The One Handed Swing will Challenge Your Shoulder Stability & Core. Be Careful!

OK, let’s move on to the single-handed swing. This is exactly the same as the two-handed swing except with one hand. The only major difference is its going to try and pull the body into rotation as you come down. So you are just going to have to work with the core muscles to keep things basically nice and straight, and in line. Try and keep those shoulders as square as possible as well. There will be some rotation, but just be mindful of that fact, that it’s trying to pull you around. That is one of the benefits as well as it does work into the core muscles a little bit more.

So let’s have a look at it. Feet are going to be shoulder width apart, just like before. Pretty much everything is going to be the same as the double-handed swing. We are going to load the heels; load the hamstrings and the back, load the buttocks, the glutes. Core is going to be nice and tight. Lower back is going to be nice and flat. Chest is going to be pointing at sort of a diagonal downwards. Then, I’m going to keep it nice and high as we swing up.

We are going to stand up nice and tall. Using this hip snap, squeezing the glutes at the top, you look to get the arm up in line with the chest. But obviously, if you struggle with getting this arm up, just practice getting that hip snap first of all. The arm will come up with time. Shoulder needs to be back in its socket as well. Final thing is the head. We just need to make sure the head follows the swing, which makes sure that the neck is in alignment with the rest of the back.

So let’s take a look at it in motion. So, start with the kettlebell in front. Loading those heels, we are going to take a good hike back. And then from here, snap forward. This first drive is the most powerful of all, of the parts of the kettlebell swing, because we’ve got to get it from here nice and aggressively, up into the air. From there, we are just going to have a steady movement snapping the hips forwards. OK. Remember, the wrist just goes to the inner thigh, goes no deeper. You don’t want to go too far. You must not go to shallow either.

Let’s have a look. Hike it back and drive. Snap through, the head working. Just be really careful how you put the kettlebell down. What a lot of people find is when you start swinging with one hand, your technique actually starts to improve because the kettlebell is a little bit heavier, which means you have to start using your hips a little bit more. That’s not to say that should just jump right straight into heavy weights, but if you find that double-handed swing just can’t get those hips right, you might find that when you move onto the single-handed swing, everything falls into place.

So give that single-handed swing a go, exactly the same. Remember to get this correct positioning of the wrist on the inner thigh. Snap those hips forward. Stand nice and tall. And you’ll be fine.