I started last summer with a 20 lb. kb and moved to a 35 lb. kb about 2 months later. I am now using a 50 lb. kb and doing 100 swings per arm per day in a hard style. I do 10, 10 swing sets per arm with a switch at the top of my swing when switching arms. I vary clean and squats, clean and presses, clean and snatch with my swings each day. I use the high switch on these when changing arms without putting the kb down. I still use the 20 lb'er for my Turkish Get ups. lol. I can't bring myself to put the 35 lb'er over my head and try to get up off of the floor with it. I am approaching 66 yo in July and have the core strength of a 40 yo. I referee basketball and umpire baseball. My hips, knees, ankles, and joints in general, no longer ache when I lay down at night. I have the stamina to backpack and hike wherever I choose. Kettlebells are da bomb and I owe my training to you, Wildman!
The best training point in this video as far as my take away is the adjustment of the weight when going from Hardstyle to the sport style. As a professional hardstyle coach and practitioner I will be sure to take that advice as I begin to learn the sport style
@@MarkWildman ty sir ! Would love to hear your take on it and see the method you use to teach the technique. I know the ikff peeps are big on the hand to hand, always wondered why .
I have a little bit of elbow issues, and find the full 180° rotation from thumb pointing back to pointing up, under tension, slightly painful (after many reps). So, I adjust to thumb pointing to the side at the bottom, and just do 90° rotation, and it helps.
i have been taught when using kettlebells to have a loose grip on the bell instead of a "death grip". Also for a single arm swings to have my arm bent slightly at the elbow to reduce injury.
I have been taught the loose grip method as well, but had to really figure it out for myself unfortunately. As for bending the elbow, what injury are you trying to prevent? The great thing about these exercises is they pull on the body so you get to work on the joints as well. That being said, they become a bit of a limiting factor while doing some exercises. Much like grip strength on a deadlift or heavy kettlebell swing. If it's strain around the elbow joint then maybe some lighter weights will help develop that area for you. It is very important to protect yourself though and be aware of what issues may arise.
I was going to ask about the bent elbows and wrist of soft style . I noticed it when Mark wildman did the soft style 2 handed swing but not the single arm swing. Is there a benefit of doing this ?
Regarding hardstyle with lighter weights, I find if I swing the shit out of it with enough force for a snatch but hit the breaks when my arm is parallel to the ground, I get a little more bang for my buck in my shoulders and the little muscles in my mid back. Not sure if this is something people do intentionally but I like it.
that's what i did when i got used to my lighter kettlebell and didn't had a heavier one yet, 100% power + 100% brake at apex in both directions, it was spicy ngl
Bought this for my youngest to develop basic form for single hand kettlebell work. ruclips.net/user/postUgkxtaDAl93XF8wxJhssTtjIFjzid82wglva It has a nice grip on it, just a little rough so it isn't slippery. I was doing a few rotator cuff exercises to test and worked well for those movements I'd been doing with a regular dumbbell. Cool thing you can do is hold it in your hand for door-knob turns to work the forearm and grip. Note: it's small, almost all handle, but that's what I expected given the weight. Smallest I've worked with before is 15lbs, so it was kind of funny to see the difference 10lbs makes.
It does not look like the type of kettlebell effects the different technique styles of swing , is that the case with all kettlebell moves or are some moves specific to competition vrs. soft style kettlbells ? thx for the great content as always
I don't think it matters at all. The only issue I ever run into is the smaller hard style bells can cause wrist pain in the rack position because of the contact point changes with the size of the bell. I have hard style at home and soft style at my bjj gym and can do any exercises with either type. The comp style is just to keep everything an even playing field is what I imagine.
Great video as always! Quick question: when I do (Hardstyle) one handed swings I turn my hand with each rep such that I have thumb down at the bottom and thumb up at the top. The reason being that my shoulder and posture feels better that way. Should I not do that and work on getting comfortable with the thumb down at the top?
I started doing the MW kettlebell program without experience with kettlebells or weight training, so I am never sure if I am making the right conclusions, but I was surprised that the arms are only present as connectors, not force generators. It seems to me that in swings you are sending the kettlebell out and up with the hip snap, the arms come along for the ride. It is just sort of weird that if you execute the hip movement correctly the kettlebell almost seems weightless.
The kb is essentially pulling your arm away from the socket with swings. As it gets heavier you will notice the kat and shoulder complex contracting to counter act it
Hey Mark, I'm approaching 24kg-20-10 emoms hard style two handed swings by mid June the way I'm going. I'm at 16 sets now. I don't want to get a 28 yet and will be ordering a 20kg soon. Should I just switch to single hard style swings and work my way up to 20 again or do 20 sets of 20 in emom? Also, will the app provide this kind of progression guidance? I figure I'll outgrow 16,20,24 kg by July 2022 the way I'm going. Bless you man! Without question the best channel on RUclips. Can't wait to give you my money. 🙏🏼
Very interesting. What would be the effects of doing single arm swings with the handle perpendicular to the arm? I imagine it puts more demand on having strong wrists, but I'm not sure.
@@MarkWildman sir when doing my swings my momentum throws me to my toes ( off balance) can I fix this with practice or is that just my stupid ataxia please?
How about shoulder impingement problems with downwards thumb rotation? Prestretching is there but if you don't rotate the humerus out at the top you spend hell of a lot of time internally rotated. What are your risk concerns on this?
Hey Mark, in the soft style versions I usually see people alternating lifting slightly one of their feet during the low and high positions of the swing, but never mention the actual reasoning behind it.
Is there a moment in training where one would switch from a two-handed swing to a one-handed swing? I've been working my way up using EMOM with a two-handed swing and am at 160 swings in 10 minutes. Was thinking when I hit 200, I'd jump up in weight. Would it be better to keep the same weight and just go to a one-handed swing? Or should I be mixing them in or alternating?
@@MarkWildman Good morning Mark! I’m watching this video again this morning. I think you wanted to write “ii desk ne” which can mean “good for you”. If you write “ie”, it might look like you’re writing “iie” which means “no” and then the meaning of the sentence is questionable. Probably most Japanese people will think you meant the first meaning and just made a simple typo, common for us foreigners. The Japanese themselves say that their language is very difficult to learn even for them.
I find the thumbs down internally rotates my shoulder and can be painful as I have had problems with shoulders before. I started with hardstyle and moved on to sport, especially when I started to do cleans and jerks/overhead presses. They both have merits as you said. The two handed soft swing I find is usually just taught as the fundamental lift to move you into the one handed soft clean for the competition lifting... but given that my context for learning it was the competition, I am sure I don't represent everyone who does the soft technique.
You could program both. Focus on the hard style for an EMOM to get that explosive power and then a longer, higher volume soft style maybe for time, alternating hands after so many reps (if doing single arm, of course).
Mark actually has a video where he answers a 400lb person's question about which exercises would be best for him: ruclips.net/video/1UBuwKo3jvY/видео.html
Most people start with hard style. If a person is to big around, then we move to single arm club progressions. Starting with inside circle, outside circle, and 360
I do not think your representation of a "soft style" swing is quite accurate. Look at the arms in the two-handed swing: why are they bent in elbows - does it add anything to the efficiency? You arms will get tired all for nothing, that's all! And then the same about legs: it looks like you squat twice per cycle. What is that for? Why do you feel you need to straighten you legs when the kettlebell moves back? The actual "competition style" starts with positioning your feet comfortably - on a diagonal and then moving your body weight from one leg to another, back and forth, to assist the swing. There is no squatting in swings or snatches, none at all! Try doing it 20-50 reps (depending on the weight) nonstop, just switching between hands and you will get to the most efficient movement pattern pretty quickly: that will be the "soft style"! "Soft style" is about making as many snatches or double-hand jerks (or racking and jerking in a long cycle) in 10 minutes as you can - no extra score awarded or removed for "style" or "correct breathing".
I started last summer with a 20 lb. kb and moved to a 35 lb. kb about 2 months later. I am now using a 50 lb. kb and doing 100 swings per arm per day in a hard style. I do 10, 10 swing sets per arm with a switch at the top of my swing when switching arms. I vary clean and squats, clean and presses, clean and snatch with my swings each day. I use the high switch on these when changing arms without putting the kb down. I still use the 20 lb'er for my Turkish Get ups. lol. I can't bring myself to put the 35 lb'er over my head and try to get up off of the floor with it. I am approaching 66 yo in July and have the core strength of a 40 yo. I referee basketball and umpire baseball. My hips, knees, ankles, and joints in general, no longer ache when I lay down at night. I have the stamina to backpack and hike wherever I choose. Kettlebells are da bomb and I owe my training to you, Wildman!
Damn that's impressive
YES SIR WILDMAN IS THE REAL DEAL KUDO,S
The best training point in this video as far as my take away is the adjustment of the weight when going from Hardstyle to the sport style. As a professional hardstyle coach and practitioner I will be sure to take that advice as I begin to learn the sport style
This has blown my mind
It’s never ending … the amount of stuff one can do with a simple kettle bell
👀
It’s a lot. It’s functionally infinite
Glad to see this went up today. I look forward to a daily dose of Mark Wildman.
Been waiting for the double dip instruction vid , this is great !
Mark hand to hand would be dope
Well. I’ll go make one
@@MarkWildman ty sir ! Would love to hear your take on it and see the method you use to teach the technique. I know the ikff peeps are big on the hand to hand, always wondered why .
I’m in my sitting room right now swinging a kettlebell 💪🏼😂
Like
Coach. You never let me down. Constantly! putting out great content. Still waiting for that Mark Wildman Kettlebell T-Shirt. :))
I have a little bit of elbow issues, and find the full 180° rotation from thumb pointing back to pointing up, under tension, slightly painful (after many reps). So, I adjust to thumb pointing to the side at the bottom, and just do 90° rotation, and it helps.
Me too!
i have been taught when using kettlebells to have a loose grip on the bell instead of a "death grip". Also for a single arm swings to have my arm bent slightly at the elbow to reduce injury.
I have been taught the loose grip method as well, but had to really figure it out for myself unfortunately. As for bending the elbow, what injury are you trying to prevent? The great thing about these exercises is they pull on the body so you get to work on the joints as well. That being said, they become a bit of a limiting factor while doing some exercises. Much like grip strength on a deadlift or heavy kettlebell swing. If it's strain around the elbow joint then maybe some lighter weights will help develop that area for you. It is very important to protect yourself though and be aware of what issues may arise.
Doing 2 years of single arm club progressions really really teaches the loose grip idea very very well
I was going to ask about the bent elbows and wrist of soft style . I noticed it when Mark wildman did the soft style 2 handed swing but not the single arm swing. Is there a benefit of doing this ?
I glad I saw this, ut explained a lot of issues that I was wondering about. Thx again.
Good demo. Killing it .
Thank you for the demonstration.
Superb explanation.
Super helpful breakdown, thank you! Appreciate the way you describe and show the differences starting from hard style.
How's the app coming along? Didn't get any updates.
Great content btw! Keep it up!
Super helpful! Thank you!
Regarding hardstyle with lighter weights, I find if I swing the shit out of it with enough force for a snatch but hit the breaks when my arm is parallel to the ground, I get a little more bang for my buck in my shoulders and the little muscles in my mid back. Not sure if this is something people do intentionally but I like it.
That is in fact... hard style. I’m just to lazy to be good at hard style anymore. I’m somewhere in the middle of everything.
@@MarkWildman good to know. Doing this without a coach present for years at a stretch is probably something I should change..
another possibility is to accelerate on the way down, and not just let gravity pull the bell down but put some force, too
that's what i did when i got used to my lighter kettlebell and didn't had a heavier one yet, 100% power + 100% brake at apex in both directions, it was spicy ngl
Bought this for my youngest to develop basic form for single hand kettlebell work. ruclips.net/user/postUgkxtaDAl93XF8wxJhssTtjIFjzid82wglva It has a nice grip on it, just a little rough so it isn't slippery. I was doing a few rotator cuff exercises to test and worked well for those movements I'd been doing with a regular dumbbell. Cool thing you can do is hold it in your hand for door-knob turns to work the forearm and grip. Note: it's small, almost all handle, but that's what I expected given the weight. Smallest I've worked with before is 15lbs, so it was kind of funny to see the difference 10lbs makes.
When’s the app going up, and what you calling it on the App Store?
Awesome info. Thank you.
Thank you, I was waiting for it :)
It does not look like the type of kettlebell effects the different technique styles of swing , is that the case with all kettlebell moves or are some moves specific to competition vrs. soft style kettlbells ? thx for the great content as always
I don't think it matters at all. The only issue I ever run into is the smaller hard style bells can cause wrist pain in the rack position because of the contact point changes with the size of the bell. I have hard style at home and soft style at my bjj gym and can do any exercises with either type. The comp style is just to keep everything an even playing field is what I imagine.
@@cucciafr68 that makes sense thx Frank .
Thanks for this.
Great video as always! Quick question: when I do (Hardstyle) one handed swings I turn my hand with each rep such that I have thumb down at the bottom and thumb up at the top. The reason being that my shoulder and posture feels better that way. Should I not do that and work on getting comfortable with the thumb down at the top?
You are doing it just fine.
I started doing the MW kettlebell program without experience with kettlebells or weight training, so I am never sure if I am making the right conclusions, but I was surprised that the arms are only present as connectors, not force generators.
It seems to me that in swings you are sending the kettlebell out and up with the hip snap, the arms come along for the ride.
It is just sort of weird that if you execute the hip movement correctly the kettlebell almost seems weightless.
The kb is essentially pulling your arm away from the socket with swings. As it gets heavier you will notice the kat and shoulder complex contracting to counter act it
Hey Mark, I'm approaching 24kg-20-10 emoms hard style two handed swings by mid June the way I'm going. I'm at 16 sets now. I don't want to get a 28 yet and will be ordering a 20kg soon. Should I just switch to single hard style swings and work my way up to 20 again or do 20 sets of 20 in emom? Also, will the app provide this kind of progression guidance? I figure I'll outgrow 16,20,24 kg by July 2022 the way I'm going. Bless you man! Without question the best channel on RUclips. Can't wait to give you my money. 🙏🏼
Very interesting. What would be the effects of doing single arm swings with the handle perpendicular to the arm? I imagine it puts more demand on having strong wrists, but I'm not sure.
It’s more of a grip challenge and single arm also has a core rotational element v two hand
Mark do recommend a routine where I'm doing both single and double handed swings?
Yes
@@MarkWildman wow ok thanks.
@@MarkWildman sir when doing my swings my momentum throws me to my toes ( off balance) can I fix this with practice or is that just my stupid ataxia please?
Is hard style better for strengthening and soft style better for endurance?
generally yes
How about shoulder impingement problems with downwards thumb rotation? Prestretching is there but if you don't rotate the humerus out at the top you spend hell of a lot of time internally rotated. What are your risk concerns on this?
I have none. Start light. Build to heavy
Hey Mark, in the soft style versions I usually see people alternating lifting slightly one of their feet during the low and high positions of the swing, but never mention the actual reasoning behind it.
I think it’s adding a bit more rotation, but I’m not an expert
What's a hybrid style look like? Is it a pointless swing
Would you consider SSST a soft style?
Not how most people do it. It was super HardStyle but as movement evolved double dip snatched are just as fast as HardStyle single dip snatches.
Is there a moment in training where one would switch from a two-handed swing to a one-handed swing? I've been working my way up using EMOM with a two-handed swing and am at 160 swings in 10 minutes. Was thinking when I hit 200, I'd jump up in weight. Would it be better to keep the same weight and just go to a one-handed swing? Or should I be mixing them in or alternating?
You could do one arm swings for your "heavy" days and two arm swings for your "light" days. Lower reps for one arm, higher for two arm.
WILDMAN IS THE REAL DEAL KUDO,S
I always look at hardstyle and have concerns for his knees.....that is a fair snap going on.
Same, and surprised people are not commenting more about it
So Mr Mark hardstyle is heavy weight and soft is light?
No. HardStyle is maximum tension, soft style is efficient
Naru hodo! Benkyo narimashita! This means in Japanese OK I got it! I understand what you’re saying! Peace and blessings from Fukuoka!
Ie desu ne
@@MarkWildman Good morning Mark! I’m watching this video again this morning. I think you wanted to write “ii desk ne” which can mean “good for you”. If you write “ie”, it might look like you’re writing “iie” which means “no” and then the meaning of the sentence is questionable. Probably most Japanese people will think you meant the first meaning and just made a simple typo, common for us foreigners. The Japanese themselves say that their language is very difficult to learn even for them.
I find the thumbs down internally rotates my shoulder and can be painful as I have had problems with shoulders before.
I started with hardstyle and moved on to sport, especially when I started to do cleans and jerks/overhead presses. They both have merits as you said.
The two handed soft swing I find is usually just taught as the fundamental lift to move you into the one handed soft clean for the competition lifting... but given that my context for learning it was the competition, I am sure I don't represent everyone who does the soft technique.
I know hardstyle so well softstyle seems so weird
It’s actually really cool once you work on it for a few months
Which style of swing would be better for an obese person? (talking 400+ lbs)
I reckon the one that, that person will do everyday.
You could program both. Focus on the hard style for an EMOM to get that explosive power and then a longer, higher volume soft style maybe for time, alternating hands after so many reps (if doing single arm, of course).
Mark actually has a video where he answers a 400lb person's question about which exercises would be best for him:
ruclips.net/video/1UBuwKo3jvY/видео.html
Most people start with hard style. If a person is to big around, then we move to single arm club progressions. Starting with inside circle, outside circle, and 360
@@MarkWildman thanks very much 🙂👍
I do not think your representation of a "soft style" swing is quite accurate. Look at the arms in the two-handed swing: why are they bent in elbows - does it add anything to the efficiency? You arms will get tired all for nothing, that's all! And then the same about legs: it looks like you squat twice per cycle. What is that for? Why do you feel you need to straighten you legs when the kettlebell moves back? The actual "competition style" starts with positioning your feet comfortably - on a diagonal and then moving your body weight from one leg to another, back and forth, to assist the swing. There is no squatting in swings or snatches, none at all! Try doing it 20-50 reps (depending on the weight) nonstop, just switching between hands and you will get to the most efficient movement pattern pretty quickly: that will be the "soft style"! "Soft style" is about making as many snatches or double-hand jerks (or racking and jerking in a long cycle) in 10 minutes as you can - no extra score awarded or removed for "style" or "correct breathing".
The wandering camera man is making me sea sick. Can’t watch..
Basically:
Soft - slavic approach to kettlebells.
Hard - overthinked, mercantilised & bull$$hitised (CrossFit fanatics) approach.