The Kettlebell Swing Is Not a Hip Hinge

Originally published May 9, 2021. Updated February 2026 with peer-reviewed research.

In This Article

• The Swing Is the Exercise
• The Proof Is in the Research
• What Happens When We Assume
• The Naming Convention
• Why This Matters for Your Training
• References

There I said it. The kettlebell swing is not a hip hinge. It is not a Hardstyle swing. It is not a freestyle swing. It is not a sportstyle swing. It is not a squat. A kettlebell swing is an exercise where the weight moves back and forth while suspended from the hands on an axis. The name “kettlebell swing” does not define the movement with which the swing is performed.

I’ll say it again: the swing is the exercise. The hip hinge is just one of several movement patterns you can use to perform it. Researchers have tested this — and the science backs it up.

The Swing Is the Exercise

Think about what the word “swing” actually describes. It describes the path of the weight: a pendular arc, back and forth. That’s all. It says nothing about whether your hips hinge, your knees bend, or your torso stays upright. Just like “deadlift” describes a starting condition (the weight is dead on the ground) rather than a movement pattern, “swing” describes the action of the external load, not the action of the body.

This is the same logic we apply throughout our exercise naming convention at Cavemantraining and IKU. A push-up just means to push yourself up. A pull-up just means to pull yourself up. A clean means to bring a weight from a lower position into a racking position via one explosive movement. The base name tells you what happens. The variation tells you how.

Once you understand this, a whole layer of confusion falls away. Some people will assume a kettlebell clean is performed with a swing action. Others will assume it is performed with a pull — dead from the ground or from a hang. The correct names are swing clean, dead clean, and hang clean. We can get even more specific and include the movement pattern: hip hinge swing clean, squat swing clean, pendulum swing clean.

Can proper exercise naming become time-consuming? Yes. Is it always necessary? No. It depends on the context. But if the short version of the exercise name is always used in class without ever explaining the naming convention, problems will follow. People will go out into the real world and shout “That’s not a clean!” or “That’s not how you do a snatch!” — because they learned one variation and assumed it was the only way.

The Proof Is in the Research

This isn’t just a philosophical argument about language. Researchers have directly tested whether different swing styles produce different training effects — and the answer is yes.

Del Monte and colleagues had fourteen participants perform three distinct styles of kettlebell swings — hip hinge, squat, and double knee extension — while measuring hamstring muscle activity via surface electromyography. The results showed a statistically significant main effect for swing type. The hip hinge swing produced significantly greater hamstring activation than both the squat swing and the double knee extension swing.¹

Read that again. The researchers themselves identified three different swing styles. They measured them separately. They found statistically different outcomes. This is exactly the point: if the “kettlebell swing” were a single exercise defined by a single movement pattern, these differences wouldn’t exist. But they do — because “swing” describes the path of the weight, and the movement pattern is a separate variable that changes what the exercise does to your body.

McGill and Marshall’s landmark biomechanics study at the University of Waterloo also demonstrated this distinction. Their protocol specifically cued participants to perform a “squat-based” kettlebell swing.² In a separate study, Van Gelder and colleagues examined two-handed and single-handed swings using instructions that emphasized a “pendular motion through hip hinging” — a different cue that produced different kinematics.³ These researchers didn’t treat the swing as one thing. They recognized that different cueing produces different movement patterns, which produce different biomechanical outcomes.

What Happens When We Assume

A big problem in many kettlebell communities — one that hinders creativity and progression — is the assumptions people make when someone asks “How is my kettlebell swing?”

Some will say “Squat a bit more!” Others will say “You need to hinge deeper and snap the hips!” And some might say “Stay more upright and push the hips forward!” Each of these responses assumes the person is performing — or should be performing — a specific variation. Nobody asks “What are your goals?” first.

The poster should be specific and know what they want to learn. Those answering should ask “What are your goals?” and base the answer on that. Hips don’t always need to snap, especially when performing endurance swings. (And just to be clear: snap and extend are not the same thing.)

Not being specific with naming creates real issues. It’s the same problem as saying “Give me a deadlift!” when what you actually want is a hip hinge. A deadlift used to be commonly performed with the hip hinge movement and therefore became synonymous with the name deadlift. But as we explain in What Is a Deadlift?, “dead lift” only means to lift a weight that is dead — it does not define the movement with which it is performed. The same drift has happened to the swing.

The Naming Convention

In our online kettlebell courses and books, we put a lot of emphasis on technique, progression, and correct naming. We started this many years ago — not without resistance, I might add.

Here is how the naming convention works for swings:

Swing — the base exercise. The weight moves in a pendular arc. This tells you nothing about the movement pattern.

Hip hinge swing — the swing performed with a hip hinge: knee bend, hips travel backward, torso tilts forward. This is what most people mean when they say “kettlebell swing.” It is not the only option.

Squat swing — the swing performed with a squat pattern: increased knee flexion, hips travel downward, more vertical torso. This is a legitimate variation with different training applications, not a mistake.

Double knee extension swing — the swing used in Girevoy Sport, characterized by a double knee bend during the swing cycle that allows the hamstrings’ stretch reflex to help scoop the kettlebell up, creating a more vertical trajectory and more efficient energy cycling for high-rep endurance work. Also known as the pendulum swing, Girevoy Sport swing, or sport style swing.

Each of these is a valid exercise. Each produces different muscle activation, different joint loading, and different training adaptations. The Del Monte study proved this for three of these variations.¹ Calling them all “kettlebell swing” and assuming one movement pattern hides those differences.

Why This Matters for Your Training

This isn’t about being pedantic. When a coach says “Do 100 kettlebell swings” without specifying the movement pattern, each athlete in the room may perform a different exercise. They’ll get different results. They’ll develop different attributes. And if one of them gets injured, the coach has no way to review the program and figure out which movement pattern caused the problem — because “kettlebell swing” doesn’t tell you what actually happened.

When you understand that the swing is the exercise and the movement pattern is a separate variable, a whole new world opens up. You’re no longer boxed into one way of doing things. You can program hip hinge swings for posterior chain power. You can program squat swings for quad-dominant conditioning. You can program sport-style double knee extension swings for endurance. Each choice is deliberate, and each name tells both the coach and the athlete exactly what to do.

The same logic applies across the board. Swing-snatch, hang snatch, dead snatch. Hip hinge swing-snatch, squat swing-snatch. The base name tells you the exercise. The prefix tells you the starting condition or the action. The movement descriptor tells you the pattern. Specificity in naming creates specificity in training.

For our full naming system — including how this applies to cleans, presses, snatches, and more — see our complete exercise naming convention.

Related Articles

• What Is a Deadlift? Why the Fitness Industry Got It Wrong — the same naming problem applied to the deadlift
• The Romanian Deadlift Is Not a Deadlift — Here’s Why — starting conditions vs movement patterns
• Deadlifts in CrossFit: Deadlifting or Bounce Lifting? — the bounce problem in CrossFit
• Exercise Naming Convention — the full naming system
• Kettlebell Swing Squat Style Explained — why the squat swing is a legitimate variation
• Beginners: It’s NOT the Kettlebell Swing or Hip Hinge You Should Learn First — our recommended beginner progression

References

1. Del Monte, M.J., Opar, D.A., Timmins, R.G., Ross, J.A., Keogh, J.W.L., & Lorenzen, C. (2020). “Hamstring myoelectrical activity during three different kettlebell swing exercises.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 34(7): 1953–1958. PMID: 28930870. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28930870/
2. McGill, S.M. & Marshall, L.W. (2012). “Kettlebell swing, snatch, and bottoms-up carry: Back and hip muscle activation, motion, and low back loads.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(1): 16–27. PMID: 21997449. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21997449/
3. Van Gelder, L.H., Hoogenboom, B.J., Alonzo, B., Briggs, D., & Hatzel, B. (2015). “EMG analysis and sagittal plane kinematics of the two-handed and single-handed kettlebell swing: A descriptive study.” International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 10(6): 811–826. PMID: 26618061. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26618061/
4. Cavemantraining. “Exercise Naming Convention.” https://www.cavemantraining.com/cavemantraining/exercise-naming-convention/
5. Cavemantraining. “What Is a Deadlift? Why the Fitness Industry Got It Wrong.” https://www.cavemantraining.com/caveman-strength/dead-lift-beware-controversial/