Hey, it is Cody Bramlett. Rick asked me to put together a video for you on 5 Mistakes People Make with the Kettlebell Swing today.
I want to share with you the five mistakes people make with kettlebell swings and the dangers I see in the kettlebell swing.
Now, I put this video together for you today because I just taught a class of about 15 new people, and they are all doing these things wrong. So, I want to ensure that you understand at home how to use a kettlebell correctly to avoid these five dangerous injury-causing mistakes so you don’t have to get hurt and you can keep having an amazing time and get the results you want.
Mistake 1. Keeping the Weight on the Heels or Toes
What’s the first one?
It’s keeping weight in the heels.
People tend to keep their weight in the heels of kettlebells. In their swing, they look like tipping birds. I can barely even do it.
You don’t want to do that.
You want to imagine that on your foot, all four corners of your foot are pushing into the ground.
I want most of the weight to be about halfway on my foot. That’s where I am pushing the weight of my body in. When you do that, your body stays more centered, sticks solid on the ground planted like a tree, and you’re not going to hurt yourself with you staying on perfect footing.
Keeping the feet planted is rule number one! That’s the first thing you want to avoid: keeping the weight in the heels.
Mistake 2. Head is Not in Neutral
Second, people will have their heads not in a neutral position.
We don’t want our heads down, and we don’t want our heads cranked up.
We want our spine neutral, our head neutral.
And both positions put us at a disadvantage because we are no longer in alignment, and if you are going to hurt yourself with any funny tweaks, twists, or pulls in the arm, too much weight, or too much exertion on your shoulders.
You will feel right here in the shoulder and right here in the lower back.
We don’t want those injuries.
So, the second thing we should avoid is not keeping your spine in a neutral position. So you’re going to try to keep your head tall and long. I sit down with the belt, nice and neutral. Your eyes can come up but don’t crane your neck, long spine behind the back, swing! Nice long spine.
Everything is good. You’re not going to hurt yourself. Perfect motion, safety, and avoiding the second, number two injury in the kettlebell swing.
Mistake 3. Wrong Bell Placement to the Hip
Number three is the bell and hip placement.
It is quite disturbing that many beginners, even non-beginners, are doing the swing wrong.
What’s happening is that you’re swinging down low – doing this is called SWEEP. You’re sweeping the ground, which is very dangerous to do. When you do that, the bell pulls your shoulders forward, disconnects you from the connection in the back, rounds your spine outing you in a potential injury, and holds your quads a lot more.
This leads to rapid exhaustion because your quads are sucking up the oxygen. Your shoulders are not connected to your back, so you’re disconnected and rounding your spine. This leads to the loss of that wonderful neutral spine.
Tasting yourself and getting too tired and fast causes everything to run downhill, and injury happens.
We don’t want that!
Remember, hand to inner thigh and bell to your butt. Hand inner thigh, bell to your butt. Keep everything tight, and it makes it safe. So number three, make sure to avoid the wrong placement of the bell to your hips.
I will return the last two mistakes tomorrow and put them up on ShoulderPainSolved.com.
Cody Bramlett is a kettlebell fat loss expert with over seven years of experience training clients with kettlebells. Before starting his gym and creating his online programs, he was one of the top trainers at the first kettlebell gym in the United States. Cody is an RKC instructor who is FMS certified, Yoga Alliance certified, and Z Health certified. He holds a BS in Business Management from San Diego State University.
