Kettlebell swing

The kettlebell swing is the only common strength exercise that is explosive without being technically demanding. The bell is not moved by your arms, it is thrown by your hips, and your arms are just rope.

It is also the exercise most people turn into a front raise with a kettlebell. If you feel it in your shoulders, you lifted instead of throwing.

Sets, reps and RIR

A heavy multi-joint lift with free weights. Keep a rep or two in reserve on most sets so technique holds.

RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.

How to do it

1. Set the bell a foot length in front of you and take it with both hands.
2. Hinge at the hips with softly bent knees and let the bell swing back between your legs, high up towards your groin.
3. Keep your forearms in contact with the inside of your thighs.
4. Snap the hips forward and squeeze the glutes hard. The bell flies on its own.
5. Let the bell stop at chest height. Higher is not better, only more shoulder.
6. Let it fall back between your legs and catch the movement with your hips, not your lower back.

Common mistakes

Squatting instead of hinging

If the knees travel forward and the bell drops towards the floor, you have squatted with a weight in front of you. Send the hips back instead.

Lifting with the arms

If you feel it in the front of the shoulder, you are pulling the bell up. The arms stay relaxed.

Arching at the top

Leaning back at lockout loads the lower back. Stop when the hip is straight.

Bell too low on the backswing

Swinging down towards your knees instead of up towards your groin loses the power from your hips.

How it differs from the neighbouring variants

The Romanian deadlift is the same hip hinge slowly and heavily loaded. The swing is the same movement fast and explosive. They train the same pattern in two completely different ways.

The kettlebell deadlift is a good place to learn the hinge before you swing. The kettlebell clean and snatch are the explosive neighbours that take the bell all the way up, and demand far more technique. The barbell power clean does the same with more weight and more learning time.

What it suits

Swings fit early in a session as an explosive warm-up, or at the end in intervals for conditioning. Ten to fifteen reps per set with a heavy bell beats thirty with a light one. If your lower back hurts, learn the hinge with Romanian deadlifts first.

Muscles worked

Primary: Glutes, Hamstrings.

Secondary: Lower back, Traps, Abs.

Estimate your one-rep max

Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.

What it is called elsewhere

• Norsk Kettlebell swing
• Svenska Kettlebell swing
• Dansk Kettlebell swing
• Deutsch Kettlebell Swing
• Español Swing con kettlebell
• Italiano Kettlebell swing
• Português Kettlebell swing
• Русский Махи гирей
• Français Kettlebell swing

Related back exercises

• Deadlift (barbell)
• Romanian deadlift (barbell)
• Barbell row
• Pendlay row
• T-bar row
• Shrugs (barbell)

athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.