Naming
Correct exercise naming has been something we’ve been a strong proponent of since 2009, although met with strong resistance, we have and will persist on this matter.
An example of naming. If you are in a CrossFit box, then when they program or ask you to do a swing, it means they want you to do an American Swing. If you are in a Hardstyle gym and they ask you to perform a clean, they want you to perform a Hardstyle clean which is a clean performed with a hip hinge.
If you’re in a CrossFit box, and they ask you to do a snatch, they mean an Olympic Barbell Squat Snatch. If you are in a bodybuilding gym and they ask you to do a deadlift, they mean a Hip Hinge Deadlift.
When they refer to a swing, clean, or snatch they refer to an exercise but not a specific variation, although that specific exercise variation is implied because everyone knows at CrossFit that a swing for them is an American Swing. If you would go to a Hardstyle gym and ask someone to do a swing, it would be a Hip Hinge swing till chest height and always with maximal power, if you would go to a kettlebell sport gym and ask someone to do a swing, it would be a pendulum swing.
Implying the exact exercise variation makes life easier but the problem with most of these communities is that once they step outside of their area, they will assume everyone else is doing the swing wrong because they don’t know any better than what they’ve been taught. They are not aware of other variations and they don’t know the difference between an exercise and an exercise variation.
An exercise defines certain characteristics but not the variation. If you ask any of the above people to perform a clean and they do their variation, then they are correct. If you ask any of the above people to perform a swingclean with a squat movement and they perform their own clean, then they are incorrect.
If you develop an environment where exact exercise variations are implied, I recommend that you spend time explaining the concept and that your students can expect to see other variations outside of your environment.
Exercise
The characteristics of a clean are:
- The weight starts from below the hips
- The weight ends up in a racking position
- The weight entered a ballistic flight between the start and end
Exercise Variation
The exercise variation defines the exact characteristics that are not defined above, for example, the movement used:
- Hip hinge (pull)
- Squat (pull)
- Pendulum (push and pull)
Starting position:
- Dead
- Hang
- Swing
Grip:
- Loose grip
- Open palm grip
- Goblet grip
- Horn grip
- Etc.
Public
When you deal with the public, i.e. new group class participants, YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok viewers, etc., then you need to be specific with your naming unless you don’t care what kind of clean you want them to perform in the workout.
When you deal with people in private and you stick to a small selection of exercise variations then certain variations can eventually be implied.
The thing to take away from this lesson is that a Clean is an exercise and an exercise has many exercise variations. The exercise variations dictate how it is performed.
Clarity
We have been experimenting with exercise naming to create clarity and avoid confusion. One of the things that we found was when referring to the Swingclean as Swing Clean, there was confusion thinking that a swing had to be performed and then a clean, rather than a clean with a swing to power it.
To avoid confusion we have been testing Swingclean as one word which falls in line with the same convention used for the Deadlift, i.e. dead lift, lifting dead weight. Because there is a squat swing and a hip hinge swing, we have also introduced the use of the abbreviation HH for Hip Hinge.
For exercises that start from dead on each rep, we’re using Dead and Dead Start.
Exercise variations without the mention of double kettlebell are always single kettlebell work.
Alternating exercises are always single kettlebell.
Granted, there is still work to be done on the naming conventions that we use.