Last week I posed the question “What is wrong with this kettlebell swing?“, this week I will show you what was wrong. If you got the answer right, great! If you were one of the people that wrote a long list of things that were wrong, I don’t blame you, it’s all good, sometimes it takes a while to open the mind to new things and understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and a million ways to swing a kettlebell.
2
As long as what you do reaches YOUR goal, is safe and is correctly named, then who is to say you’re doing it wrong?
BE UNCONVENTIONAL, BE CAVEMAN!
Without further ado, watch the video above to see the squat style kettlebell swing which you should be including in your training if you want to work the quads and traps more. Great for those who can’t avoid the lower back pain when hip hinging. With that I’m not saying that you shouldn’t understand why you’re getting the lower back pain and shouldn’t learn the hip hinge, I’m saying that sometimes there are occasions where you just need to say “YOU! Do the swing squat style”…
Swing
The definition of a swing or swinging is:
- Move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.
- Move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.
- An act of swinging.
Don’t confuse the swing with pendulum which is what we talk about with the hip hinge style swing to get the idea of arms not powering the swing across, the mention is to get a concept across, the movement is not actually a pendulum.
Even the kettlebell exercise around the body is a swing of the kettlebell.
Kettlebell Swing Squat Style
- Load is directed to the ground rather than behind you, thus more pull/load on the traps
- Knees are coming forward thus more activation of the quads required, hence, more load on the quads
- Torso remains slightly more upright, thus less load on the core muscles, in particular lower back muscles
Stop listening like a zombie to those who say “A kettlebell swing is a hip hinge”, yes a “Russian swing”, “Convention double-arm swing” is a hip hinge, but as for A kettlebell swing, you can do it 25 different ways. I’m just pulling that number out of the air.
Squat style for anterior chain muscles, hip hinge style for posterior chain muscles, end of story, go swing a kettlebell!
Related articles:
- What Is Wrong With This Kettlebell Swing?
- Correcting The Hard Style Kettlebell Swing
- Double Arm Kettlebell Sportstyle Swing
- The American Kettlebell Swing: Why You Should Never Do It
- Enter The Suitcase Swing