A note about breathing

MX SWING exercises are often a mix of cardio, strength, and power, so there isn’t just one way of breathing. Where necessary, I provide specific advice in the exercise technique section of each exercise.

When it comes to this mini warm-up, I recommend you breathe in fully through your nose and out through your mouth. Keep it steady and slow-ish to help keep your body calm (in a ‘parasympathetic’ state). This can be a useful mental transition between what you were doing before the workout and actually starting the workout. Since breathing can also help engage your sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system, I suggest doing a few quick, shallow breaths before each exercise to raise adrenaline and get your mind and body in a more heightened and alert state, which is more appropriate when commencing intense physical activity.

Athletic Benefits

• If you do enough reps (which you are!), it builds muscle endurance & strengthens the heart.
• Builds strength and endurance in the biceps, lats, and shoulders.
• Strengthens Grip (FYI – as does all high-rep pulling & swinging exercise).

Beauty Benefits

• Tones arms and back.
• Burns fat.

Starting Position

• Lean over and rest your left arm against your left thigh.
• Right-hand grab the kettlebell.
• Engage your core and lats, and maintain a balanced, wide-leg stance so that the body feels ‘braced’.

Technique

• While keeping the body still, drive the kettlebell directly upwards with the arm.
• Focus on the elbow moving vertically up & down.
• Perform a full range of motion (ROM). So all the way from the floor to the chest,
• Exhale as you go up (concentric phase) and inhale as you go down (eccentric phase).
• Swap sides after each set.

Common Mistakes 

• Elbows going wide (this then becomes a different exercise that more develops Posterior Delts), which is usually fine, but it’s not the outcome I want for this exercise today.
• Not going all the way up – because it’s hard, I guess!. If you are going to do it, may as well do it right?

Athletic Benefits

• A version of a bench press – but it’s still a bench press! – one of the most fundamental upper-body strength moves there is.
• Develops strength and endurance in triceps, shoulders, hip flexors, abs and core (and a little bit of pecs
• Helps you get better at press-ups and other ‘pushing’ activities.
• For serious strength athletes and powerlifters who do a lot of bench presses, they do floor Presses (with feet still) to develop the ‘lockout phase’  (i.e., to improve the top part of the lift, which is more about tricep strength).

Beauty Benefits

• Tones up the back of the arms and front of the shoulders.
• Firms lower abs.
• Fat burning.

Starting Position

• Lie down on your back, head, shoulders, bum and + knees and feet up.
• Hold a Kettlebell in each hand, have the ball resting against your forearms.
• Use Kettlebell guards if you find it painful (or wear a long-sleeved top).
• The shoulder blades are internally rotated, so the chest is pushed out.

Technique

• Push Hands directly upwards – keep kettlebells on the outside of arms (for safety)
• Exhale as you drive up. Then hold for 1/2 to 1 second at the top.
• Inhale as you lower your arms back to the start position.
• In terms of legs: Coordinate arms so that you extend your legs fully as you lift your arms and move your legs, knees, and feet back to the start position (a little past the above hip position) as your elbows return to the floor.

Common Mistakes:

• Letting weight drop behind you – this will hurt your rotator cuffs. Always keep the Kettlebells moving vertically.
• Not fully extending your legs or lifting them too high (both of these versions are safe, but they make the exercise too easy).

Easier: If this move is too hard, drop down to 2 x 6kg (Use dumbbells or kettlebells). Do three sets of 90 seconds AMRAP with a 90-second rest between sets.  This will quickly build both your strength & athletic confidence.

Harder: If you can handle the pro athlete version, try an under-grip with 2 x 12 kg for 3 x 15 reps. It will severely challenge your grip strength and concentration levels.  Additionally, as you’re looking to add weight, consider adding 2.5kg ankle weights on each side. I did this myself 10 minutes ago.  It was unpleasant as you really have to go painfully slowly to keep the Kettlebells balanced when upside down.

Athletic Benefits

• Strengthens Obliques & Triceps
• Quickly develops your core, coordination and shoulder stabiliser strength
• Stretches the Hamstrings (and a little bit of the calves too)
• Improves dynamic balance (i.e balance while moving – which is more useful in real life)

Beauty Benefits

• More definition in vertical  oblique lines
• Tones arms and shoulders

Starting Position

• Stand upright holding two kettlebells of the same weight.
• Have one down by your left side and the other ‘racked’, i.e., by your right shoulder.
• Stand 1.5x shoulder width – so same-ish width as a sumo squat.
• Bend knees slightly (we call this ‘soft’ knee position).

Technique

• Tilt your hip to the side of the racked kettlebell (to the right).
• While keeping your heels down, swivel your feet 45 degrees to the opposite side of your hips (so to the left).
• Lean over to the left while pressing the right kettlebell directly upwards.
• Time it so that when you touch the floor with the left knee, your right arm is fully extended.
• Return to the start position and repeat.
• Swap sides at the end of each set.
• This is a challenging exercise! The aim is to move with fluidity, control, and grace.

Common Mistakes

• Not tilting hips – this restricts movement so that you can go all the way down.
• FYI – This is a variation of the triangle pose in yoga, so you should feel a stretch on your hamstrings and obliques. If you don’t feel it, you’re probably bending your knees. While this isn’t dangerous, it makes you miss out on all the flexibility (and some of the balance) benefits.

Easier: Stick to one kettlebell (the pushing-up one).

Harder: Close your eyes. Any exercise that has a balance component can be made far more interesting by simply closing your eyes. Try it!

Athletic Benefits

• Develops strength in the Triceps.
• To be a tad more technical, there are three tricep muscles (hence the name!)and you’re maximising the biggest one doing this move -it’s called the “long head” of the tricep.
• Stretches the tricep better than other tricep exercises (as it acts like a weighted stretch on the bottom phase)
• Shoulders and upper chest assist a bit, so they also get a bit stronger.

Beauty Benefits

• Makes your arms look good! The triceps make up around two-thirds of the muscles in your arm (the other one-third is the biceps). To achieve sleek and defined arms like those of 1990s supermodels, one must primarily have less body fat.  (as most women have a lot of fat cells in their arms) — which is best achieved by eating healthily, maintaining a very mild deficit, consistently following a good training programme,  and staying active. This is the most significant variable in getting skinnier arms. In addition, doing targeted tricep exercises like this will give you real definition and firmness, so they look good not just smaller  (NB: an overlooked muscle group that directly helps arms look firm and sculpted without being too big is the deltoids.   Along with the multitude of athletic benefits, this is why there are numerous shoulder exercises in MX SWING too.

Starting Position

• Kneel – any leg forward is fine
• Hold kettlebell upside down over your head. Have the handle (a.k.a horns) pointing down
• Maintain a straight & upright posture

Technique

• Bend the elbows so the kettlebell falls behind head
• When you get to the lowest position (where tricep are fully stretched) extend up to start position
• Repeat action. Every Time you go down then up is classed a  rep
• Exhale on way up, inhale on the way down. A good way to remember is that generally you always breathe out on the hard phase (concentric/lengthening action) and breathe in on the easier phase (eccentric/shortening action)

Common Mistakes

• Using momentum
• Not going all the way down
• Bashing the back of the head. Only let elbows bend, not move around in space.

Easier: Stand up. Then when things get tough on the triceps,  you can bend knees a bit and use momentum to help push up. Overall standing feels about 20% easier than kneeling (with the same weight) for most of us.

Harder: Use two 8kg kettlebells. When you have two kettlebells you will be more unstable, thus it will be harder.

Athletic Benefits

• Improves Strength in Arms, Lats & Shoulders
• Improves Endurance in Lower Back
• Develops Core & Glute Medius Endurance
• Improves Spinal Mobility

Beauty Benefits

• Reduces overall body fat
• Firms back and arms without bulking

Starting Position

• Start in a Romanian Deadlift Position, with both kettlebells on the floor
• Keep hips tilted back (stick bum out), chest out and head position aligned with torso
• Feet slighter wide than shoulders, Toes spread out and heals and big toe pushing down hard

Technique

• Lift right hand up toward chest and left to the floor. Movement is all spinal rotation
• Maintain a flat back and still lower half.
• Keep arms in by your side and always strive for a full ROM (Range of motion)
• When finished carefully put both Kettlebells down on the floor and stand up

Common Mistakes 

• Curving back (you want to maintain natural arch – so stick you bum out)
• Not going all the way to the floor on every single rep

Easier: Use one kettlebell at a time.

Harder:  You can go 25% heavier to focus on building more strength, or do 50% more reps to focus on developing muscular endurance and burning more calories or place feet together and close eyes to make it a challenging balance and coordination exercise.

Athletic Benefits

• Strengthens Chest, Triceps and a little bit of Lats, Teres Major, Serratus Anterior and Posterior Delts.
• Excellent for aiding upper body posture.
• NB: While this is a good exercise and is perfect for MX SWING.  If you were on a bench or elevated, then the deeper stretch would mean you work your lats and upper back muscles much more. That version is in MX SCULPT.

Beauty Benefits

• Tones back and triceps.
• Improves upper body posture.

Starting Position

• Lie down on your back and hold the Kettlebell above your face.
• Keep a tight grip! There are several different holding techniques available. I suggest the way in the animation, as most find it’s the most secure (so horns pointing down).

Technique

• Extend your straight arms behind your head so the Kettlebell softly touches the floor, and then go back to the start position.
• Repeat movement in a controlled way.
• Breathe steadily throughout. When we concentrate, we tend to hold our breath. Please be mindful of this when performing all exercises within this program.

Common Mistakes 

• Bending elbows too much. This makes it too easy and also dangerous as you can hit your face.

Easier:  Bend elbows a bit – this has the effect of making it a bit easier. However, be careful not to bash your head, please! No point getting a hot body if you are so concussed you don’t know who you are.

Harder: Do the Pro Athlete level, but extend legs on every rep at the same time, so to get abs working (- like the floor press from earlier).

Athletic Benefits

• Improves overhead pressing. Vital in Olympic lifting & Strongman comps.
• Builds strength in Anterior Deltoids and Triceps.
• Develops upper body power (transferable to punching faster & throwing a ball further).
• Great for athletes with shoulder/rotator cuff issues, as the grip is more forgiving than with a barbell.

Beauty Benefits

• Tones up the back of your arms and the front of your shoulders.

Starting Position

• Begin in a standing position, holding the kettlebell with both hands at the top of the handle.
• Feet shoulder width apart, with soft knees (i.e slight bend).

Technique

• Upright Row the kettlebell to chest with elbows wide.
• Slide hands down to the side of the horns and bring elbows down and in.
• Overhead press the Kettlebell above your head.
• When your shoulders get knackered, you can bend your knees and stand up while quickly extending your arms ( like a Push-Press for those familiar with Olympic lifting).
• Slowly come down the same way you went up (including elbow positioning).
• Exhale hard during the overhead press.

Common Mistakes:

• Not ‘punching’ up on the shoulder press part – i.e., going too slowly.

Easier: Just do the overhead press and skip the upright row.

Harder: Assuming you can do the athlete setting, now hold two 12kg kettlebells and complete 3 sets of 10 reps. Very hard. One of my model clients who walked for Chanel during Paris Fashion Week last year can do this, so if she can do it, then it is possible!