Kettlebell Swing = Weightloss

Doing things correctly in the beginning pays off big in the long run. My Kettlebell Coach Jeff Martone has said in his experience “once poor technique becomes a habit, it takes 10 perfect reps to rewire the body for each bad rep.” Learning all the details is time consuming and requires concentration, but “a stitch in time saves nine.” Take the basic Kettlebell lift, the swing. I tell my athletes that although the swing is the most basic drill, it’s one of the most technical.

Straighten your wrist, lockout your elbow, suck in your shoulder, tighten your gluteus, finish your hips, pressurize. These are just a few things I say over and over when I’m training. My athletes may think I am a broken record but practice makes permanent, and when they are with me their practice will be perfect. This is how I train my clients because this is how I train myself. I have always been a detail oriented person, and that is no different when it comes to lifting. The difference is in the details.

Using Points Of Performance is the only way to train if you want to make serious gains fast. Paying attention to details will save you much time and much pain. Get down the basics; wire your system to do things right from the beginning and you will do nothing but progress in your training.

The nine most common mistakes we see are:

• Bent wrists
• Bent elbows during overhead drills
• Disconnected shoulders
• Wide arc during cleans
• Incomplete hip snap
• Rounded backs
• Weight on the toes during swings
• Incorrectly distributed weight during Windmills
• Trouble with Snatch grip and wrist banging

We will break each of these common mistakes down into clean, points of performance in other articles. Stay tuned!