts (2- 4 days a week). Next, we put you through a movement assessment. The assessment we currently utilize is the Functional Movement Screen (FMS). We use this assessment because of it’s ease of administering and the valuable feedback it provides. The assessment puts you in the seven dominant movement patterns we use throughout life. It provides a score for a person’s movement competency. The fourth pattern checked in the screen is the active straight leg raise (as seen below).
The active straight leg raise allows you to see the range of motion someone has in their hamstrings while maintaining pelvic stability. Their score in this assessment will dictate if they are cleared to perform a kettlebell swing or not. Why is this important? If you attempt to do a swing and don’t have adequate hamstring mobility you will compensate the movement pattern by rounding the lumbar spine. This can lead to injury. Years ago, I had a good friend, who’s a physician, tell me that his office was filled with people getting injured swinging those “cow-bells”. I remarked that there isn’t such a thing as a bad exercise, just certain exercises some people shouldn’t do.
Kettlebell swings are one of our foundational exercises we include in our programs at the studio. There are a few key tips you should consider when doing this exercise. Since swings are one of my favorite exercises to both coach and do, I figured I would spend today’s post explaining how you can have success with your swings.
Tip #1- Deadlift before you swing. I had a discussion with a new coach explaining the importance of progressions in exercise. You should be able to perform a body-weight push-up before you attempt a barbell bench press. You should be able to do a body-weight lunge before adding dumbbells. You should be able to deadlift with good form before you try a kettlebell swing. When you perform a dead lift, you load the posterior kinetic chain. These are the same muscles engaged in a swing.
The big difference between a deadlift and swing is that a swing incorporates speed. Speed requires more control. If you struggle to maintain control and proper form when doing something slow, the error can be magnified with speed. My recommendation is to perform deadlifts once a week for 4- 6 weeks before progressing to a swing.
Tip #2- Don’t squat your swing- Once people start including swings in their workouts, it’s not uncommon to see them squat their swing. The dominant joint in the kettlebell swing should be the hips. The knees should be soft (slight bend). Many people are more in tune with a squat pattern, so they bend at both the hips and knees. It’s also common to be more dominant in the anterior muscles (muscles you see in the mirror when facing the mirror) than the posterior. Once you make the adjustment to hip hinge, instead of a squat, you will recruit the backside more. These muscles are built to handle substantial load.
Tip #3- You must hike the kettlebell in the inner-thighs- The studio is 60% female which allows me to coach a lot of women. One of the things that has helped me to succeed in coaching is that I try to put myself in the shoes of the person I’m working with. I learned early on with kettlebells that swinging the bell between the thighs isn’t the most lady-like thing and doesn’t come natural for most women. It’s important to understand that the lower you swing the bell(below the knees), the more prone you are to round your lower-back. You are at risk of injuring your back by exposing your lumbar spine to load in a flexed position. I go into detail explaining how to do the perfect swing in this quick video from our Online Training series. Click the link below to watch.
In addition to a great strengthening exercise for the posterior chain, swings also elevate the heart rate, when performed properly. They engage large muscles, which heightens the demand on the body. The higher heart rate makes them a good fit for high, intensity, interval workouts (HIIT).
Hopefully these tips demystified the kettlebell swing for you and explained why they are a studio favorite. Here’s one more tip. Practice makes perfect and swings require practice. The more you do, the better they become. This is from a person who has been doing swings for 8 years and hasn't reached perfection just yet. Don’t get frustrated if your swings aren’t perfect on day one. Give it some time and you will have the perfect kettlebell swing.
See you at the studio.