Hey Team
Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to put the focus on one exercise each week and take a deep dive into the what, the why and the how of that given movement.
So, for week one it’s the kettlebell swing
The swing is the foundation of effective kettlebell training. It dramatically improves the performance in most sports. The kettlebell swing is also one of, if not the most effective fat burning exercises. One study showed an average of 400 calories burned in 20 minutes of kettlebell swings and another 1,212 calories per hour. It has also been reported that the kettlebell swing has a similar cardiovascular effect compared to running a 6 minute mile (3 mins 44 seconds per km).
The swing is an amazingly comprehensive exercise because it strengthens so much: grip, glutes, hamstrings, quads, lats and abs.
One of my favourite benefits to the kettlebell swing is the positive effects it has on our posture.
In today’s world we spend much of our time doing things in front of us with awful posture.
We crouch over keyboards, we drive with rounded shoulders and we text slumped over neck pulled forward.
Many of us sit in cubicles for hours not moving, then we head home to slouch on the sofa and watch Netflix.
This leads to the overuse of all of our muscles in the front of our bodies ‘anterior dominance’ and it’s causing all sorts of problems in our society. Anterior dominance can leave us in a kyphotic posture, compressing the chest and flipping our breathing from parasympathetic ‘rest and digest’ into sympathetic ‘fight and flight’ stressful breaths.
The information age has been incredibly beneficial and horrendously bad for our postures. BUT there is hope. The kettlebell swing is the anti information age posture exercise
The kettlebell swing works the muscles of the extensor chain (the opposite muscles that pull us forward into anterior dominance. It will allow you to open up your hips, strengthen your butt and bulletproof your lower back by creating a brace around your core.
The swing forces you to use the muscles in your upper back opening up your chest. It packs the shoulders down into their sockets keeping them healthy and ultimately it fires up every muscle that is switched off in the slouch position.
Key Teaching Points
1 – The back is neutral. The neck is slightly extended or neutral on the bottom of the swing
2 – The heels, toes, and balls of the feet are planted and the knees track the toes
3 – The shoulders are packed
4 – The kettlebell handle passes above the knees during the back swing
5 – The arms are straight in the bottom position
6 – There is no forward knee movement on the upswing
7 – The body forms a straight line at the top of the swing – fully extended
8 – The biomechanical breathing match
9 – The abs and glutes visibly contract in the top of the swing
10 – The kettlebell floats momentarily at the top of the swing
How do you stack up?
In our Adult Milestones the swing features in all 3 levels
Resilience – 2 handed Kettlebell swing 10 reps (male 28kg ) (female 24kg)
Bulletproof kettlebell swing 10 reps M20kg F16kg
Antifragile kettlebell swing 10 reps M24kg F20kg
So there you have it. Get Swinging!
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