Kettlebell swings for beginners - physiotherapist tips

Kettlebell swings are a great whole body exercise.  Kettlebell swings are an excellent exercise for beginners and more experienced people as they build overall body strength and help to strengthen any weak areas.  

I am self taught at kettlebell swings: I have read a bit about them, I have watched a few 'how to' videos, I know things that would be dangerous for my body, I know my body's strengths, I know my body's weaknesses, and from there can pretty much work out what to do and what not to do.  

There are various training programs that encompass only two exercises, kettlebell swings almost always being one of them.  This fact demonstrates how beneficial kettlebell swings can be in gaining functional strength and improving condition.  

As kettlebell swings are so useful in building whole body functional strength and becoming less prone to injury I decided to write a post on how to do a kettlebell swing.  Obviously, being aimed at a beginner, the instructions need to be accurate and easy to understand, otherwise the beginner would risk injury or (even worse) forming bad habits. 

I tried a few times to write instructions, and was always scared that they would not be comprehensive enough for a beginner.

Pavel Tsatsouline Kettlebell swing (picture from somewhere on the internet) 

I found a web site of a physiotherapist who wrote a beginners guide to kettlebell swings.  This particular physiotherapist seemed to love kettlebell swings.  They raved about their benefits, both for rehabilitating injuries, as well as preventing future injuries.  

I saved their instructions for myself to read over if I was wondering about my technique.

Unfortunately I lost the link to the web site, otherwise I would link to it.  It looked like a great website.  If anyone knows the one please add a comment below so I can add a link.  

Russian giryi - versatile strength building tools

An explanation on how to do kettlebell swings from a physio is certainly better, safer, and more comprehensive than anything I could write.  A physiotherapist explaining kettlebell swings for beginners is also going to be better than anything written by an under trained and overly enthusiastic gym goer. 

Physiotherapist instructions on how a beginner should do kettlebell swings:

• With the kettlebell on the floor, position your feet on either side at slightly more than hip-width apart, with your toes angled slightly outward. 
• Bend your knees a little and keep your abs engaged, drawing your belly button toward your spine.
• As you reach for the kettlebell handle, tip your torso forward, keeping your back as straight as you can, while pressing your hips back
• Breathing in as you grab the handle firmly, and with your core still engaged, roll your shoulders back slightly.  This will help control your swing momentum.
• As you exhale, drive your hips forward to rise to an upright position in one powerful movement. 
• Allow the kettlebell to swing forward as high as it will naturally go, usually shoulder height.
• Inhale and allow the kettlebell to swing back down between your legs, pressing your hips back and keeping your neck aligned with your spine.
• Continue the kettlebell swings in sets of 10.
• Remember to keep your torso straight and to power the movement with your hips and glutes.

Giryi are like cannon balls with handles

If you are not already doing them, do kettlebell swings.  Do kettlebell swings every day, no rest days, no reward days, do them every single day.  Some days do light, other days do heavy, and never go to failure.  Kettlebell swings make you stronger. 

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: doing the perfect kettlebell swing alone is superior to 99 percent of the sophisticated strength and conditioning programs out there.  

  

Floods and the local public chin up bar

Our local council has one set of outdoor exercise equipment for the public to use.  There is only one in the region.  It has some of those inclined benches and things that no one really knows how to use, and some of those little fitness steps that people pretend to use, and a few other pointless things that are mostly for show.

There were no dip bars, and no monkey bars (yes adults should use monkey bars).  The one good part of this exercise equipment was a chin up bar.  Strangely enough, the chin up bar was likely the least expensive piece of equipment there.  I had used that chin up bar a few times, I like it.

There are more public chin up bars about an hour drive from here in a different council, I haven't been to them yet.  One day I plan to take my kids to those, but don't want to drive an hour each way just for that so have been putting it off until we go out there for something else.  I don't know why chin up bars are so uncommon, and why parks have phased out monkey bars.  

No one really uses chin up bars in this country.  I haven't seen anyone else use the local chin up bar.  I have a feeling that I may have done more chin ups on that bar than anyone else, and I had not been there many times.  I have monkey bars in my yard that I can use for chin ups and pull ups and other strength building exercises, but there are a few exercises that you can't do on monkey bars and really need a chin up bar to be able to do them.  

There seems to be an irony in Australia where people are not strong enough to use chin up bars, so councils do not install them.  As chin up bars are not in parks, the local populace are not able to train and get strong enough to use them.  If we had more of these things, people would use them more, and if people used them more then councils would install more of them - which came first the chicken or the egg?  

Some countries overseas (usually ex-Soviet countries) have public chin up bars, monkey bars, parallel bars, and other simple calisthenic equipment on almost every block.  These things are very common.  The things average people do on them is nothing less than remarkable!  If you have time take a look at this youtube video and it will give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Back to my story, a while ago most of the state was flooding.   The park is near a river and went under flood water.  

The only public chin up bar in the region after the flood

My son was concerned that the chin up bar would have been damaged in the floods.  When the water receded I took the kids to see how the only local chin up bar fared.  

As you can see, it did not do well.  Everything was destroyed, and council roped off the area for safety purposes.

Sadly, I can't imagine council repairing the local chin up bars any time soon.