Why THESE Kettlebell Exercises Aren’t A Good Idea!

There’s an idea making its rounds in the fitness world:
“There’s no such thing as a bad movement.”

I get it. The intention is likely to avoid shaming movement and to emphasize freedom in exploring how our bodies work. But let’s take a step back. Most injuries don’t occur because someone moved in a unique or creative way—they happen because of poor movement patterns that overstress the wrong structures, this MAY happen because people are trying to be unique or different.

Understanding how our bodies are designed to move doesn’t mean policing every step someone takes; it means optimizing function. When we honor the body’s preferred mechanics, we reduce unnecessary strain on sensitive structures and activate the right muscles in the right sequence. This foundation helps us decide what constitutes a “good” or “bad” exercise.

Bad exercises aren’t always obvious. You don’t need to scour social media for outrageous gym fails to find poor programming. Sometimes, even subtle missteps in how an exercise is performed—or its intention—can cause harm. As fitness professionals, we’re not just trainers; we’re movement strategists with a responsibility to “do no harm.” That means assessing exercises with an eye toward risk versus reward.

For example, take the popular “rotational swing” with a kettlebell. Many people execute this with their feet planted, forcing rotation through the lumbar spine. Given that the lumbar spine allows only minimal rotation (around 14 degrees), this movement can quickly lead to injury. Instead, kettlebells shine when teaching anti-rotation or controlled rotational movements, progressing from stability-focused drills to dynamic, full-body patterns.

Kettlebell training that wants to make swings more impactful can use other strategies. Swings have a lot of their power coming from the strong back swing that creates high levels of eccentric forces that really overload the glutes and hamstrings very effectively and causes reflexive core stability. With this type of “swing” creating such loads aren’t really possible and if you try to do so by swinging harder across the body then you risk hurting the shoulders and low back more.

That is because when you are swinging the kettlebell back behind you (either by the side of your legs or between them) the line of the movement of the kettlebell appropriately loads the posterior chain. When you swing across the body the structures that are going to likely decelerate the weight is going to be the shoulders, lats, and low back which isn’t ideal and can lead to significant issues.

Instead, these types of kettlebell movements we teach as both foundational and higher level rotational kettlebell movements from our Progressive Kettlebell Movement (PKM) system, will accomplish the goal far more effectively. Instead of really overloading the upper body due to the long lever arm of the rotational kettlebell swing, these other movements help teach us to create force from the ground, up the hips, through the stable core, and coming out through power in the upper body.

Similarly, performing a kettlebell clean from a half-kneeling position is problematic. The power of a swing comes from hip flexion and extension—something you can’t fully achieve from this posture. With one leg in hip flexion and the other in extension there really isn’t room for the hips to absorb the high eccentric forces of range of motion for the hips to create a lot of power. The fact that we can create a lot of force from the feet also takes away from the exercise and it becomes not a great kettlebell training drill for either power or stability.

While creativity in training is essential, we need to prioritize the movement itself. An exercise can be innovative, but if it sacrifices safety or quality, is it truly worth it? Smart training isn’t about sticking to a handful of exercises; it’s about understanding why we move a certain way and how we can enhance that movement effectively. That is why physical therapist, Jessica Bento, gives a much smarter approach to combining stability and power training to your kettlebell exercises.

Find out MUCH more in our FREE “Rediscovering Kettlebell Training” webinar December 10th at 2pm EST HERE and sign-up for our next masterclass on our Progressive Kettlebell Movement system HERE and get our early bird and PKM Swing course FREE HERE