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Kettlebell kettlebell swing and heart health

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Björn Denys

Level 4 Valued Member
Hey,

First post here :)

I was wondering about how demanding sets of kettlebell swings are on your heart?
Is a period of slow, steady cardio training needed before starting swings?

I have done the RKC minimumprogram (2 days of swings, 2 days of get-ups) for 2 months and I felt fine. But since I'm at home from work now because of the covid-19 virus I am training get ups + goblet squats + barbell curls + push up (GTG) 6 days a week + 4 times a week steady cardio (run 30 min, low impact stuff at home,...).

So, I am replacing 6 days of swings with 4 days of steady cardio. This is because I have a heart condition (wich is perfectly under control with a low dose of medication).

Is this necessary?

cheers,
Björn
 
masa said:
Have you consulted your doctor?
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Not for the sport itself no. I do go to my docter every few months, blood pressure and heart rate are always good. I did plan to ask about more explosive movements and higher heart rates next time a have to go in for regular check up.

In the meantime I occasionally do swings to keep the practice in, but very easy (16K or 20K , 100 swing in around 10 minutes), Heart rate is around 115 (rest) and 130 max (right after set)
 
Ok, sheduled an appointment with my cardiac specialist. Untill then I'll stick to jogging, biking and other steady state stuff to get the cardio in.
I should have visited a docter sooner to be on the safe side...
Thanks for the response guys
 
I hope things goes as planned for you. And if you get cleared to do swings etc. I heartly, no pun intended, recommend to try out S&S instead of ETK program minimum. This way you get shorter sets and longer rest between the sets.

I’m not an expert, but in my books this way it’s better for your heart in a long term. ETK PM can get quite glycolytic being more intense workout. But wiser than me can explain more.

But until then let’s wait and see what the doc says about it.
 
masa said:
I hope things goes as planned for you. And if you get cleared to do swings etc. I heartly, no pun intended, recommend to try out S&S instead of ETK program minimum. This way you get shorter sets and longer rest between the sets.

I’m not an expert, but in my books this way it’s better for your heart in a long term. ETK PM can get quite glycolytic being more intense workout. But wiser than me can explain more.

But until then let’s wait and see what the doc says about it.
Click to expand...

I hope so too.

I always make sure I get a good amount of rest between sets. I used to go with short breaks between sets in the gym with almost every excercise but I've quit doing that some time ago.
I focus on the set and then I walk around a bit and go again and so on. My current goal is the Simple one from S and S, keeping a proper cardio condition and push ups . Won't do the swings for now, but I keep the hip movement in with low weight deadlifts and cleans as practice (not fast and not much).
 
Another thing to consider i
Björn Denys said:
I hope so too.

I always make sure I get a good amount of rest between sets. I used to go with short breaks between sets in the gym with almost every excercise but I've quit doing that some time ago.
I focus on the set and then I walk around a bit and go again and so on. My current goal is the Simple one from S and S, keeping a proper cardio condition and push ups . Won't do the swings for now, but I keep the hip movement in with low weight deadlifts and cleans as practice (not fast and not much).
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me! One thing to consider is doing more sets of 5 and 7. This will keep your HR a bit lower and is, in my experience, easier to recover from. (20x5 or 14x7 - sometimes event just 10x5 or 10x7). You might wanna wear an HR monitor and let your HR drop to, say, 90 BPM before starting the next set. This is not strict S&S, but Pavel has approved breaking up the sets A+A style (20x5) in a past article. You will get less hypertrophy effects, but more endurance benefits.
 
Bauer said:
Another thing to consider i

Sounds good to me! One thing to consider is doing more sets of 5 and 7. This will keep your HR a bit lower and is, in my experience, easier to recover from. (20x5 or 14x7 - sometimes event just 10x5 or 10x7). You might wanna wear an HR monitor and let your HR drop to, say, 90 BPM before starting the next set. This is not strict S&S, but Pavel has approved breaking up the sets A+A style (20x5) in a past article. You will get less hypertrophy effects, but more endurance benefits.
Click to expand...
Hey, i'll keep that in mind. Taking some more time and lower reps, gradually build up speed and reps.
I started out with sets of swings with 5 sets of 20 (realising that's way too much to start with) , then 10 sets of 10. And now almost none untill the docter hopefully says it's cool. And the i'll start again with the lower rep sets 10 sets of 5 or so.
 
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