I have been training for over two decades and that’s plenty of time to occasionally want to go back in time and kick my former self’s ass for being stupid.
In 2006, I was a senior in high school and had made myself decently strong with a 700lbs squat and deadlift. It was around this time that I began to see a few SHW World Record powerlifters, Andy Bolton and Donnie Thompson, discuss kettlebells and more specifically the importance of swings in their training.
The gym I was training at had a few 88lbs kettlebells, so I gave swings a try. I wasn’t grinding, grunting, or fighting for my last rep on each set, so I instantly dismissed them as stupid and insignificant. Fourteen years later, I was still on the same hunt for greater strength and hit a speed bump when I suffered a hamstring tear on an 840lbs deadlift attempt at an XPC Arnold Classic Deadlift qualifier at Lexen Extreme in Columbus.
Within a few days, the entire posterior side of my thigh was black and blue. A few days after that the bruising traveled down my leg and into my foot. Things were looking pretty grim as the Arnold was quickly approaching. I still wanted to find a way to compete in what we would later find out would be the oddest Arnold Classic of all time due to abrupt and unexpected Covid lockdowns. The day after my injury I was doing Pin 5 Rack Pulls in the PR Platform with the empty bar, but I couldn’t reach the bar at ground height for several weeks. I was also unable to squat, leg press, lunge, back raise, box deadlift in the PR Platform, and good morning. These were most of the staples of my training!
I had a few very light kettlebells at my gym, so I tried a swing. It didn’t hurt! It was only 25lbs at first, but it was better than nothing. I quickly progressed to a 40 and then 50lbs kettlebell with no pain and it was time for heavier loads. I designed and made the first MBPC Power Pin the day after the 50lbs kettlebell was pain-free because I didn’t want the momentum to stop.
To make a long story short, I didn’t deadlift for the first 13 of 18 weeks that I had to prepare for the Arnold. In fact, I only deadlifted heavy twice before the meet. In my second heavy session, I pulled a gym PR of 770lbs+100lbs Chain.
I didn’t deadlift o ten, but I did build up to a tremendous swing volume each week paired with very hard and heavy backward DeadSled drags to keep my legs strong. At what ended up being dubbed the “Covid Classic,” I stood up with the 840lbs that injured me four months earlier. I was sold on swings! If I only would have listened in 2006, but what did those World Record holders know?
In the last two years, I have done at least 20,000 reps of swings in my own training. My posterior chain is stronger than it’s ever been, my general conditioning and work capacity are better than when I was a young man playing football and along with a major change in nutrition, I have lost close to fifty pounds while maintaining strength.
How to Swing
Swings should always be done with the intent to create crisp, snappy, and powerful reps. You can implement a great routine, but if the reps are sub-par, you’ll still see inferior results. If you understand the basics of the hip-hinge and bring intensity and focus to each rep, the cues below can help to create a beautiful swing with high carry-over to strength, power, conditioning, and even hypertrophy.
Pull down and then pull the ground.
I like simple cues. They are the only cues that most will understand.
Step 1 – Pull down!
One day I was doing Power Pin swings and it just felt better. I felt more muscle on the backside of my body working and my reps were much snappier. After thousands of swings over the previous 10-12 months, my very slow-learning body finally got the exercise.
I was pulling the Power Pin down as I hinged.
We all understand the role of the stretch reflex and that a more rapid eccentric will allow for a stronger concentric contraction. As I pulled the Power Pin down and into the hinge, the increased force on the eccentric was creating a much stronger stretch reflex. This is good!
Realizing the pulling down was creating a stronger contraction, the next step was to create an even stronger stretch reflex. That’s why you see a band attached to the Power Pin on most of my swings. I prefer to use a 12” band attached to the front band peg on our PR Platform.
Step 2 – Pull the ground!
On the day everything clicked, I was pulling the ground toward me with my feet as I extended my hips.
This pulling action into the floor caused a noticeable increase in the amount of stress placed on my glutes and especially my hamstrings. Even if you are standing still, this grabbing and pulling with the feet will cause a strong contraction in the hamstrings.
Now when I swing, I start by taking my shoes off. With bare feet, I focus on keeping weight equally distributed on my foot, pushing the big toe down “grabbing” the rubber floor or PR Platform surface, and pulling it towards my body as I extend my hips.
If you already understand the basics of the swing, I think these steps can keep your swings moving forward no matter which protocol you choose to implement.
Let’s Train!
I have outlined several ways I have implemented our MBPC Standard Power Pin into my own training to help achieve training goals in the last 28 months. If you stay committed, consistent, and deliberate with each rep, these routines can help you charge towards your training goals as well.
Routine # 1 – Swing & Stroll
Using your Power Pin, try this routine at the end of lower body training sessions 2X per week.
Week 1
- Session 1
10×10 swings walking 200’ between sets. - Session 2
10×10 swings walking 200’ between sets (5-10% heavier than session 1)
Week 2
- Session 1
10×10 swings walking 150’ between sets. (Same weight as session 2 of week 1) - Session 2
10×10 swings walking 150’ between sets (5-10% heavier than session 1)
Week 3
- Session 1
10×10 swings walking 100’ between sets. (Same weight as session 2 of week 2) - Session 2
10×10 swings walking 100’ between sets (5-10% heavier than session 1.
Week 4
- Session 1
10×10 swings walking 50’ between sets. (Same weight as session 2 of week 3) - Session 2
10×10 swings walking 50’ between sets (5-10% heavier than session 1.)
While walking, focus on controlling your breathing in between each set. Push hard for a month and enjoy the benefits of increased strength and work capacity.
Routine #2 – Drag and Swing
These days are fast-paced and fun. While these days are great to improve body composition and work capacity, they have some other benefits.
The banded Power Pin swings are great for power development and the backward DeadSled drags have packed a lot of muscle on my quads with minimal soreness or fatigue due to the lack of eccentric loading.
This workout can be done after a squat or deadlift session and if you push hard enough, it can even stand alone as an entire workout on its own.
You will start off by completing the entire DeadSled drag workout and then after a sixty-second rest, move immediately into your Power Pin swings, performing them on-the-minute style.
A. Backwards DeadSled Drags
- Week 1 – 5×100’ Heavy (120s rest)/5×100’ at 70% of heavy sets (60s rest)
- Week 2 – 5×100’ Heavy (120s rest)/5×100’ at 70% of heavy sets (60s rest)
- Week 3 – 5×100’ Heavy (120s rest)/ No down sets.
B. Banded Power Pin Swings
- Week 1 – 10×10 OTM
- Week 2 – 8×10 OTM (add 5-20%)
- Week 3 – 6×10 OTM (add 5-20%)
Routine #3 – Swing and Puke?
This routine is a fifteen-minute gut check! Getting to see your latest meal twice is never the objective of training, but the first time I did this session, I spent ten minutes on my knees dropping calories in the parking lot.
The fun part is that you control the pace! If you are a person that enjoys pushing hard, this will be fun. This routine can be done at the end of an upper-body or lower-body session. It also works great as a stand-alone session.
If you want an abrupt increase in a work capacity or are looking to lean out, this is a great routine to implement 1-2x per week for four weeks.
Weeks 1-4
- A. Ascending Power Pin Swing Ladder x 15 minutes
Perform your swings in an ascending 2,4,6,8,10, etc fashion while walking quickly for 10-30 yards in between sets. Record your highest swing number and attempt to beat it weekly. Stay close to the Power Pin and as soon as you’re ready for the next set, begin!
If your recovery allows for this session to be performed twice weekly, aim for 8 sessions in four weeks. If your recovery does not allow for two weekly sessions, one will still bring great results.
Routine #4 – POWER!
This session is all about power! As I mentioned earlier, the more powerful the eccentric, the greater the concentric due to a stronger stretch reflex. With this in mind, you will want to attach a band to your Power Pin to speed the eccentric.
The band should encourage a stronger eccentric, but it should not be controlling you or the movement. Too much band tension is not beneficial if the movement is distorted.
You should not feel exhausted during this session, especially if you have already implemented one of these routines that are higher volume and more conditioning-based.
Think of these sets as a short sprint as if you were an athlete training for speed. A 50m sprint with full recovery before the next training rep will have a much greater transfer to acceleration and speed than running repeated 400m sprints with very short breaks. The former will allow for the highest force production possible and the latter may have its time and place, but it will leave you too fatigued to produce high levels of relative force on each stride.
This routine can be done after your barbell lifts on lower body days or it can even replace the barbell if you are feeling a little beat up, are coming immediately off of a very stressful session, or just need a change.
Each week, the total range for sets x reps remains the same. If you are able to complete all ten sets with no deceleration, keeping all reps as explosive and crisp as the first, add 5-10lbs the following week. If you are not able to perform all ten sets perfectly due to fatigue, keep the weight the same the following week and attempt to complete all ten sets before increasing the load the following week.
Week 1
- Banded Swings – 6-10×10 seconds (75 seconds rest.
Week 2
- Banded Swings – 6-10×10 seconds (75 seconds rest)
Week 3
- Banded Swings – 6-10×10 seconds (75 seconds rest)
Week 4
- Banded Swings – 6-10×10 seconds (75 seconds rest)
Routine #5 – Wake up your glutes.
It took me a long time to actually feel my glutes working while squatting and deadlifting. I also had regular hip flexor, hamstring, knee, and low back pain as a result. Once I learned how to use my body more efficiently, I instantly felt an increase in strength and power while also experiencing less pain.
I am not an advocate of performing fifteen silly activation drills before training, but learning to make a mental connection with muscles during training is important for health and performance.
This routine will require a band to be anchored to an immovable object behind you and at waist height. Place the band around your hips while facing away from the anchor point and walk forward so there is no slack. At this point, have your Power Pin loaded and ready to perform swings.
Swing your Power Pin as you normally would, using the cue, “pull-down and then pull the ground.” The band around the waist will be pulling your hips backward into flexion and you’ll be forced to extend your hips with greater force than normal. If you are doing this correctly, your glutes will let you know after one or two sets.
This routine can be done as a final exercise on lower body sessions once or twice a week. Swings are not as hard to recover from as other hinging patterns like Good Mornings or Romanian Deadlifts, so most lifters with average work capacity or better can perform two sessions per week.
If you can only recover from one session, only perform the first session of each week and increase the time per set the following week while keeping the weight constant.
Rear-Banded Power Pin Swings
Week 1
- Session 1 – 3×30 seconds (60-90 second breaks)
- Session 2 – 3×30 seconds – increase load 2-5% from session one – (60-90 second breaks)
Week 2
- Session 1 – 3×40 seconds – use the same load as Week 1/Session 2 – (60-90 second breaks)
- Session 2 – 3×40 seconds – increase load 2-5% from session one – (60-90 second breaks)
Week 3
- Session 1 – 3×50 seconds – use the same load as Week 2/Session 2 – (60-90 second breaks)
- Session 2 – 3×50 seconds – increase load 2-5% from session one – (60-90 second breaks)
Week 4
- Session 1 – 3×30 seconds – increase load 5-15% from Week 3/Session 2 – (60-90 second breaks)
- Session 2 – 3×30 seconds – increase load 2-5% from session one – (60-90 second breaks)
This routine gradually increases load and time before reducing time and making a significant load increase in the final week. If you’re lacking in the glutes and in search of some hip extension power and hypertrophy, put one hard month in with this routine and you’ll definitely be moving in the right direction.
There is no tool that can fix all problems, but some are certainly more useful than others. Strength tools are no different!
The Power Pin is not the answer to every problem, but it can certainly find a very high ranking of priority in the toolbox of nearly all coaches, athletes, and lifters that are seeking speed, power, strength, hypertrophy, conditioning, or improved body composition.
With this in mind, we must also address that even useful tools become useless if they are not used appropriately. I hope one or more of these routines can help you achieve your goals. If you are in need of something different, please experiment and email me with the results. I would love Part 2 to include other creative ways our customers have incorporated the Power Pin into their own training.