Using Kettlebells Properly: One Tweak For Killer Traps

Most people who've been to a gym — or even passed one — have seen a kettlebell swing. And while it's a good idea to learn how to do them properly, from somone who knows what they're doing, one of the great things about kettlebells is that we're talking about a fifteen minute prcess there. It's simple. That's why it's good!

So why mess with the program? Because if you're confident in your swing, you can tweak it slightly and get incredible benefits to your traps and hamstrings.

Swings hit hamstrings quite hard already, but in the upper body they tend to be more about the lats and waist musculature than about the shoulder yoke area. Yet this yoke area is often difficult to build any size on, and many people struggle to gain strength in this area too. Traditional trap exercises like shrugs work great if you have narrow shoulders and are shrugging very heavy, but the short range of motion and the limitation imposed by grip can mean you don't get much of the results you want. 

There's another problem here: by building the very upper portion of the trapezius superior and ignoring the rest of the upper back, many a gym rat has damaged his shoulder function, pulling his scapulae out of alignment — and making himself (it's almost always a he) look just plain weird. Wouldn't it make more sense to look for a movement that moves the whole upper back, goiving the rhomboids something to do, at least tickling the trapezius inferior, maybe waking up the scapular stabilizers and still building the whole trapezius superior evenly? (Well, since you put it that way...)

READ One-Armed Kettlebell Swings For Rotational Core Stability

Deadlifts are another common prescription for building traps and hamstrings both. But the raw strength demands of deadlifts and the CNS load they incur means they're ill-suited to this kind of work. What we need is a simple tool for developing traps, and helping drive hamstring development, all of which can then be taken back to the deadlift. 

Complex sets of traps isolation exercises might not be what we're about here, then, and the movement we choose will score points for being easy on the CNS too. I'm deliberately ptching this one at lifters but sports people have no time to train, because they're playing their sport instead, and still need training effect. Simple and easy with minimal injruy risk means some of you guys might actually do it...

The Outside-Leg Swing With Kettlebell

The outside leg swing is pretty similar to the swing you already know. There's just one crucial difference. Can you guess what it is?

Setting Up

From the hips up, your outside leg swing will be the same as your inside leg swing. You stil want neutral, packed shoulders, a slightly arched back and neutral neck, and you still want to lead the movement with your glutes. What is different, though, is that you won;t have the solid mass of your mid back to anchor the bells to. Instead they'll be out on either side of you. That means it makes sense to start these with lighter bells than you're used to, and practice the movement a little. It's not complicated but it does feel different.

Feet

Your feet should be almost but not quite together. Don't let knees or ankles touch. As with ordinary swings, you won't do much squatting, but you still need to protect your knees from torsion injuries by making sure they flex forward over your middle toes (the toe next to the large toe) and your weight is evenly distributed across an active foot.

Knees

I mentioned earlier that the potential for injury is quite low, and so it is, with one important exception: if you're careless, it would be easy to hit yourself in the knees with kettlebells. That's obviously something to avoid. To avoid it, spend some time swinging slow and gentle, getting used to a straight swing track with both arms and being careful to control the bells as they pass your legs. You can't swing with the aggression and power you're maybe used to with this variation because it isn't safe to do so.

The Swing

One end of the swing will resemble an upright skiers' tuck, with your arms level with your body and your back almost parallel with the ground. The other will see you in full hip extension with the bells out in front of you at shoulder height. What this means for the loading pattern is that on the way down it looks a lot like any other straight-arm pulling movement, and on the way up, while your glutes are providing all that force to propel the bells, your upper back is transferring it. The traps and anterior and medial deltoids will be reporting in soon enough, but you'll also be hearing rom your scapular retractors. In mnay ways the upwrad movement is similar to the clean in terms of its loading pattern, but without the high technical and mobility demands.

READ Kettlebell Clean And Jerk - For Power, Strength And Endurance

When And How?

I'd recommend putting this in at the end of training sessions. At the gym, do it after your main barbell work. Make sure you're not so fried you can't control the bells! Two to three sets of 25 swings with heavy bells, or if you prefer a lighter approach two 50s ought to do it.

If you like the look of this, or you think I've left out something vital, get in touch in the comments section below!