Your Step by Step Guide To Mastering the Kettlebell Swing
Walk into any gym and you’ll probably see someone doing the kettlebell swing and for good reason. The kettlebell swing is a badass exercise that delivers numerous benefits, such as improving overall posture, athleticism, while building muscle while torching body fat all at once. Truth be told, it’s can exercise I use all the time for my clients and it’s one of the reasons why my clients achieve such amazing results.
However, if you have never learned how to perform the swing or are looking to refine your technique, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the step by step process I take with my online clients to take them from unsure how to do the swing to swinging heavy kettlebells with ease.
How to do the Kettlebell Swing
Before taking you through the drills, there’s an important concept you need to learn and master. This concept is maintaining your center of mass over your base of support aka keeping your balance.
The kettlebell swing is a hip hinging movement, meaning you want the majority of your movement to come from your hips, not your knees. And this is exactly where you have to start when it comes to kettlebell swings. Far too often, individuals are more squatting their swings which can increase their risks for injury.
When the kettlebell swing is done properly, it can torch calories, help you build muscle, strengthen your glutes, improve your posture, and make you more competent with other lifts.
So, let’s get into it. Here’s the step-by-step approach to get you there.
Step 1: Maintaining your Base of Support
Before taking you through the drills, there’s an important concept you need to learn and master. This concept is maintaining your center of mass over your base of support aka keeping your balance.
It’s one thing to know all the drills, yet if you can’t keep your balance, the kettlebell will “win” every time. This is why I want to cover this before getting into the more technical concepts.
So, where should your weight be distributed?
Your weight should be along with your mid-foot, especially the back half of your mid-foot.
If your weight is too far back, your toes will pick up. Conversely, if your weight is too far forward, your heel will lift off the ground.
That’s easy enough, but how do you keep it there? By being mindful and engaged, and not worrying too much about how hard you’re swinging the bell or how much weight you’re using.
When you focusing on those two variables, you’ll end up making it really hard for your body to reflectively stay balanced. You’ll end up too tense, may start holding your breath, and/or use your arms too much.
So before each set of the upcoming drills, try to shake out your arms, breathe in a relaxed fashion, and mentally dial it in to move the kettlebell smoothly and efficiently.
Step Two - Knowing the Difference between a Hip Hinge and Squat
The kettlebell swing is a hip hinging movement, meaning you want the majority of your movement to come from your hips, not your knees. And this is exactly where you have to start when it comes to kettlebell swings. Far too often, individuals are more squatting their swings which can increase their risks for injury.
The joint plays a primary role in the execution of each pattern. So just remember,
A squat pattern will place more emphasis on the knee joint.
A hip hinge pattern starts with the hips and places more emphasis there, hence the name of the pattern itself
While there’s obviously movement occurs at both the hips and knees, the primary joint leading the movement itself is the distinguishing factor when grouping the pattern. However, since the kettlebell swing is a hip hinging movement, we want the majority of the movement to occur at the hips.
Here’s how to do a proper hip hinge
Place your feet so they are just slightly outside shoulder width apart.
Your feet can be flared out slightly rather than staying perfectly straight.
From here, slightly bend your knees and slowly push your butt back while reaching straight out with your arms and allowing your torso to lean forward.
Briefly pause at the bottom of the deepest part of your hinge and then slowly stand up.
Throughout this drill, your weight should ideally be along the back half of your mid-foot. The only way to figure this out at first is to go really slowly and figure out where your torso needs to be to achieve that weight distribution. Move slowly and mindfully; this is the foundation of your swing!
Dialing it in with a Dowel
A common pitfall in doing the KB swing is achieving and maintaining a fully neutral spine position. This is important as this will limit potential lower back injuries for the swing, deadlifts, or any other hip hinge variations.
This is where our dowel test comes into play. The goal is to find a neutral-ish spinal position that will allow you to swing without potentially hurting your lower back.
Here’s how to do it:
Get into your deadlift stance
Position a dowel (or stick) behind your back running vertically with the spine.
Hold the dowel with the right hand in the natural curve of your neck and the left hand in the natural curve of your lower back.
In this position, the dowel rod should be in contract with 3 points on the spine: the back of the head, the mid-back, and the tailbone.
Use the dowel to groove the hip hinge with the maintenance of the spinal position is a great learning tool.
Step 3: Master the Kettlebell Deadlift
Now, just because you can bodyweight a dowel like a complete master doesn’t mean you should start adding velocity and acceleration and weight. Before you start swinging away, there’s an intermediary step and that step is called the deadlift.
Mastering the deadlift is a prerequisite to swinging the kettlebell. Anytime we are adding velocity to a load, that is a progression. Therefore, we need to master the deadlift by moving the load in a controlled fashion. To master the kettlebell swing, the best place to start is deadlifting the kettlebell.
How to do a Kettlebell Deadlift
Place the kettlebell on the ground so the handle is between your shoe laces. From there, perform a hip hinge with your arms reaching straight down towards the bell
Grip the ball firmly with both hands. In this position, your shins should be vertical, hips high, back flat, shoulders slightly in forth of the kettlebell, and arms straight.
While gripping the kettlebell, try to break the handle in half.
Using your legs, think to push the ground away from you to stand up
From here, reverse the motion to bring the kettlebell back down to the ground.
Your goal here should be to deadlift around 32KG (or ~71 pounds) or more for 10 quality reps. For most clients, this takes between 3-6 weeks of KB deadlift two times a week. Just to clarify, this isn’t necessarily about the weight; it’s about your ability and skill to maintain balance while deadlifting a relatively heavy-ish load. This takes some time and practice so don’t skip this step!
Step 4: the KB Hike Pass
Now, it’s time to start moving the kettlebell a little faster now! Start with at least a 14kg or 16kg kettlebell. This is why getting your deadlift up to 32kg or more was a prerequisite.
Unlike the kettlebell deadlift, you’re going to step back from the bell about a foot and a half. From this position, hip hinge back, reach out to grab the kettlebell handles with both hands, and tilt the bell back towards you while simultaneously shifting your weight back to the back half of your mid-foot.
Once you have the start position locked down, your goal is to maintain it while “hiking” the bell back and up between your legs and returning it back to the starting position.
This is the initial momentum river for your swing. It may feel a bit awkward at first and probably knock you off balance a bit. That’s ok! You’re learning a new movement! The body will continue to learn and adapt!
Another key point: if your hips are shooting up or your knees are shooting forward, you’re “leaking” a lot of energy. To prevent this, stand your ground and maintain your hip hinge position. Make sure it’s just your arms that are doing the majority of the movement. It’s fine to have a bit “Ol’ English” (aka movement), but make sure it’s not egregious otherwise you’ll be pulled out of position.
Step 5: The Kettlebell Power Swing
This is the final step before you start consecutively swinging that kettlebell.
For the kettlebell power swing, we are going to piece everything together into a single swing. This will allow you to really get a handle for the movement and own it.
How to do the Kettlebell Power Swing
You’re going to perform the KB hike pass, then snap your hips forward into a “standing” position while allowing that kettlebell to “float” in front of your body at shoulder height.
Control the downward swing to reverse the motion and return the kettlebell onto the ground.
Rinse and repeat.
Like the hike pass, the dead stop swing will feel awkward at first as your body tries to find balance during such a dynamic movement. Don’t sweat it!
Stand up, shake it out, and try again. It may take a few sessions before you really get the hang of it.
Step 6: The Kettlebell Swing
Now, it’s the easy part! Well, easy if you have been actually taking your time with the previous steps!
Not much to say here besides you are not swinging for multiple reps together.
When first starting, I recommend you stay with 3-8 reps and slowly work your way up.
Avoiding these Common KB Swing Mistakes
Like most things, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do the kettlebell swing. Make sure to pay close attention to your swing form, path, and technique to ensure a successful, injury-free workout.
Make sure you avoid these all too common mistakes
1) Bending the Knees too Much
It’s called the kettlebell swing, not the kettlebell squat for a reason. With that in mind, always focus on being explosive and using your hips. Dripping into a squat turns it into an up and down movement rather than an explosive thrust. Go back and reread step two to prevent yourself from squatting your swings (and potentially hurting yourself).
2) Leaning Back too Far
If your lower back is hurting while swinging, then something is out of whack. Chances are you’re not finishing your swing by bracing your core and squeezing your glutes in the top position. Be sure to finish rep in a neutral, standing position.
3)Swinging the Bell too Low
This is probably the most common mistake I see within the gym and more often than not, causes individuals to injure their lower back. You want the kettlebell to be high and tight to your inner thighs, not scraping the bell across the floor. Do not let the bell go below your knees! If you consistently do this, you’ll be rewarded with an injury-free swing while enhancing your strength, performance, and progress.
That’s it!
As you can see, the vast majority of this guide was going over the importance of balance and breaking the swing down into smaller, manageable chunks.
It’s up to you to take the time to master each step. Once you get this down and maintain your skill, you’ll become a kettlebell swing master and the envy of all the gym onlookers.