The Kettlebell Swing is the Solution to Lower Back Problems

I’ve spent the last two decades involved in assessing and treating lower-back problems. As a physio, I was in a unique position of having been an international sporting representative who turned to weight training. I had an old-school, solid grounding in deadlifting, squatting and all forms of pressing before I even went to university. At university, both as an undergraduate and postgraduate, I was well aware that no lecturer or faculty staff in the Medical and Allied Health Departments had a clue about applied resistance training. Now, do you think it is a coincidence that these unenlightened authorities graduated a bunch of professionals who consider pilates to be a form of exercise? They could not teach what they did not know, so they taught the research of some old ladies who wear elastic-waisted track pants and who considered pulling your belly button in to be some sort of achievement.

It is unfortunate that I had to retire from physiotherapy at a young age, but my thumbs needed the rest. So here it is: an insight into some of the knowledge that made me the go-to-guy for athletes and celebrities the world over. You will now be able to back up, with science, why the kettlebell is the best tool for low back rehabilitation.

Now to the kettlebell swing itself
Firstly, you need to know how to swing – perfectly. If you do not, then either buy a book, instructional DVD or engage a kettlebell instructor for tuition. This is not negotiable; do not source your information from YouTube. There is one major rule in the swing; you must know how to maintain a neutral spinal posture throughout the entire movement. “Neutral spine” refers to the natural lordosis that the spine assumes when an individual is standing. It is the ability of your paravertebral musculature to hold this posture while controlling and changing the momentum of the “cannonball with a handle” that is imperative to multifidus growth. Research has demonstrated that people who have experienced low back pain also have atrophy of the multifidus muscle. Multifidus muscle must hypertrophy for rehabilitation to be successful. This is one of the reasons that pilates methods are inefficient for low back rehabilitation – There is not enough overload to stimulate 
lumbar hypertrophy.

Back to the kettlebell. Now for the big news: Researchers have found that the static holding component between concentric and eccentric phasing of a muscle is crucial to induce muscle hypertrophy. READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN!

So now consider the kettlebell swing; concentric phase lumbar contraction on the upswing component, then eccentric phase and massive static loading on the downswing-to-upswing changeover. There is NO better exercise for lumbar musculature hypertrophy! No other exercise produces as significant a static loading upon the lumbar spine musculature! What about bracing? Exactly! A kettlebell gives you no choice but to automatically brace the abdo-lumbar corset in a fashion unsurpassed. Notice I didn’t use the word “CORE”. That is because every stupid exercise you see performed in the gym, usually involving balls, cables and dramatic poses struck with serious faces by unsuspecting clients of moronically grinning, yet undereducated, “Personal Trainers” is supposedly for their “core”. I don’t want to ever be considered in the same breath as these idiots. I train the abdo-lumbar corset, they train “the core”.

Returning now to science
Lower-back injury is proven to be correlated to poor lumbo-pelvic-hip movement patterns. The kettlebell teaches the neuromuscular pattern for the “hip hinge” better than anything else. An excellent personal trainer recently asked me whether “the squat” taught this movement correctly. I love squatting, but the answer is: it does not. Undrestandably, putting a weight on someone’s shoulders and instructing them to squat is a daunting task. Most neophytes will automatically break at the knees, weight-bear onto the balls of their feet, pronate their feet, collapse inwards with the knees and round out their lumbar spines. Everything goes wrong. Sure, a perfect powerlifting squat teaches excellent hip-first movement and lumbar spine control, but it takes much longer to learn. At least a month of daily practice, and much more work for a professional trainer to teach. You can teach a good swing in two sessions.
So, a quick summary: you need to increase your lumbar musculature, improve your abdo-lumbar corset strength and the posterior chain hip mobility neuro-musculature patterning, and there is no tool on earth, or beyond, that does the job as well as a kettlebell! That’s it, a short introduction to the best lower-back rehabilitation tool that exists; but like any tool, it requires practice and expert guidance. A top-notch kettlebell instructor is worth paying for; to polish your technique, and maybe you will even decide to join the elite yourself and sign up for a kettlebell instructor course.

Finally, I was known for the fact that the first thing you saw when you entered my office was the 64kg kettlebell. Over the years I’ve actually had 2 patients who could swing it! So what do you consider a “heavy swing”? Well, adjust your sights, my dears, because the record set for a two-handed swing is 115.5kg set by Herman Gorner in 1931. He also held the world record for a one-arm swing with 96kg holding two kettlebells in one hand! The one-arm record was broken by Charles Rigoulot in 1932 with 99.5kg. What do you swing? So, when I say swing – I mean heavy. Like anything you start light, improve your skill, then up the weight. Now, consider, do you have an excuse for not having an 80kg kettlebell in your gym today? It wasn’t too heavy nearly 100 years ago and it still isn’t now!

Mr. Andrew D. Lock was a Specialist Physiotherapist who holds a Masters Degree from The University of Melbourne, was licensed and worked in both the USA and Australia, and studied and wrote extensively upon low back pain. He still despises pilates, usually weighs 125kg, eats raw meat, and, until he retired recently, owned and operated private physiotherapy practices focused on athletes. He rarely answers his phone, does not text, and hates computers.