How to do kettlebell swings
- Stand tall with a kettlebell between your legs on the ground, feet shoulder-width apart, and slightly bent knees.
- Hinging at your hips, grab the kettlebell before swinging it back between your legs.
- Thrust forward with your hips, using the momentum to bring the kettlebell to shoulder height as you stand up.
How to perform a proper kettlebell swing?
- Lifting with your arms. The power and momentum from your lower body should drive the kettlebell up. ...
- Rounding your back. ...
- Squatting. ...
- Bending your knees too much. ...
- Not engaging your core. ...
- Swinging too fast. ...
- Using the wrong weight. ...
- Forgetting to breathe. ...
What muscles do I use for a kettlebell swing?
Kettlebell swings also work with upper body muscles like your shoulders, lats, and forearms. This is because you are picking up the kettlebell, so your arms are engaged, and your shoulders are rotating back as you swing. You will also feel your back muscles working to keep a straight spine throughout the exercise.
Can kettlebell swings be done everyday?
You can do kettlebell exercises every day. You don’t have to do it for hours at a time to reap the benefits. Start by doing kettlebell swings in sets of 10. As you get stronger, you can add more sets to your routine. As a goal, aim to do 10 sets of 10 swings. Alternating different kettlebell weights will also give your body a chance to recover.
How to get started with kettlebell training?
- Position your feet shoulder width apart, or slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
- Put your weight on your heels. ...
- Keep your shoulders back and down and chest up.
- Maintain a tall spine and neutral head position.
- Look at a focal point on the floor six feet in front of you.
- Contract your glutes, tighten your thighs and abs, and pull up your kneecaps.
What is the proper way to do a kettlebell swing?
Soften your knees, shift your body weight into your heels, and lower your butt back and down toward the wall behind you. Driving through your heels, explode through your hips to send the weight swinging upward from your quads. Aim for chest height, with your arms extended.
What do kettlebell swings actually do?
The kettlebell swing strengthens your core, glutes, hamstrings, quads, back, delts and arms. Research shows that kettlebell swings improves balance and posture, even for elite athletes.
Do kettlebell swings burn belly fat?
Kettlebell exercises are great for an intense full-body workout to build strength and muscle tone, burn calories and lose weight, including belly fat.
Is it OK to do kettlebell swings everyday?
How about swinging kettlebells daily. If you keep the volume down then yes many people can swing a kettlebell everyday. However, you need to listen to your body and take a day off when you feel you have not recovered.
What part of the body do kettlebell swings work?
The kettlebell swing is a great full-body exercise; working the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, erectors, trapezius, rhomboids, deltoids, and abdominals. Different variations can be used to target each muscle group more and target your own weaknesses.
Do kettlebell swings build abs?
This kettlebell exercise is not only great for your abs but also your back and hips. It's a wonderful exercise to try to strengthen your muscles and focusing on your core. To perform this exercise correctly, it's vital that you hold the kettlebell tightly and to not let the weight rest on the body.
How heavy should kettlebell swings be?
According to Daily Burn kettlebell expert, Cody Storey, women might want to start with 8 kg (18 lbs) or 12 kg (26 lbs), and men with 16 kg (35 lbs). As you get stronger, you can increase in weight.
Where should you feel kettlebell swings?
Where Should You Feel Kettlebell Swings? Kettlebell swings are a full body exercise but focus predominantly on the posterior chain or the muscles running up the back of the body. If you are performing the kettlebell swing correctly then you should feel your buttocks, hamstrings and core muscles working hard.
Why do kettlebell swings hurt my low back?
If you’re experiencing pain while performing any exercise in the gym, it is best to seek the advice and care of a medical professional. That said,...
How many kettlebell swings can I do at once?
It really depends on your goals, but technically, as many as you want. If you’re training to improve cardiovascular endurance, you might want to co...
Can I do kettlebell swings every day?
Figuring out if you can train with a kettlebell daily is about assessing your fitness level, experience with swings, and your goals. Unless your ex...
How much weight should I use for kettlebell swings?
A little bit of trial and error — as long as your trial doesn’t involve starting with the heaviest weight possible — never hurt anyone. When you’re...
How to swing a kettlebell?
Forcefully drive the kettlebell forwards with the hips and glutes while simultaneously straightening the knees to bring yourself into a rigid, upright posture. Your shoulders and arms should be loose to allow the weight to swing freely upwards.
What is a kettlebell swing?
The kettlebell swing is a widely popular exercise seen in sports performance facilities, CrossFit boxes, fitness classes, and garage gyms around the world. Learning and refining kettlebell swing technique will unlock endless opportunities of power, muscle hypertrophy, cardiovascular fitness, and improve work capacity: without the fear of injury.
How to do a kettlebell workout?
Start with your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, toes forward, and the kettlebell placed on the floor 12-18 inches in front of you. Bend at the waist and load the hips without allowing the knees to pass in front of the toes such that your torso falls into a mostly horizontal position. Keep your back flat and grab the handle of the kettlebell with both hands. Ensure that your feet are flat and you’re balanced slightly towards the heels.
How to get a torso to move?
Get Set Up. Start with your feet slightly wider than hip width apart with the toes forward and the kettlebell placed 12-18 inches in front of you. Bend at the waist and load the hips back as you keep your knees from moving past the toes. This should bring your torso into a more horizontal position.
What muscles does kettlebell swing work?
The kettlebell swing is a posterior chain dominant movement, which means it develops strength and power of the glutes, hamstrings, and back . Many individuals fail to utilize such muscles groups, opting instead to do something that resembles a slow motion shoulder front raise with a simultaneous lumbar hyperextension.
How to get hamstrings to work with kettlebell?
From the set up position, aggressively pull the shoulder blades down the back and allow the kettlebell to move backwards towards your hips. Your knees can bend slightly during the movement, however it is important to keep the weight back and load the hamstrings.
How to sweep kettlebell back?
From the set up position, aggressively sweep the kettlebell back between your legs by contracting the lats. Your knees can bend slightly during the movement. However, it is important to keep the weight in the hips and load the hamstrings.
What is kettlebell swing?
The kettlebell swing is a core training staple that can help to build total body strength and power , but are you sure you're even doing the exercise correctly? For this explosive movement, you shouldn't settle for anything other than perfect form—especially because it's such a simple, essential exercise that should serve as one ...
Why do bodybuilders do kettlebell swings?
Eb says: Bodybuilders tend to do kettlebell swings like this, because they’re breaking the motion back into two bodybuilding motions. This doesn’t just miss the point of a kettlebell swing (hip extension) but it’s dangerous for your shoulders, too. You end up trying to finish the swing with your shoulders, placing your rotator cuff tendons in a compromised position.
How to explode a kettlebell?
You really need to think about two things when you are trying to explode the bell upwards: stand up and squeeze your glutes. Don’t think of it as a swing. If you explosively and powerfully stand up, and really exaggerate that glute squeeze, your torso will naturally pop up and the bell will translate forward.
What does Eb say about swings?
Eb says: This goes back to tight core. One common flaw you’ll see when people do swings is they’ll round through the upper back or (worse) through the lower back. You absolutely must maintain the stiffness through your torso over the life of your swing set. That’s about keeping abs tight and lays tight.
How to bend your waist with a bell?
Focus on letting the bell drive you to bend your waist. Your arms will rise because the bell exploded forward and upward. As it comes back, let the bar drag your biceps to your torso, and then let the bell pull your torso downward. This will help insure a rigid torso.
Do you bend your knees when you are kettlebelling?
Eb says: This is a bodybuilding motion and comes from a tendency to not bend your knees, or at least to not bend them enough. The hamstrings work best when they let you bend at the knee and hip together. Eliminating one limits your ability to be explosive, as you should be during kettlebell swings.
Is the upper body the driver of the kettlebell swing?
Eb says: Your upper body isn’t the driver of the kettlebell swing; it’s only a lever. But we still want it to be a sturdy lever. So you need to tighten up your core and set your lats.
How to do a kettlebell swing
The first thing to remember before doing a kettlebell swing is that the swing part of the movement comes from your legs, not your arms.
What are the benefits of a kettlebell swing?
As we’ve already mentioned, there are a number of benefits to this killer full-body move. Kettlebell swings are a weightlifting move, and one that targets the back, core, deltoids, traps, pecs, glutes and hamstrings. They are also a type of anaerobic activity, meaning you’ll get a killer workout in a short amount of time.
The best kettlebell swing variations to try
American swing: Here’s where it gets a little confusing; the exercise outlined above is typically referred to as a Russian kettlebell swing. With an American kettlebell swing, instead of pausing when the kettlebell is at chest height, you swing the kettlebell up and above your head, before swinging it back down between your legs.
