Olympic weightlifting derivatives have long been hailed as the primary exercises for strength training and conditioning. There is now evidence that this is probably not true. For most people, most of the time, a simple kettlebell swing is a better power movement than any derivative of Olympic lifting.
Full hip extension is key
Sprinting, hitting, throwing and swinging a bat are movements powered by your hips with a powerful and complete hip extension. The full hip extension is the part of the lower body movements where you fully approach and reach fully standing, fully extended.
In Olympic lifts, you have to catch the bar. Beginners and intermediate lifters hardly ever reach a full hip extension because they are already preparing to dive again to reach the bar. In a kettlebell swing, it is easy to get a full, fast and powerful extension, even with beginners.
In the kettlebell swing, you grab the weight with your hamstrings
One of the biggest risks of injury in sport is tearing your hamstrings. Recent research has shown that developing stronger, longer hamstrings is one way to minimize that risk of injury.
In the swing video above, you see the kettlebell back up and slow down, ending the capture phase in a position where the hamstrings are stretched.
This loads the hamstring as it stretches, while strengthening and lengthening the muscle, exactly what has been shown to reduce the risk of hamstring tear. It is also a movement that strengthens the internal hamstrings more than the external hamstrings, which could also reduce the risk of hamstring tear.
No olympic lift derivative has this weighted hamstring stretch benefit, so no variation of olympic lift helps reduce the risk of hamstring injury while training power like kettlebell swing.
Horizontal training
Swings have an obvious horizontal handling aspect that Olympic lifts do not. On a swing, you forcefully push the kettlebell forward, away from you in a way you can’t do with a barbell. If you did, you wouldn’t be able to catch the bar and end the lift.
This horizontal aspect is important for sports, as it is the same way that the hips work in sprints, punches, swings, pitches, etc. There is evidence that training horizontal force movements rather than vertical force movements is more effective in improving sprinting.
Research compared barbell thrusters to barbell squats, and thrusters were more effective. It has been suggested that the horizontal nature and increased hip extension range of thrusters may be the reasons why it was more effective.
The implication for kettlebell swing, unlike Olympic lifts, is that swings have these attributes of horizontal and greater hip extension in an explosive lift, suggesting that they will have better transfer to sport speed movements and horizontal than a vertical power lift like the Olympic.
Kettlebells are easier to learn
Anyone who has tried to learn Olympic lifts as a beginner knows how difficult it is.
It can be a lot of fun and rewarding as your own sport, but unfortunately, it greatly diminishes the value of Olympic lifts for strength and conditioning. A kettlebell swing is fairly simple and easy to learn at a level where you unlock the benefits.
There was one study comparing kettlebell workouts versus cleans and high pulls. Although the kettlebell group used much lighter loads, the vertical jump and power clean improved at the end of the study as much as the group who trained the power clean.
The relatively greater power benefits of the kettlebell group came down to how much easier it is to learn and train the kettlebell swing to reap physiological benefits while the bar group continued to try to master the technicalities of lifting derivatives.
The general implication of the study is that a heavy barbell force movement combined with a kettlebell force movement could be the optimal combination for strength and conditioning purposes.
Risk of injury is reduced
If you’re preparing yourself or a team to perform better in a sport, that’s your approach, not the tools you use for strength and conditioning. No one cares how good your clean is if you are a boxer who gets knocked out in every fight.
A major drawback of Olympic lifts is the risk of injury to themselves. Even the simplest power variations alter the wrists of many athletes, if nothing else.
Sometimes the risks of injury we have from working out in the gym are purposely risked to condition the athlete against sports injuries. Unfortunately, some of the risks with the Olympic lift do not intersect with much else, so they only diminish their value as strength and conditioning tools.
The Kettlebell changes have no such problems. As we said before, the loaded stretch that they create through the hamstrings is beneficial for most sports and they do not put extra strains on the wrists .
Less risk of injury from the lifts themselves, greater potential for injury reduction, and a greater return on less time spent – all combine to make it obvious to choose kettlebell shifts as your strength exercise and conditioning power .
