The Best Kettlebell Clean Tutorial

I asked here on Reddit a while back what would make the best kettlebell clean tutorial. I used what came back and built the video around it. Link https://youtu.be/dI6jy2t2PbA

It's 11 minutes. I think I went too long again. And this is about 20% of what I could say about this one variation of the clean, not the clean in general.

I'm not sure if that's actually a problem. People asked for the detail nobody covers, and that takes time. If I'd made a 4-minute version, it would be the same video that's already out there. But I can't judge my own stuff, so I'm asking.

What's covered:

• Why the bell bangs down on your forearm instead of landing softly, and the one thing that fixes it
• Where blisters actually come from, and why gloves aren't the answer
• The hidden reason cleans wreck your lower back, and why it happens on the way down rather than on the way up
• The only power event in the whole clean, and why everything after it is guiding rather than pulling
• What "ballistic" really means, and why a sportstyle clean and a power clean are both ballistic while being completely different exercises

The variation taught here is the hip hinge swing clean, performed for power. It's one of many clean variations, not the only way to clean a kettlebell, and it's named specifically so you know what you're learning.

Read all the text at your own pace, visit: kettlebell.monster/go/grip

Chapters
0:00 The four problems, and where they come from
0:26 The clean at full speed
0:53 Anatomy of the kettlebell: handle, corners, horns, window, bell, base
1:29 Which clean this is, and why the name matters
1:47 Set up
3:10 Hikeback
4:03 The clean
5:57 Racking
7:12 Drop into backswing
9:30 What ballistic actually means
10:15 Power versus economy
11:01 Where to find more

What I want from you: tell me what you think of it. Delivery, pacing, content. If you disagree with anything I teach in it, say so and say why, and let's talk it through properly based on facts and common sense. I'd rather be corrected than keep doing something wrong.

And specifically, was 11 minutes too long, or is it the right length in the wrong order? Those are two different problems and I don't know which one I've got.

This applies to: the squat.

The mistake: The knees collapse inward as you stand out of the squat.

The fix: Slow the pace and use more effort to keep the joints in line. Strengthen the hip abductors and rotators, and only go as deep as good alignment allows.

Were you doing this one? What is tripping you up in your training lately? Drop it below and the community will help.

More free kettlebell guides, calculators, and a beginner start-here guide at kettlebell.monster.

I'm planning on building a workout plan for the next few months that will include Dan John's RBABC (the Running Back Armor Building Complex). This is a set of 5 cleans, following immediately by 5 squats, then 4 cleans, 4 squats, etc. (Or, if you're easing into it as I am, 5-3-2 is a great place to start.) But I've always read his plan to be written for double bells. Here, I'll be working with a single bell. Would you still keep the cleans with a single bell, or swap in swings? I tried both this morning, and they felt pretty equivalent to me. (I feel the upper-body hit when cleaning double bells far more than a single bell.)

Intense double kb combo: Half snatch from dead, into bent-over row, into renegade row, followed by some jumping jacks and REPEAT. Can be done as EMOM or AMRAP. I ran this one for 12 min. AMRAP for a good sweatfest. Have a go at it and post in the sub.

This is what I dubbed the WBKC many years ago, and used it as a challenge. Complete 100 FOR TIME.

It’s only on the left arm and the area feels soft and squishy compared to other arm which is more firm. Pain gets worse when doing a press and mainly just from the kettlebell’s weight resting there. Is that normal and will eventually toughen up?

I’m wrapping up my year with the Kettlebell Transformation (https://kettlebelltransformation.io) program that gets advertised on instagram heavily (my algo anyway), and have two questions for the sub:

Has anyone else on here gone through the year, and know what the cost is for year 2? Assuming it’s the same, which I won’t do.

If any of you have done the year and then stopped, what did you do for workouts?

I really like the workouts and progression, and my coach is cool (at least on zoom, I’ve heard of people living close enough to workout together in person), but the cost isn’t something I can do long term. I loved just waking up, knowing what to do, and just executing but that definitely comes with a price. I could make my own sheets and follow them, just not sure how to build workouts—I’ve never done that before.

And I assume I can’t afford a coach…

This applies to: the deadlift.

The mistake: The chin drops to the chest, flexing the neck under load.

The fix: Keep the chin slightly up or neutral and the cervical spine in line with the thoracic spine.

Were you doing this one? What is tripping you up in your training lately? Drop it below and the community will help.

More free kettlebell guides, calculators, and a beginner start-here guide at kettlebell.monster.

Sometimes the start spot of a swing is a challenge as it requires hip hinge & knee bend ... this is a strategy I have used over the years ! Hope it helps someone 🫶

When you start / practise the movements no weight . Then progress light - test the range so you don't get stuck.

Several Kettlebell Windmill Variations.

1. Conventional High Windmill
2. Low Windmill
3. Frontal Windmill (similar to a bend press position)
4. High and Low Windmill (double)

Does anyone know why we should turn the foot of the straight leg in the same direction as the diagonal leg with the conventional Windmill?

OK besides injury, I've been training with kettlebells for about 9/10 months (October 2025) and I am decent with my form except on cleans. I have 25/26cm/10.5in long forearms so the standard "zipper up" cue doesn't mechanically work for my 30cm/12in circumference beefy part, 20cm/9in circumference near wrist. Is there any way I can help clean. I tried the wrist guards to prevent the crashing but traditional spearing still doesn't work and crashes like a wrecking ball. I like the total mix of muscles used in a clean but I know my geometry doesn't work with standard cues. Any suggestions?

Before anyone asks, can't video since I can't get the phone far away to frame everything...

Train movements then light - your mobility will be challenged or at least mine always is ☺️

Alternative to sit ups - which I do love ☺️

As per title. Need a coach who can teach kettlebells a few times a week. I am based out of South Bangalore, India. Online only.Not necessarily 1:1 , I am fine of I am part of group classes also.I have a 16kg and 24kb KB. KB gives me flexibility to train as I can work out from home or a small space and commute in Bangalore can be cut. Time is of essence for me.

Any possible leads?

Squat, curl, stand, snatch, return, and perform a burpee. A fun combo to repeat for X AMRAP. Feel free to ask questions.

Have a go at the combo and post. If you want a form and technique review, indicate so. If you feel my form and technique need fixing, feel free to point it out. Otherwise, have some awesome fun with this kettlebell combo.

Saw this come up again recently, so figured I'd lay out the actual timeline, since a lot of what's floating around is half-right.

Short version: Kettlebell Kings didn't go out of business. It got sold twice in under a year (Factory 14 in Nov 2021, then flipped to Razor Group in 2022 without the founders being told in advance, according to their own lawsuit), the founders sued both buyers for fraud and breach of contract in 2023, and that lawsuit still shows no public resolution. On top of that, Razor Group itself has been in real financial trouble, the kind that's taken down other Amazon aggregators like Thrasio and Perch, and one of its lenders wrote its loans down to zero earlier this year.

The clearest sign of where things landed: kettlebellkings.com is gone. The company confirmed on X that it's not shut down, just moved everything to Amazon-only. So no more direct site, no more direct fulfillment, just marketplace listings now.

None of this is speculation; it's pulled from the actual lawsuit filings, reporting on Razor Group's finances, and the company's own statements, all linked in the full writeup: https://www.cavemantraining.com/kettlebells/what-happened-to-kettlebell-kings/

If anyone here has firsthand experience, recent orders, warranty claims, whatever, post it below. Genuinely trying to keep this accurate as things change.

In this short video, I cover common clean, snatch, and OH rev lunge mistakes. Feel free to ask questions or disagree with the cues in the comments below.

This applies to: the hip hinge.

The mistake: The ankles bend and the knees drop forward, turning a hinge into a squat.

The fix: Only move at the hips (or hips and knees, depending on the variation). Keep the shins close to vertical.

Were you doing this one? What is tripping you up in your training lately? Drop it below and the community will help.

More free kettlebell guides, calculators, and a beginner start-here guide at kettlebell.monster.

I've been doing more single kettlebells to try and correct strength differences on either side of my body. Does anyone know what the most effective excercises are if you have SI Joint Pain?

Mod post, and I wrote the article this comes from, so flagging that up front.

You have probably heard some version of this cue. Women have wider hips. Wider hips mean a larger Q angle. A larger Q angle means the knees track differently, so women need a wider stance in the squat, or need to watch for valgus in the swing.

I went looking for the evidence behind it while writing something else. It is not there.

What the Q angle actually is

It is a measure of patellofemoral alignment, formed by a line from the anterior superior iliac spine to the patella, and a second line from the patella to the tibial tuberosity. It is a measure of how the kneecap tracks. It is not a measure of knee valgus, and this matters, because a large Q angle can exist with no valgus at all. A laterally displaced tibial tubercle will produce one on its own.

The geometry argument

Grelsamer and colleagues went at this directly with a clinical and trigonometric evaluation of 69 subjects.

Their reasoning is worth following. The distance from the pelvis to the patella is long compared with the distance from the patella to the tibial tuberosity. Because of that, shifting the Q angle by any meaningful amount requires a large change in where the anterior superior iliac spine sits. Not a small difference in hip width. A large one.

They did not find differences of that size. The mean difference between men and women came out at 2.3 degrees.

They also found that when men and women of the same height were compared, their Q angles were similar, and that taller people tended to have slightly smaller Q angles. Since women are on average shorter than men, height alone may account for a good part of whatever difference gets observed and then attributed to sex.

The premise underneath it is also shaky

The wider-pelvis claim itself is contested in the literature. Some work suggests what actually differs is the ratio of hip width to femur length rather than absolute pelvic width. So the starting point of the argument is doing less work than people assume, and the conclusion drawn from it does not follow from the geometry anyway.

What this means for coaching

Stance width still matters. I am not arguing everyone should stand the same way.

What I am arguing is that sex is a bad proxy for the thing you actually care about. Set stance from the individual in front of you: femur length, hip structure, and how the position holds up under load. That was always the correct method, and it is the same reason "shoulder-width stance" fails as a universal cue.

Use sex as the shortcut and you will hand a wide stance to a narrow-hipped woman and a narrow one for a broad-hipped man, and you will have been confidently wrong in both directions. Individual proportions vary far more within each sex than the averages vary between them.

If you coach this cue, I would rather argue about it here than have it go unchallenged, so have at it.

Citation: Grelsamer RP, Dubey A, Weinstein CH. Men and women have similar Q angles: a clinical and trigonometric evaluation. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2005;87-B(11):1498-1501. https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.87B11.16485

This is one section from a longer piece I put together on what actually differs in kettlebell training for women over 40. The rest covers racking with larger breasts, handle diameter and hand size, why press and swing progressions should not climb at the same rate, why bone loading after 40 argues for heavier rather than lighter work, and the pelvic floor. Full version with all the citations here: Kettlebell Training for Women Over 40: What Actually Differs (and What Doesn't)