How Many Kettlebell Swings Per Day?

100.

Haha... okay let’s actually answer this question so you can get benefits of doing daily kettelbell swings.

The kettlebell swing is a full body exercise... but it's focused on your posterior chair... ie... the back side of your body.

Hamstrings
Butt
Back
Shoulders

Kindal showing what is really working during your kettlebell swings.

And as long as you're not going crazy heavy with double kettlebell swings... swings are an exercise you could do daily without overuse injuries.

I'll come back to that point in a minute though.

Would I recommend doing kettlebell swings every day?

Yes. Maybe it would be better to focus for 30 days as part of a mini challenge to yourself.

This would make it more fun because you could focus on going heavier or adding in more intense styles of swings like shadow swings.

But as I think about it...

Kettlebell swings are a greaty little warm up or "wake your body up" exercise if you need to stimulate some movement.

(Like in the morning to stimulate your body.)

I'll tell you about this in a minute and give you some challenges and some kettlebell swing movement plans.

First, Are You Crazy Sore?

This is a rule that spans all of fitness and movement.

If you're really sore from the previous day or two days of exercise...

Take the day off and focus on mobility... stretching... and recovery.

Let your body heal and get stronger.

So if you do 100 swings one day... and the next you're really sore:

Step 1

Take the day off and rest. Stretch your hips and back. Move your body and let your muscles recover.

Step 2

Do some really light swings or bodyweight deadlifts to increase blood flow. Remember... moving your joints is just as important as stretching.

Second, Are You Saying Mobile?

Most of us live "normal" lives.

Maybe you have an office job or stay at home job that requires you to sit a lot during the day.

Maybe you have a job that requires you to be on your feet all day long.

Either way... bad posture habits will cripple your body over time.

You must stay mobile and stretch on a regular basis.

I think of stretching not from a yoga perspective.

Think of stretching like this...

Moving your joints in as many new directions and as big of movements as you can. I'll cover this in a different post.

Kindal starting at the top of a body weight deadlift.

Kindal at the bottom of bodyweight deadlift to warm up for a kettlebell swing.

Kindal doing a mobility exercise to help with hip extension.

Kindal doing a wide angle seated forward bend to help with opening hip joint.

Kindal doing a wide angle seated forward bend.

I bring this up because if you're going to be doing swings every day... you need to counter act that repetitive movement.

Make sure you're moving your body in different ways. Your body will thank you.

30 Day Kettlebell Swing Challenges

Here are some fun ways you can make little kettlebell swing challenges.

I would recommend something like this compared to just doing X number of swings every day.

Kindal showing the bottom of a kettlebell swing.

Simple and Sinister Style

Pavel Tsatsouline is credited to bringing kettlebells to the United States and popularizing them.

He has a very simple... but tough... workout called Simple and Sinister. Appropriate name.

This is a great workout to do over the course of 30 days.

It takes about 20 minutes to do the full workout... but you can easily break up the workout over the course of the day.

Part 1:

100 swings
10 reps per set
You must back off the kettlebell after each set of 10

To help pace your sets try this:

Take three big steps back... then come back in and do the next 10.

Another "quick rest" option I use is... walk a circle around your kettlebell and when you complete the circle... start the next set.

The focus is on form and maintaining the hard/intense, nature of your swings.

Part2: (optional in our case)

5 getups per side
Alternate sides for each get up

If you know how to do a get up... add this is. Get ups are amazing for your strength and joint control.

100 Swings For Time

Pretty simple, but make sure of one thing...

NO sloppy swings.

If you lose:

Power
Balance
The ability to lock out on top
The ability to keep your shoulders packed

Stop and rest or go down in kettlebell weight.

Here's my strategy for this challenge.

Step 1

Start with 15 reps.

This tends to be my max when going heavy and fast while keeping good form.

Step 2

Do 6 rounds of 15 reps.

Remember to focus on form and if you need to tweak your numbers... do it!

Step 3

Finish with one last set of 10... hard... swings!

If you need to back down to just sets of 10... 8... 6... do it.

Time how long it takes you to complete all of those sets.

You're working on endurance and the ability to control fatigue while moving a heavy weight.

I would keep the same 6 sets of 15 and 1 set of 10 for the entire month. Or whatever rep and set combination you choose.

By the end you will see a noticeable difference in strength and endurance.

10 Swings 10 Different Times Per Day

This is a daily movement challenge.

Here are the rules:

Only 10 swings per session
A minimum of an hour between sessions

You'll need easier access to a kettlebell for this one. And you'll need to strategize how you'll get this done.

The goal is to force yourself to move more during the day.

More effective movement too.

And to realize how easy it can be to get higher quality movement throughout the day.

Imagine if as a society we obsessed over doing 100 daily kettlebell swings like we're obsessed with getting 10,000 steps.

Everybody would be very fit and a lot healthier.

5 Kettlebell Swing Approaches

Try some of the challenges from above.

Here are 5 approaches to mix your swings up. You can use these during the challenges to mix things up and work on your weaknesses.

1. Kettlebell Swing Warm and Juice Up

I love taking a light kettlebell and doing swings as a warm up for my day.

I call them soft swings.

I start by not hip hinging that much. I don’t worry about getting the kettlebell very high.

Soft swings are used to wake your body up and get the blood flowing.

I also love doing this if I have been sitting at my desk for a long time. I get up and do some soft swings to juice my body up.

Then I’ll do 30 hard swings to get my heart rate pumped up.

Kindal showing the bottom of a light kettlebell swing.

Kindal showing the top of a light kettlebell swings.

2. Go Heavy

Easy enough. Go with some HEAVY kettlebells and you will get the ultimate kettlebell swing challenge.

Just make sure you're warmed up. If you need a refresher in kettlebell swing form, start with the kettlebell deadlift .

Kindal showing the top of a kettlebell swing.

Kindal at the top of a heavy kettlebell swing.

3. Go Light for Training

Go light and practice feeling your swing.

Light swings for higher reps can be very helpful. The goal is to not overpower the kettlebell.

Rather... feel the weight and adjust your power for match it. This is a great way to test your form.

Pay attention to swing queues like:

Are you staying balanced?
Are the right muscles doing the work?
How is your head position?
What does your hip hinge look like?

Light swings are great as a form check... but you can also use them as an active rest during a tough workout.

4. Go Double

Use two kettlebells for your swings.

Now you can go super HEAVY. This is the most intense version of the kettlebell swing hands down.

form tip

Go wider with your stance.

Even when you're not doing double kettlebell swings, I encourage you to try changing your stance width.

See if wider fits your body.

When you go double... you need to go wider to create space. And I bet you'll find a wider stance will make your swing technique a little more on point.

Try it out and see what you feel.

Kindal showing the top of the double kettlebell swings.

Kindal show how shoulders should stay packed with double kettlebell swings.

Kindal showing a strong bottom of a heavy double kettlebell swing.

5. Go MisMatch

Grab two different kettlebells of different sizes. One heavy... one light.

I love this offset. This forces your body to adapt to being unbalanced.

Think about it... most of life is not balanced... you need to be able to create your own balance.

We all have weak sides because our body is out of balance.

If you only trained with complete balance... you will never bring real balance to your body.

Train mismatched as much as you can.

Kindal showing the top of a mismatched kettlebell swing.

Kindal showing the two mismatched kettlebells during the swing.

So How Many Swings Should You Do Per Day?

40 to 50 would be daily recommendation.

But take a different look at this.

Use the challenges.

Do four - 30 day - challenges throughout the year... that's four months where you put a focus on kettlebell swings.

Fitness as a whole and kettlebells... any of this stuff... are tools to help your body get strong and fit.

If you want to go deep and really learn kettlebell training:

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