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Kettlebell Form check - 1H swing and TGU

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Inky

Inky

Level 5 Valued Member
Elite Certified Instructor
Hi all,

So, videod myself doing both a !H swing and TGU with the 20kg Kettlebell.

Self analysis :
- Swing, I lean back too much, even though I think I am tensing muscles and in the vertical plank

1H Swing:

TGU:

Any pointers and things to improve?
 
@Inky

1H Swing -

*Your hinge looks strong on both sides

*L hand - you are shrugging your shoulder, recruiting the neck and traps, instead of packing it down and back. From the Simple & Sinister manual, practice the "short stop drill" prior to your swings to get a feel for the "anti-shrug" position. Another great drill for you would be practicing "Hand to Hand" swings. With these you will more than likely avoid shrugging your traps since you are only doing 1 swing at a time on each side. Give it a go with the video and see what happens.


TGU -

SAFETY - Always "halo" the bell around your head to the other side, avoid dragging across your chest. Or just sit up and physically move around the bell. Treat every bell no matter the size as if it was the 48kg.

*R hand - Focus on being very deliberate at each phase of the getup, avoid to much shifting around which causes you to lose tension; Check your alignment after your low sweep, your knee should be directly below your hip forming a straight line all the way up your arm into the kettle bell.

*L hand - Getup looked great, until the very end when you just fell back to the ground. Treat every getup as if you had the 48kg up there, I am sure you would use extreme care at every step! Be deliberate at each phase of the getup and make sure you return to the ground using the same steps you used from the beginning.

*Tip - Perform 3 get ups on each side with a shoe balanced on your fist as part of your warmup. This drill is detailed in Simple & Sinister and will really drive home being deliberate with your movements at every phase.

Great work, all the best to you and your practice.
 
I assume you are working on Simple and Sinister?

I am not an SFG certified person.., so keep that in mind :) . Just have benefitted immensely from some one on one instruction from some. I am sure others will mention things too.

for swings, I hear a timer. Are you working by the timer and going when it tells you? The reason i ask is some of your later swings don't seem to have as much power and the breathing is a bit more ragged, I am assuming because you are tiring out. You do not have to meet the time standards each workout, that is for testing to move up to the next weight. you can work for many many weeks on a weight, and then randomly test yourself to see if you can do swings in under 5 min. Stay at that weight until you do and even a little longer, and if you reach the point you feel you can do a swing test on any number of random days and pass, then work set by set on adding more weight. The book talks about taking nasal breaths between sets of swings, and going again when you can comfortably talk....your swings may take you 15min or even more this way at first, but that time will shrink, don't worry! try really doing as "hsst" on the outbreath at the top of your swing, instead of a more drawn out one, like you are quickly bracing/stopping your breath just before getting punched in the stomach. Also I find it helpful to ask myself, even if I can breathe well, is asking myself that do I have enough energy to generate a powerful swing in my next set.

getups...for the rollup, it is hard to see in the video, but try on the straight leg to flex your foot up so your toes are pointing toward the your head, and squeeze the butt cheek on that side. For the elbow you are going up onto, make a fist with that hand, and pretend you are pulling on a pole to pull yourself over for the rollup, while driving your opposite heel (the bent leg) into the ground. all of these things will will help prevent your bent knee from rolling inward, and with heavier weights the straight leg from popping up off the ground. Same thing with laying down before you bring the bell to your chest...press the opposing elbow and heel (bent leg) into the ground and stay tight to control how fast you lay back down.

You look strong standing up and going down from the lunge....I find going back down I really have to concentrate on staying tight so my knee touches the ground gently. One suggestion with your hand placement after you windsheild wiper your leg and are placing your hand on the floor is to slide your hand on your thigh or at least touch it...that way your hand is more likely to line up with your knee, and not be placed back behind it out of line with it.

welcome here by the way! :) keep asking questions and participating here, it is an awesome group of people whom I have found invaluable for their help!
 
Cheers @natewhite39 :) I always perform naked getups as a warmup, will practice with a shoe.

With the swing, I know my left hand is the weaker side, so will carry on working on it and concentrate on technique. I think with the 16kg is better on the left...

@crazycanuck Yeah, working towards Simple and Sinister. The timing is for every minute on the minute for 10 minutes, where I perform 15 1H swings. Not looking to meet the standard any time, looking at a 1:1 work:rest ratio. For the TGU, I do tense my leg and try to force into the ground, thus, pulling the toes towards me helps with that.

With the TGU, the hardest bit for me is always the rolling 45 and then lying back down again. Working on it :)

Thanks for the feedback guys :)
 
Good feedback above. Why 15 swings per set? Recommend 10 per set always, as in S&S.

Pause at elbow position on the way down in the get-up.

Good work, keep at it!
 
- Hinge looks pretty good. You may have a little back-lean at the top, but it's pretty minimal (still something to fix). I think this happens most often when the thinking is "hips back (on the down-swing), hips forward (on the up-swing)". Instead, push the ground away and mimic a vertical jump. In other words, "hips back & down, hips up (not forward)".

- When you swing with your left hand, your right hand usually stays fixed in front of your chest. Swing it the way you do your left arm when you're swinging with your right arm. It'll do a lot to help keep your shoulders squared up... and you'll likely feel stronger.

- TGU... The most important fix is to come down to your elbow, then your back (instead of lifting your bottom arm and simply rolling to your back from the tall-sit position)... and the haloing suggested by @natewhite39 above. Also, try having the fingers of your down arm point to the side (instead of backwards) on the hip bridge/leg sweep on the way up and down. It'll create a little extra stability in the shoulder of the down arm.
 
@Anna C - Using 15 swings to get equal work:rest ratio, as looking for conditioning as well as strength. I tend to only feel the effects of this around set 8 and believe it is a good way for me to work out. When I perform 2H swings with my 28kg, I stick to 10 reps as it taxes the grip and forearms too much at the moment. 1H 20kg doesn't have that effect until set 8 or 9.

@Ryan Toshner : The hands tend to vary. As I do a Martial Art, I try to keep the hands up at the start of a set, but often let it swing near the end of sets. Not sure why the right stays in guard longer, probably because I am not as relaxed on the left swing as the right. Weaker side, so brain is thinking the hand will provide more focus there........
 
Inky said:
Using 15 swings to get equal work:rest ratio, as looking for conditioning as well as strength. I tend to only feel the effects of this around set 8 and believe it is a good way for me to work out. When I perform 2H swings with my 28kg, I stick to 10 reps as it taxes the grip and forearms too much at the moment. 1H 20kg doesn't have that effect until set 8 or 9.
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I hear you... and you're certainly free to do as you wish, but I'll offer a few counterpoints. Are you doing S&S? Because if you are... you're not. S&S is 10 swings per set. The main reason for this is that 10 swings is about all you can get with maximum power generation. Sure you can do more swings, but it will be more of a glycolytic endurance exercise, more like what they call "metcon" in the CrossFit world. S&S is about power and strength development. Along the same lines, if you're going for equal work:rest ratio, it's also more of a glycolytic effort which can be stressful for daily practice. I and many others would recommend more like 1:4 or 1:5 for your swings, whatever has you fully recovered in breathing, HR, and power.
 
@Inky, there's most certainly benefit to doing 15 reps... or 30 reps... or as many as possible without setting it down. To @Anna C 's comment re: Simple & Sinister, there's also a lot of benefit (even if you may not "feel" it while you're doing it) to simply reducing the rest period instead of increasing the repetitions if your target is 1:1 work:rest. So... if you're doing S&S, stick to 10 reps and reduce the rest period. If you're NOT doing S&S, 15 reps (or more) is perfectly fine.

Re: the hands... Practice does make permanent. So when you're training in your art, you most certainly should keep the hand where it's supposed to be in the art. But don't confuse training in your art with training with your kettlebell. You'll very likely experience greater benefits faster from your kettlebell training (displayed in your kettlebell training AND your martial art of choice) if you treat the practice of and journey towards technique perfection the same in the kettlebell world as you probably already do in the martial arts world. And in the kettlebell world, swinging that free arm will offer benefits which you won't experience if you don't swing it.
 
Anna C said:
I hear you... and you're certainly free to do as you wish, but I'll offer a few counterpoints. Are you doing S&S? Because if you are... you're not. S&S is 10 swings per set. The main reason for this is that 10 swings is about all you can get with maximum power generation. Sure you can do more swings, but it will be more of a glycolytic endurance exercise, more like what they call "metcon" in the CrossFit world. S&S is about power and strength development. Along the same lines, if you're going for equal work:rest ratio, it's also more of a glycolytic effort which can be stressful for daily practice. I and many others would recommend more like 1:4 or 1:5 for your swings, whatever has you fully recovered in breathing, HR, and power.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Inky, I am on my 7th month of this. Looked back at my journal from early summer, not long after I had worked up to 10 full set one arm of my starting weight, as described in the book, and my times were all consistently about 6 min to 7 min. I had notes in there that when they creeped down farther, then I was going to attempt a test. no wonder I was achy and sore and beat up feeling. Once I backed off and realized that your "practice" (not test, mind you) of S and S is meant to be of the intensity you can repeat it almost every day and once I paid more attention to my body's cues i felt so much better and was able to progress.
 
Thanks for the replies. Just to note, I don't yet do S&S every day -> therefore it isn't S&S, I hear you say. I will move towards true S&S (re-read the book) and look at doing the 10 sets of 10 swings every day, plus 5 l,r TGU every day. From the workouts in my logs, I do not feel beat up after them or the next day (currently the lower back is a bit stiff after the volumes I am doing, but that hasn't been help by standing around for 4 hours at the weekend during a Martial Arts grading I was controlling - no playing for me :( )

@Anna C - will drop to 10 reps per side and focus on power. I will also check with an HR monitor and see where I am. I hadn't connected the different energy systems and differences with 10 reps and 15 reps.....

@Ryan Toshner - will focus on the hands more, see if it makes a difference :)
 
In addition to the great feedback and tips of those that have already chimed in:

I'm noticing some lateral movement in your bell path on a lot of your swing reps. The bell drifts to one side on the way up, and the other side on the way down. It almost makes a little oval path in its travel. It's subtle but it's there. You need to iron that out before your bell size increases.

You want everything traveling in a straight line with the swing: knees, hips, and bell. Try leveraging your hip drive more from the glute opposite of the hand holding the bell (so, bell in right hand = drive from that left glute a little more). I think right now you're powering more from the glute on the same side as the bell and this is giving you a drift causing the bell to draw a little oval path.

Second point: more shoulder pack (especially when you're in the "standing plank" position at the bell's highest point - suck that shoulder in and down so the bell is a bit closer to your torso - it's a subtle move of inches but it'll make a difference).
 
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