Kettlebell Front Squat – Exercise Tutorial

Hi everyone,

Today’s exercise tutorial is on another fundamental Kettlebell exercise, that is excellent for helping build strength, flexibility and tone the legs, glutes, core and even the upper body. Because the load is held at the front of the body, the hips have to power forwards and upwards.

Some pointers to remember:

• Always keep torso and head upright.
• Learn to sit back, as if onto an invisible chair.
• If heels lift off the ground, widen stance, or work on flexibility (hips and lower back are usual culprets)
• Create abdominal pressurisation by breathing in on downward movement and re-pressurise before rising.
• Go as deep as is comfortable, the aim is to touch hamstring to calve, but this is not always possible
• Watch and feel for “rounding” of the pelvis and lower back, this should be your limit – however this point may deepen as flexibility improves.
• To prevent the knees bowing inward or buckling, push the knees outward on the upward phase of the squat.
• Your arms and shoulders are likely to tire before your legs, if so, either swap the single Kettlebell to the other side, or keep the reps lower, until you build up strength.

Teaching points:

1. Clean the Kettlebells or Kettlebell into the rack position.
2. Keeping the torso tight (by breathing in and holding) and upright, the head staying up, bend at the hips and knees and sit back until you reach your personal limit, breathe out.
3. Pause and breathe in, to tighten the torso and core again, contract the glutes and quads, gounding the heels into the floor (imagine pushing the knees outward), power up
4. On the way up, squeeze the glutes tight and try and tilt the pelvis more under the shoulders, to prevent added pressure on lower back – this is a great tip.

All of these tips and pointers can be applied to a body weight squat too. People who maybe have knee pain from squats – may have bowing knees to the side, so watch out for this. Also your stance might be too narrow. Check your foot alignment, feet should be pointed out slightly to track inline with the knee, not against it.

Below is an additional video with some extra tips for beginners who are new to the squat in general.

Thanks everyone, I hope you find this information useful and sorry I take so long to teach each point, I just want to cover all bases.  I welcome feedback as always.

Cheers

Marianne