Kettlebell swing

Who it's for

Climbers who want hip power for rock-overs, high steps and anything driven off the feet, without the finger load of doing it on the wall. It also trains the back of the body, which climbing mostly ignores. Moderate injury risk, and the risk is almost entirely the lower back, so if yours is currently unhappy get a physio to look at it first.

Common mistakes

• Squatting instead of hinging. The hips go back, the knees bend a little. If your thighs are doing the work you'll feel it as a front-of-leg exercise and the power never arrives.
• Lifting with the arms. The arms are a rope. The kettlebell floats up because the hips snapped, and at chest height you're not pulling it any further.
• Rounding the back at the bottom. Flat back through the whole swing, every rep of all 15. This is the one that hurts people.
• Going heavy too early. A moderate bell moved fast beats a heavy bell moved slowly. The point is speed, not load.

How to progress

Learn the hinge with no weight, then five sets of 15 with a bell you can keep sharp. Speed and shape come first; weight second, in one step at a time. The catalog tags it for every period including a deload, but keep it off the day before hard climbing on steep ground, since the hips and lower back need to be fresh for that too.