Prior to embarking on any training programme you should seek clearance from a trusted and qualified medical professional to see if you are healthy and fit enough to partake in it. You should also seek professional coaching in order to safely learn the movements. Immediately stop all exercise if you feel dizzy or weak. When working with kettlebells additional precautions should be taken. Make sure that you have plenty of space to manoeuvre in, so that if you have to drop the kettlebell that you have room for yourself to quickly get out of its way, without tripping over something or crashing into something or into other people. Having a large chunk of iron land on your pie-hole or onto your foot will probably ruin your whole day. You should seek clearance from a cardiologist as well… swings will get your heart working double in no time at all. Kettlebells are highly effective tools and as such they are also dangerous when used incorrectly. It is your responsibility to seek adequate instruction in their safe use.
Swing Fever, man I got it
Swing Fever, like a rocket in my pocket
I’m about as caffeinated as I wanna be
And I’m sittin’ here buzzin’ like a cheap TV
– Swing Fever by Bill Kirchen
I know a well-respected high end physical trainer and physiotherapist who thinks kettlebells are at the very least, the work of Satan. I suspect he sees a lot of people come through his practice that have bollixed themselves up using them. So just don’t be one of those people.
Kettlebells have been around for ages. They sort of made their debut in North America in the late 1990’s. Now they are everywhere. You can buy them at Walmart and Target for chrissake! Yet another thing that was once pretty funky and sortta underground has sadly made it to the mainstream. That doesn’t diminish their usefulness however.
There are a lot of various cool things that you can do with a kettlebell. Some of these can be just as effectively done with dumbbells or other equipment. Others cannot. One of these that cannot is the kettlebell swing. This is a downright great exercise. Practical, versatile, effective, fun, and oh so addictive. And yes, like a lot of things, dangerous if you don’t do them right. So think well on how to do this properly. There is nothing quite like figuring out stuff on your own. Discovery, self-sufficiency and all of that; just make sure that you are that person that can legitimately pull it off. If you are not, then please seek out qualified professional instruction. There will be less chance of injury, and you will optimize your potential for gains.
Swings are not a pure strength exercise; far from it actually. They are however a whole body exercise that will work parts you never thought you had. They are billed as a fat burning wonder. And it is no wonder… they activate legs, glutes, the entire trunk, lats, arms, shoulders, and grip; not to mention all the little bits that connect all of these areas. As it’s not a strength drill, and more of a ‘bringing it all together’ exercise, low reps are not the order of the day here; in fact, quite the opposite.
There are three basic swing types using a single kettlebell. Two arms. Single arm. Single arm with a switch. Advanced practitioners will typically aim for 50 reps per side in a workout. Now bear in mind we are not talking about that plastic coated pink KB you bought at Target here. We are talking about real cast iron, and real weight. 16Kg is a good minimum starting point. But think about this… there are some pretty tough customers out there that are doing double arm swings with 48Kg for 1000 reps!
Swings by their very nature are a highly dynamic or ballistic exercise. That momentum generates a considerable amount of force, and that is the deceptive beauty of them. Recall from your high school physics class that
F=ma
Force equals mass x acceleration. It’s easy to see from the simple math that it doesn’t take a lot of mass in the form of a kettlebell to generate a lot of force; force that can be used for you or against you.
Another thing about swings is the mental training aspect they provide. Doing swings for high reps is a real head game. Yes you can get physically exhausted doing swings, yet there is a certain facet about them that lets your mind allow you to just keep doing them. I’ve said it before; the body may have limits that it eventually runs up against, the mind does not.