Tip Do Kettlebell Swings for a Big Deadlift Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Do Kettlebell Swings for a Big Deadlift Develop explosiveness grease the groove and improve work capacity Here' s how by Erick Avila March 10, 2016December 10, 2021 Tags Metcon, Tips, Training Want a bigger, better deadlift? The kettlebell swing could be the missing tool in your toolbox. Deadlifting is a skill. Like any other skill you must practice it deliberately and frequently. Swings aren't meant to replace deadlifting, but they can be a valuable tool in helping you build a bigger lift. The swing provides a multitude of benefits that transfer. In fact, powerlifter Andy Bolton, one of the first people to pull over 1000 pounds, has long advocated kettlebell swings. Kettlebell swings improve maximal and explosive strength, both of which translate to bigger deadlift numbers. One six week study of training the swing biweekly (either with 12 kg or 16 kg kettlebells) used twenty-one healthy men. Both maximal strength and explosive strength improved significantly, 9.8% and 19.8% respectively. This is important because increased maximal strength naturally means an increase in the amount of force you can produce for one all-out lift. The stronger you are, the more you can lift. Similarly, increases in explosive strength result in higher lifting numbers because of an increased rate of force development. The greater our rate of force development, the faster we get at recruiting muscle fibers. This is beneficial if we're seeking bigger lifting numbers, especially for a deadlift where we start the lift from a dead stop and need to produce force rapidly. Frequent repetition of the same movement with proper technique enhances our neuromuscular pathway, improving movement efficiency and increasing strength levels. Kettlebell swings grease the groove on aggressive hip hinging mechanics, and a big deadlift requires a strong hip hinge. It's quite difficult to recover from frequent and heavy deadlifting. Kettlebell swings, despite having an eccentric component, are easier to recover from and can be done multiple times within one week. You're able to grease the groove on an aggressive hip hinge which carries over to better deadlifting mechanics. If you ever want to put your conditioning to the test, try doing kettlebell swing intervals or do swings for a set amount of time without stopping. Both workouts will challenge your aerobic, anaerobic, and power endurance levels. Improving these qualities leads to better overall conditioning which allows you to get more reps/sets in a workout and recover better from the workload. As mentioned, deadlifting is a skill, so any tool that gets you better at performing your skill is something worth doing. Lake, J. P., & Lauder, M. A. (2012). Kettlebell Swing Training Improves Maximal and Explosive Strength. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(8), 2228-2233. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training 3 Dead-Ends and a Loophole Some of you might have enjoyed the Diary of a Steroid User series as much as I did. It was an interesting, unapologetic, honest portrait of what it's like when an average Joe uses steroids. But however much I enjoyed it, I cringed when I read some of the "pyramid" workouts outlined by the anonymous author Training Jack Reape May 5 Training Tip Do the Tiger Bend Push-Up A challenging new way to do push-ups. Bonus: It looks damn cool. Check it out. Tips, Training John Paul Catanzaro August 16 Training What You Can Learn From Instagram Booty Chicks Glutes are all the rage on social media. But do the exercises we see actually work, or are they just part of the spectacle? Here's a breakdown. Bodybuilding, Glutes, Training Dr John Rusin December 11 Training The New Exercise Workout Challenge You don't have to train yourself into a puddle of goo for a workout challenge. Instead, just skill up with a new exercise or training method. Bodybuilding, Exercise Coaching, Powerlifting & Strength T Nation November 20