Are you tired of kettlebell swings hurting your back? You’re not alone. The thing is, they should not hurt your back AT ALL. There are only three reasons why they would hurt your back:
- You have some sort of pre-existing condition, in which case you should not be doing kettlebell swings until your condition is resolved
- You are making technical mistakes on your swings; read on to learn about the three most common mistakes that cause back irritation
- You are exceeding a reasonable dosage (too much weight and/or too many reps). If you took 10x the recommended dosage of Advil and got bad side effects it would not make much sense to blame the Advil itself; it would be your fault for exceeding the recommended dosage. All exercises work the same way in the sense that even if your form is spot on, there is still an upper limit of how much you can do before bad things happen. If you were not accustomed to walking long distances and then walked 15 miles in a day and developed painful blisters all over your feet you would not say that walking is dangerous, would you? Instead, most reasonable people would come to the conclusion that they simply did too much without building up to it in a sensible fashion.
Let us dive into #2, technical errors, which is the most common reason for people to have back pain with swings. Similar to the above, there only a handful of common technique errors that result in people feeling discomfort in their backs with kettlebell swings.
- Too much spine flexion (like the “cat” of a cat/cow stretch). This is most commonly at the bottom position of the swing
- Too much spine extension (like the “cow” of a cat/cow stretch). This is typically on the upswing and/or at the top of the swing
- Poor timing as far as when you hinge from your hips. If your timing is correct then you end up with a strong mechanical advantage where that lion’s share of the load goes to your gluts and other hip muscles, and your low back gets to breathe easy. On the other hand, if your timing is poor then you end up with disadvantageous leverage and your lower back has to work overtime
- There are a handful more technical mistakes we sometimes see, such as not hinging deeply enough, poor neck position, and/or excessively bent elbows, all of which can overburden the lower back. However, none of these will not be covered in this article, but could serve as good topics for a future one
Read on to take a little closer look at #1-3 from above.
EXCESSIVE SPINE FLEXION
In my experience this is both the most common and the most dangerous. I will also state up front that this one is A) the most preventable, and B) is almost certainly your own fault if it happens to you.
Before your coach taught you how to swing a kettlebell they started by teaching you how to deadlift the kettlebell. When you learned to deadlift you learned how critical a neutral spine is, and in particular avoiding spine flexion when lifting heavy weights. If you were taught that and then let it go out the window then you need look no further than the mirror for the culprit.
If you need a refresher on basic hinge set up and what a neutral spine vs. a flexed spine looks like then please watch our all-time most popular YouTube video (over 37,000 views) of the Semi-Sumo Deadlift 101. The stance and execution of the semi-sumo deadlift is similar to that of a kettlebell swing, and the neutral spine component is identical.
One of the most common injuries that can happen when you perform swings or deadlifts with a flexed spine is a disc herniation. If you have had one of these injuries you know they are no fun, and you certainly never want to have it happen again. The best way to avoid one is to ensure you maintain a neutral spine when lifting heavy objects (specifically avoiding spine flexion), including during kettlebell swings.
Before moving on, I want to hammer home one more point on this. To maximize your safety and performance you must set your spine to neutral and brace it BEFORE THE KETTLEBELL LEAVES THE GROUND. It drives me crazy when I see people be complacent about their start position (meaning their back is in flexion when the set starts) only to attempt to find a neutral position after they have started swinging the kettlebell. It only takes one bad rep to hurt your back … please don’t let that rep be the very first one of your set.
EXCESSIVE SPINE EXTENSION
Too much extension of your spine is another common problem on the kettlebell swing. This usually comes in one of two scenarios:
- At the top of the swing (this is probably the most common)
- On the initial ascent coming out of the hinge
At the top of the swing the body should form a straight line: ears directly above shoulders, shoulders directly above hips, hips directly above knees, knees directly above ankles. If you do this correctly then your sternum should point at the wall straight across from you. In other words, if there was a laser beam shooting out of your sternum then at the top of each swing that laser beam should be exactly parallel to the floor.
However, it is a common problem to allow the head and shoulders to go backwards too far at the top of the kettlebell swing. When this happens, the laser beam from the example above would be then be pointed somewhat up towards the ceiling, rather than precisely parallel to the floor. This position, when under load, can be stressful to the lower back and quite uncomfortable for many people. To avoid this, keep your abs and core braced strongly throughout every rep, and develop the body awareness to know when to stop at the top of each rep (hint, it is the exact same spot that you should stop during a deadlift). One thing to note here is that your choice of footwear can exacerbate this problem. If you do your swings in shoes with more than a minor heel lift then it tends to make this problem worse; examples of such shoes include Nike MetCons, TYR trainers, and any type of squat or weightlifting shoe. I recommend doing your swings in bare feet or a zero drop shoe.
The other example of excessive spine extension is more nuanced and will require close attention.
In a perfect world, your spine, especially your lower back / lumbar spine, should not change alignment at all during kettlebell swings. All of the motion should come from the hips and knees, and your spine should stay braced, rigid, and not move. To be clear, the muscles surrounding your spine such as your abdominals, obliques, and erector spinae should be braced in such a way to restrict movement of your vertebrae, rather than contracting to generate movement.
However, a common problem is that when people are in the bottom position and are driving to stand up they do allow their spine position to change a bit; specifically, they start actively hyperextending their spine by contracting their lower back muscles. I have seen this happen and result in an immediate sharp pain that is severe enough to require several weeks off from training.
I suspect you are asking yourself what you can do to minimize the risk of that happening. There is a cue that I like which I think is helpful here. The undesirable scenario described above usually is associated with the lifter thinking of “standing up” out of the bottom of the hinge position. When you think about that, your body tends to recruit any and all muscle groups that result in “up” … including the muscles of your lower back that are the culprit here. So, instead of thinking of “standing up” out of the bottom, try thinking about “pushing the floor down” with your feet. When you switch your thought process to pushing the floor down it seems to help maximize the recruitment of your gluts and other hip/thigh area muscles, while at the same time leaving your core muscles well enough alone so that they can continue to do their primary job, which is to stabilize your spine.
POOR TIMING
I have heard from military friends of a drill they used to have to do during bootcamp called “the world’s heaviest pencil.” They would have someone place a pencil between their two index fingers and hold it at arm’s length for some period of time – let’s say 10-minutes or so. If the individual dropped the pencil before time was up then everyone had to go for a long run, do a ton of push ups, or something along those lines. The enemy of that exercise is leverage; a pencil is easy to hold for 10-minutes when you can keep it directly against your body, but when it is at arms’ length then even a pencil can become unbearably heavy.
Your body is, by far, the strongest when the thing you are lifting is right against your hips. The farther away the thing is from your hips, the heavier it effectively becomes. That thing could be a pencil, a bag of dog food, a kettlebell, or your BJJ opponent – it really doesn’t matter. If you want to be both as strong and as safe as possible then you want the weight close to your hips.
This is typically the most difficult part of learning how to do kettlebell swings well. In a theoretically perfect kettlebell swing you would finish the swing standing perfectly tall with your joints stacked as described in the previous section, and your arms would be straight and approximately parallel to the floor. As you let the kettlebell fall down to get ready for the next rep you would stay in that tall position until your arms are nearly vertical – imagine your elbows lightly touching your ribs and your hands just barely below your belt buckle. Only at that point should you start to bend your knees and hinge your hips to get ready for the next rep.
Why is that the perfect swing? Because you have allowed the kettlebell to come all the way to your hips before hinging back into the next rep. This is often called “playing chicken with the kettlebell” because it almost feels as if the kettlebell is going to hit you, and the closer you come to letting it hit you before you move your hips back into the hinge the better.
What happens if you hinge too soon? If your hips move backwards and/or you bend your knees too soon then you actually increase the distance between the kettlebell and your hips, which is the opposite of what your goal should be. If a pencil becomes impossible to hold when it is far away from your hips, just imagine how heavy a kettlebell becomes. Worse yet, when this happens the leverages change such that your gluts (which should be the primary muscle) can no longer adequately absorb the weight of the falling kettlebell, and it becomes your lower back’s job to do so. This creates a disastrous combination of terrible leverage and diminished function of your gluts, which is not a good recipe as far as your lower back is concerned.
Apologies for the blurriness in the photos below – without a high speed camera the best way to get these images is to record a video and then capture screen shots from it, which always end up a bit blurry.
I realize that I have outlined a lot of scary possibilities in this article. That said, I have to imagine that if you are reading an article that I wrote then you know that I LOVE kettlebell swings when they are performed correctly. I also love teaching people how to perform them correctly, and in doing so minimize the likelihood of the scenarios outlined above. If you want to dial in your kettlebell swing so that you can get all the incredible benefits of the exercise while minimizing risks here are three ways to work with me:
STRONGFIRST KETTLEBELL 101 WORKSHOP
On Saturday February 3rd, 2024 I am teaching a kettlebell workshop at Industrial Strength (Portland, Oregon) that will go over swings, Turkish get ups, and more. Use the link below to reserve your spot.
PERSONAL TRAINING
I offer personal training both in-person as well as online. Use the form below to let me know you’re interested – no commitment required.
ONLINE COURSE
We have created what I honestly believe is the most detailed and comprehensive online course available anywhere to learn how to lift kettlebells safely and effectively.
-Tony Gracia
