The kettlebell swing works the posterior chain with a lot intensity, but I’ve seen 2 different methods:
The second involves a longer range of motion and is advocated by the Crossfit people, but is it any better? Is there a greater risk of injury?
I’ve always stopped at horizontal because I heard the risk for injury is greater when you go any further than that. I don’t know though, this is just what I read in exercise magazines.
The DVD’s I have by Russian Pavel - has these as two distinct and different exercises- I tend to use the horizontal lift mostly but every workout has the stop at vertical as well. I think that by incorporating both one is getting a more effective workout - and ROM.
Hope this helps.
Are both movements in the frontal or sagittal plane? I do agree with the other post, anytime you go above your head with the arm movement, the risk of injury goes up. Also…the load relative to gravity will be greater if you stop your movement at shoulder height (assuming you are standing).
Are you comparing the “kettlebell swing” to the “kettlebell swing snatch”? Like a few others mentioned, two different exercises. Swing snatch is much harder to execute properly and can hurt you if your form is off. Takes a bit of practice not to injure your forearm/wrist when your arm goes vertical and the kb flips around. One of my favorite ass-kicking exercises though.
I follow the RKC style for KB movements. Swings go to face height. If I want the bell to go higher than that, then I will Snatch it or do a Clean and Push-Press (the technique for the knee dip to make the Clean and Push-Press a Clean and Jerk seems to elude me).
If I want more work out of a swing than face height gives me, then I use a heavier bell, and still go to face height.
The kettlebell swing works the posterior chain with a lot intensity, but I’ve seen 2 different methods:
The second involves a longer range of motion and is advocated by the Crossfit people, but is it any better? Is there a greater risk of injury?
According to the RKC - Pavel Tsatsouline, the end point of the Kettlebell Swing has been lowered over time to prevent injury. For the last few years the bell hasn’t been allowed to go above the shoulder/face. Like others have posted already, if you want to swing the ball above your head, you should be doing snatches. If you are going to try those, you should at least review a book/dvd set such as “Enter the Kettlebell” or an RKC certified personal trainer/coach.
It’s still safe to do swings the “Crossfit” way, but if you’re concerned about minimizing the risk of injury, don’t swing the bell above shoulder height.
both good. Not sure there is too much difference in resultst, but as mentioned over rotation at top can cause serious injuries.
I can tell you right now that going above the head with too heavy of a KB can cause a back injury, i just recovered from a strained low back doing this during a CF workout. To me it is sort of like bending back after locking out a deadlift…just no point and the injury potential increases. Also when going overhead people tend to use sloppy form as well and in an CF workout it is easy to get competitive, sloppy, and then injured. I think going over head is also an issue due to the longer drop the KB falls down and the resultant strain your body takes controlling its fall.
Are you comparing the “kettlebell swing” to the “kettlebell swing snatch”? Like a few others mentioned, two different exercises. Swing snatch is much harder to execute properly and can hurt you if your form is off. Takes a bit of practice not to injure your forearm/wrist when your arm goes vertical and the kb flips around. One of my favorite ass-kicking exercises though.
here’s the Crossfit way:
Are you comparing the “kettlebell swing” to the “kettlebell swing snatch”? Like a few others mentioned, two different exercises. Swing snatch is much harder to execute properly and can hurt you if your form is off. Takes a bit of practice not to injure your forearm/wrist when your arm goes vertical and the kb flips around. One of my favorite ass-kicking exercises though.
here’s the Crossfit way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJqPgV681Hg
Ah I see…yeah, I’ll stick to face level swings for now.
Agree with what most have said here. You really have answered your own question. The KB swing although a total body exercise emphasizes the posterior chain. The arm essentially goes along for the ride. If you can go higher than face/shoulder level, use a heavier KB. Going over your head with a 30-50 lb KB is asking for trouble IMHO.
Are you comparing the “kettlebell swing” to the “kettlebell swing snatch”? Like a few others mentioned, two different exercises. Swing snatch is much harder to execute properly and can hurt you if your form is off. Takes a bit of practice not to injure your forearm/wrist when your arm goes vertical and the kb flips around. One of my favorite ass-kicking exercises though.
here’s the Crossfit way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJqPgV681Hg
I found this Crossfit video comedy as they actually do know how to do a proper KB swing (except for going vertical at the top) but 90% of the time I see the Crossfitters doing it the “wrong” way as shown in the video.
The KB swing is a core exercise, not a arm exercise. I was recently in some KB training with a great coach who had us doing the swings with completely relaxed arms, but driving or “popping” through with the hips/pelvic floor. After I got the hang of it I could even do single arm swings with relaxed arms. If you do it right, your arms don’t become fatigued at all.
Second great piece of advice from this coach (a former Olympic kayak racer) was “anal taps” at the bottom. We all laughed, but it was a great coaching cue. If you keep the KB very high at the bottom it will actually tap you in the ass. When this happens, you know you are using the proper form. - Yep, he taught eye level or just above at the top. As mentioned in other posts here, going vertical is for the snatch etc…not the swing.
p.s. a good triathlete friend of mine wrecked his back at crossfit by improperly doing the swing (going way too low at the bottom instead of keeping it high in the thighs and doing the butt tap). He was out for 6 months.