The perfect kettlebell swing: fewer, better repetitions

How much do you want it?

Not as in "How badly do you want to reach your goal?" And not as in "Pull yourself together, because if you don't want this 100%, you'll never succeed."

In fact, we rarely want anything 100%. Ambivalence, wanting two opposite things at the same time, is one of the most natural human states there is. It doesn't mean you lack motivation. You are doubly motivated, just in two directions. To make a change, it is enough to want one thing a little more than the other.

No, what I mean is this: it is easy to become so focused on getting through all 12, 20 or 100 repetitions in your programme that every single one becomes so sloppy it has no effect.

Do you work with your sleeves down?

Traditional Slavic clothing had sleeves that reached almost to the floor, so you had to roll them up to work. My Ukrainian grandmother calls careless work "working with your sleeves down", and I have had my fair share of reminders to roll up my sleeves before washing up. Otherwise the result was so poor that she had to wash everything again.

Take the kettlebell swing. It is a great exercise to do as intervals. A good pace to start with is about 10 swings per 15 seconds, for example 15 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest. You train strength, power and circulation at the same time.

But I often see that when fatigue sets in, people rush to finish the set. From the outside it almost looks as if the weight is compressing them. The joints don't straighten properly, the muscles don't fire properly, and the focus is gone. The clock is ticking, everything feels exhausting, and mentally you have already moved on. The training effect of a set like that is close to zero.

The swing in five steps

1. Set up. Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips, with the kettlebell on the floor about 30 cm (1 ft) in front of you.
2. Hike. Hinge forward from your hips with a long spine, grip the handle and hike the bell back between your thighs, like passing a ball.
3. Drive. Stand up explosively by pushing your hips forward and squeezing your glutes. Your arms are just ropes. The bell floats up to about chest height because of your hips, not your shoulders.
4. Float and fall. At the top, stand tall like a plank. Let the bell fall, and wait until the last moment before you hinge again.
5. Park. After the last repetition, hike the bell back once more and place it calmly on the floor in front of you.

The swing is a hip hinge, not a squat and not a front raise. If your back rounds, or your arms are doing the lifting, take a lighter bell or fewer repetitions. If you are new to kettlebells, start with my beginner's guide to kettlebells.

The perfect kettlebell repetition

Next time you train, keep these four things in mind. You will feel more energy in your training, and time will fly.

• YOU control the bell, it does NOT control you. You have to want every repetition, and it has to be at your pace. Not the bell's pace, and not gravity's.
• Stay with each repetition. Not on whether the last one was right, and not on what the next one should look like. How does it feel in your body right NOW?
• Crack walnuts with your glutes. Whatever the exercise, you get stronger just by doing this at the top.
• Stay tall. Keep a long spine at the top of the movement, and at the bottom too.

If you can no longer do these four things, stop the set, however many repetitions or rounds your programme says you have left. Rest, and only continue if you can do it well.

Trust me: a few good repetitions give you significantly better results than many random, loose and uncoordinated ones. Roll up your sleeves.

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