Why these four lifts are important to each customer
In Kettlebell training, there are dozens of moves, but only a handful of the real foundation. Clean, push, squat and snatch are the basics. When customers dominate these four lifts, they gain access to safer, stronger and more effective training. These lifts not only build strength and preparation, they also enhance universal skills such as support, breathing and stabilization under the load.
For personal trainers, teaching these exercises correctly ensures that customers learn how to depend, support, breathe and stabilize under the load. These skills are transferred to everything, from athletic performance to daily force.
AFPA’s Kettlebell Essentials: The Iron Cardio approach lesson is taught by Brett Jones, one of Kettlebell’s most respected principles in the world. As director of Strongfirst Education, Brett has spent more than two decades teaching coaches and clinical doctors around the world. His work has shaped the modern approach to Kettlebell education. With Brett, every representative is not only exercise-it is the practice of skill, improvement and durability.
The kettlebell clean
Kettlebell Clean is the point of entry into almost any other Kettlebell move. It teaches customers how to safely carry the bell from the floor to the shelf where it can press, destroy or become advanced lifts such as stinging or kidnapping. Without a reliable clean, the rest of the Kettlebell training of a client will be built on unstable ground because the shelf position determines both security and power. Brett often reminds his students that “your guy will be as good as your clean”, and this principle extends to almost everything in Kettlebell training.
Cuesing Cues:
- Rock lock and stop: Let the hips determine the natural position of the foot to dedicate the back.
- First, not the trunk first: start the clean by pushing the hips back and driving the legs into the floor.
- Earth down, not pickups: Instead of lifting the bell, push your energy to the ground so that the bell floats in place.
- Rack it right: elbow enters, straight line, bell that gently rests on the forearm.
Variations:
- Clean a arm
- Double Kettlebell Clean
- Kettlebell squat clean
- Kettlebell Power Clean
Kettlebell Press
Kettlebell Press creates strength, stability and alignment, making it one of the most satisfying skills a customer can learn. Moving a challenge belfry, breathing and balance in ways that can fit a few other lifts. It develops not only shoulders and hands, but also torso and legs, because the whole body must remain enhanced and stable. Brett is known by saying that “the secret to happiness puts a heavy weight over the head” because Pressing creates this victorious sense of sovereignty and confidence.
Cuesing Cues:
- Stack the joints: bicep from the ear, bell over the shoulder and hip.
- Press through the ground: Think about driving yourself on the floor instead of moving the bell up.
- Avoid push: Focus on the upward rotation, not on lifting.
- Breathe on purpose: Use a diaphragmatic smell before each pressure for optimal stability.
Variations:
- Kettlebell Shoulder Type
- Double Kettlebell Press
- Threshold
- Kettlebell Floor Type
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Learn directly from Brett Jones, a leading power coach, and walk ready to integrate with any exercise routine.
The Kettlebell Squat
Squat is one of the most important human movements and Kettlebells offer a practical, scaled way to teach it. For beginners, holding Kettlebell in a cup position allows them to sit deeper while remaining balanced, often unlocking the mobility they did not know they had. For more advanced customers, in front of dual kettlebells challenge and cargo stability, while variations such as separated occupations construct one foot resistance. Regardless of the version, Kettlebell Squat teaches control, stability and trust with a load, making the cornerstone of customer programming.
Cuesing Cues:
- Ankle Mobility: allows the knee and hip to fall under the position of the body forward.
- Stay tall: Avoid lumbar rounding by respecting the unique anatomy of each client’s hip.
- Brace with breath: sniff on top, bracket, exhale while standing up.
Variations:
- Cup
- Kettlebell front squats
- Kettlebell Sumo Squat
- Bulgarian separated occupations
- Kettlebell walnut type
The Kettlebell Snatch
Kettlebell Snatch is often described as the most advanced of the four lifts and for good reason. It requires strength, timetable, coordination and resistance to a single movement, taking the bell from the ground to over the head on a fluid path. When done well, the snatch creates explosive hip movement, stability and preparation, while at the same time requires skills and accuracy. Brett emphasizes that the snatch is not just a swing that has gone taller, but “a clean that ends over the head”, and that the distinction makes all the difference for safety and performance.
Cuesing Cues:
- Keep the path tight: Prevent the bell from swing far away.
- Protect hands: Catch deep into the palm to protect calluses.
- Absorb the fall: Drive the bell down with the hips, almost as if giving a low five.
- Breathe with the hips: fits the exhalation with hip extension.
Variations:
- A Kettlebell Snatch
- Double kettlebell snatch
- Alada
- Removal test preparation
Planning Big Four together
What puts Brett’s approach is not only how it teaches the lifts, but how it planned them. In the Cardio Iron Cardio method, the clean, press, you end up and sometimes the snatch is practiced in short, sustainable sequences. A typical session may look like this: Clean, press, Squat, adjust the bell down, shake it, then repeat. Each representative is treated as skill practice, not as a fatigue race. Over time, this practice builds strength, preparation and durability without burning customers.
Planning Methods:
- Rep Ladders (1-2-3 and back down)
- Traveling two
- Sliding singles
- Classic plus grain for additional intensity
This is the dominance of the programming that has made Brett’s Iron Cardio’s iron protocols a reference point in the Kettlebell world.
Learn from the best to teach like the best
Kettlebell clean, pressing, Squat and Snatch are more than four exercises. They are the structural elements of safe and effective Kettlebell training. Trainers who dominate these lifts and teach them using the right signs put their clients for success not only in training but in life.
Learning these moves directly by Brett Jones, director of Strongfirst training and one of Kettlebell’s first teachers in the world, is an opportunity to study with someone who has influenced the teaching of Kettlebell’s training worldwide. His ability to combine clinical knowledge with practical training makes his teaching invaluable.
AFPA’s Kettlebell Essentials: Iron Cardio’s approach provides trainers with Brett’s proven data, progress and programming tools. For fitness professionals who want to raise their training, this lesson is an opportunity to learn directly from one of the most important voices in modern power training.
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Review by
Diane Vives, ms
Senior Director, Professional Health & Wellness Education
