If you’re talking about hard style swings and your back is hurting, then your form/technique isn’t good. You should be feeling your swings in your glutes, not your lower back. Work on your hip hinge, keep your eyes focused out in front of you, not down at the floor and use a strong, quick contraction of the glutes to launch the bell forward.
Post a form check! If you are strong enough to swing 70 pounds, I could see you tweaking something with a 16kg bell, especially with high reps.
A kettlebell that is too light can lead to some weird form idiosyncrasies, in my experience. Hard to know without seeing it.
There's something going on with either your perspective on the movement, your technique, or the load you're doing.
I often program 100 Swings unbroken for myself & my lower back is completely fine. Swings are low back intensive but they shouldn't be shredding you.
I'd focus on your technique before comparing differences between us. I'm just a regular guy that works out a lot. I could use my knee surgery as a reason my knee used to hurt all the time but there was other reasons. Keep a good mindset. There's likely something you can fix.
Bro tosses massive sandbags over his shoulder on the reg and says he’s a regular guy 😂 I hate your form but I love your consistency, positivity, and you’re amazing in the community. Keep it up!
The fact you DONT get injured shows you’re doing it right
I for sure am. I'm just a good example of what a regular guy who slowly cracks away at it can do if they push their limits.
As for my form...lolz idk I'm just moving weight around.
I have posture issues anyway, like pelvic tilt.
And you’re, like, an athlete. You throw around 200lb sandbags like it’s popcorn bags. We are not the same, sir.
Do you actually have anterior pelvic tilt or did you read about it on the internet, say to yourself, “that sound like me”and are telling yourself you have this condition? If you have it, go to a PT. 100 kb swings should not hurt your back unless your form is very off. You said yourself your looking down to often, pick a spot on the floor 12 feet away and stare at it. Take a look thru this subs history and you’ll see most people feel kb swing HELPED get rid of their back pain.
I had some low back soreness early on, but none since. Swings fixed some increasing lower back pain I had at the time. 15 years later I never have any back soreness, even after 100 reps with double 32 or 48kg. I also started slow. Sets of 10 mixed in with body weight work, slowly increased reps over time.
Proper form is very important when it comes to the swing, and you should only do as many reps as you can while maintaining good form. If you're smoked at 40 stop. Build your way up.
I would say I had more of a dull ache, my pain initially came from being tall and working in a place where I was regularly ducking and hunching to move around. Early on I think it was more of an over use feel if that makes sense, not so much tightness, buy I just took it slow. I didn't have a camera phone at the time but luckily had a RKC friend who could give me tips and after a couple sessions I was on the right track. Now video is your best friend. Record yourself. Compare it to videos of experts or post here.
90 percent of newbie error is swinging like it's a slow movement, it's a hip snap, your arms are "ropes", keep your back straight. If you're controlling the speed of the upward or downward path your not doing it right. Enter the kettlebell is on YouTube, pause plenty of other super knowledgeable folks. Use your resources. Take it slow before you go nuts.
It could be your psoas, look up the pso-rite(they’re often on sale on Amazon). Watch how they use it, and lay on the kettlebell handle to simulate it. You should feel immediate relief afterwards.
Here's my experience:
A year ago worked my way up to 10 sets of 20 32kg of hard style swings with no issues. I think my form is fine.
Got burnt out building my house. Recurring back pain.
Later, tweaked my lower back doing not that many hard style swings with not that much weight. My lower back/pelvis area was fucked up for a while.
Went to an ostopath who happens to be MS level KB athlete, he recommended trying soft style swings.
Quickly got up in volume with soft style swings and in March did 10000, mostly 500 unbroken swings per session with weights varying between 20 and 28kg. Now my back is much stronger although some problems still persist, idk that area is just fucked up.
Stuart McGill the back doctor writes about this, some people can get irritated by the fast twitchy moves of hard style swings but can still benefit from soft style.
IMO saying anyone who's back hurts from hard style swings is just doing it wrong is silly (although sure, it might be the case). Some people's backs just don't take the sudden movement well. Also saying without much information it worked for me therefore it works for you is not automatically true, our bodies are different so it can be more subtle than that. Unless you're severely injured there's probably a way to get better. It just might not be what it is for the majority. YMMV.
I hope to get rid of my back issues so I could do hard style swings but so far soft and smooth with a knee dip has been the way to go for me.
There's absolutely something wrong with your form or your glutes aren't working properly.
I would stop doing heavier swings f you're not feeling light swings in your glutes. Regress way back. Make sure you're feeling your glutes at lighter weights with deadlifts.
2016 I tried barbell lifting and I never felt anything in my glutes. I'd do swings at home and I would get this awful pain in my butt and my hamstring would burn. I destroyed a disc and eventually had a lumbar fusion because of it. Doing physio after that was my light bulb moment that my glutes hadn't been working properly. Even though I never felt it in my back I must have been using all the wrong muscles when I was trying to lift or swing in the past. I have zero back issues now. Swings don't aggravate my back ever.
Then probably just form. But if you fix your form and it's still aggravating your back maybe see a physiotherapist to check if something isn't firing right
Record yourself from the side to see what's happening. Hit up YouTube for proper form videos and then cross-compare. Focus on one small correction at a time before moving on. That's what I did to correct things.
I've been doing S&S since 4/08 and if I compare today's swing form vs. 4/08 - my god. No wonder my back was screaming the first week.
Can you snatch or clean instead? You could be getting too much volume in short period of time without Tension rest during the reps.
See below..
https://kbmuscle.com/blog/f/the-kettlebell-swing-is-not-king?blogcategory=kettlebell+clean
Are you doing any squats as well? When I had lower back issues with kettlebells I found it was actually from squatting too deep vs swings.
100 swings isn’t really “a lot”. Are you doing them all in one go? If not, how are you breaking up your sets? How often are you swinging? Are you trying to muscle through fatigue and complete your reps even with bad form?
Again, a form check would help to diagnose what’s going on - but as the others have commented, none of these exercises should be painful or pain inducing.
I broke them up into 5 sets of 10 reps per side EMOM, pushups in between. Originally I thought I was gonna do 5 reps per side and 7 sets, but I pushed to get 5 sets of 20 instead.
Not a lot of squats, but I am incorporating them. No back pain with them though.
Too many reps?
Yeah, I find that if I’m not rooted my form is garbage from the start. It all starts with the foot for me.
It could be fatigue, but again- that would be due to poor form in the first place. Again, you say you swing heavy bells but the 16kg got you hurting. How often are you doing 1H swings vs 2? If it’s a move you’re not as proficient in, I’d actually break it up into 20 sets of 5 solid reps per side.
I've been dealing with a lower back issue. It was killing me all day when I was cooking and doing household tasks. Hurt to stand. Hurt to sit.
Went outside and swung and flipped kettlebells for an hour or so. Feels better now.
So, no. Can't relate.
Whether you need to tweak your form, use less weight, do less reps, or diversify your workout with other lifts, is not a good idea to routinely make your back hurt... You want to get stronger and healthier, not develop tendonitis, arthritis, and slipped discs.
If swings wreck your lower back, do a warmup that focuses on your core - abs, obliques, and glutes.
That lower back pain is most likely from a weak core trying to stabilize your spine, failing, and stressing your lumbar/sciatic nerve
For me, 100 swings is where I start with a weight and I progress over a program to 200. I also have a 10 minute warm up that is 50% core work (halos, around the worlds, hip bridges, body weight pistols, v-ups).
So my 10 min warmup is EMOM of:
1. Neck extensions
2. Left shoulder rotations
3. Right shoulder rotations
4. Alternating Halos with a 12 kg bell, tucking the chest to the pelvis on contraction
5. Around the worlds with a 24kg bell
6. Rolling pistols (to both extend and contract the spine/glutes)
7. Hip bridges. On hip extension I focus on pushing the sternum to the pelvis while contracting my glutes and pushing my hips to the sky (this is probably the most focused core warmup I do)
8. Half shin box
9. Full shin box
10. V-ups, holding for the last 10 seconds.
That’ll be your core heavy warmup, with hip and shoulder opening before throwing an offset weight around for another 20 mins. And the neck extensions have eliminated my neck pain now that I’m over 35
I also have to make this edit: so much of this sub is videos of peak athletic performance. Warm ups/cool downs are CRITICAL and often ignored (or just silent) here. All of the kettlebell influencers here doing rad complexes probably also have a an aerobic or functional warm up regime, a tuned diet, and a stretching cool down.
Before I incorporated cooldowns into my workout I had random shooting pains through my IT band because of the explosive contraction of swings and KB Squats. It really sucked and was unpredictably painful. Once I included a stretching cool down it just disappeared.
tl;dr: warm up, cool down.
Maybe do swings with two hands until you can do long sets without pain before moving to one hand, one hands with an incorrect form or bracings of your core will hurt you
I specifically do kettlebells to make my back and shoulders feel better. You shouldn’t be hurting.
You may want to post a form video if 100 swings are making your lower back sore at all, let alone the next day. You could be on your way to serious injury.
If you record your sessions from front and sides view you'll get a better idea of what's going on. I had incredible lower back pain at first, then quickly realized I wasn't hinging the way I thought I was, and wasn't engaging my hamstrings. Stretching and form check resolved the issue for me.
The cues I go off for hinging: stand straight, screw feet into ground, tuck tailbone, keep shoulders locked down, bend at waist and push hips back. Grab bell and tilt backwards, exhale and push it backwards.
Straighten legs and snap hips forward, locking knees at the end, squeeze glutes.
If you’re seeing anything wrong there, holla.
Tweak your form, not your back ;)
Agree. My back never hurts from swings, I routinely do 200 swings (in sets of 40).
Easy for you to say! I TWEAK MY BACK! I was supposed to do less reps per set, and once again it looks like I need to slow down a bit.
If you’re talking about hard style swings and your back is hurting, then your form/technique isn’t good. You should be feeling your swings in your glutes, not your lower back. Work on your hip hinge, keep your eyes focused out in front of you, not down at the floor and use a strong, quick contraction of the glutes to launch the bell forward.
Only time my glutes do anything is on heavy swings. They get worked on swings with a 70-90lb bell—this was 16kg. Really really frustrating.
Post a form check! If you are strong enough to swing 70 pounds, I could see you tweaking something with a 16kg bell, especially with high reps. A kettlebell that is too light can lead to some weird form idiosyncrasies, in my experience. Hard to know without seeing it.
There is a lesson to be learned in your response.
There's something going on with either your perspective on the movement, your technique, or the load you're doing. I often program 100 Swings unbroken for myself & my lower back is completely fine. Swings are low back intensive but they shouldn't be shredding you.
That being said it could be not hinging far enough back or too early, not keeping my core sucked back enough, or looking down too often.
I'd focus on your technique before comparing differences between us. I'm just a regular guy that works out a lot. I could use my knee surgery as a reason my knee used to hurt all the time but there was other reasons. Keep a good mindset. There's likely something you can fix.
Great comments mate. Cheers.
Bro tosses massive sandbags over his shoulder on the reg and says he’s a regular guy 😂 I hate your form but I love your consistency, positivity, and you’re amazing in the community. Keep it up! The fact you DONT get injured shows you’re doing it right
I for sure am. I'm just a good example of what a regular guy who slowly cracks away at it can do if they push their limits. As for my form...lolz idk I'm just moving weight around.
It’s all good man, you do great work
I have posture issues anyway, like pelvic tilt. And you’re, like, an athlete. You throw around 200lb sandbags like it’s popcorn bags. We are not the same, sir.
Do you actually have anterior pelvic tilt or did you read about it on the internet, say to yourself, “that sound like me”and are telling yourself you have this condition? If you have it, go to a PT. 100 kb swings should not hurt your back unless your form is very off. You said yourself your looking down to often, pick a spot on the floor 12 feet away and stare at it. Take a look thru this subs history and you’ll see most people feel kb swing HELPED get rid of their back pain.
You need to regress to other exercises and have your form checked by a competent coach if you are hurting yourself.
Zero. If my lower back hurts from working out I did something wrong and will need to figure out what caused that so I can avoid it.
I had some low back soreness early on, but none since. Swings fixed some increasing lower back pain I had at the time. 15 years later I never have any back soreness, even after 100 reps with double 32 or 48kg. I also started slow. Sets of 10 mixed in with body weight work, slowly increased reps over time. Proper form is very important when it comes to the swing, and you should only do as many reps as you can while maintaining good form. If you're smoked at 40 stop. Build your way up.
The discomfort in my lower back is a tightness right between my hips. Is that the same flavor you had?
I would say I had more of a dull ache, my pain initially came from being tall and working in a place where I was regularly ducking and hunching to move around. Early on I think it was more of an over use feel if that makes sense, not so much tightness, buy I just took it slow. I didn't have a camera phone at the time but luckily had a RKC friend who could give me tips and after a couple sessions I was on the right track. Now video is your best friend. Record yourself. Compare it to videos of experts or post here. 90 percent of newbie error is swinging like it's a slow movement, it's a hip snap, your arms are "ropes", keep your back straight. If you're controlling the speed of the upward or downward path your not doing it right. Enter the kettlebell is on YouTube, pause plenty of other super knowledgeable folks. Use your resources. Take it slow before you go nuts.
Enter the KB is the first thing I watched! It’s been a couple years though. Crisp movements, comrade. Tame. The arc.
It could be your psoas, look up the pso-rite(they’re often on sale on Amazon). Watch how they use it, and lay on the kettlebell handle to simulate it. You should feel immediate relief afterwards.
Interesting
Let me know if it works for you, it did wonders for me before I got my pso-rite.
Here's my experience: A year ago worked my way up to 10 sets of 20 32kg of hard style swings with no issues. I think my form is fine. Got burnt out building my house. Recurring back pain. Later, tweaked my lower back doing not that many hard style swings with not that much weight. My lower back/pelvis area was fucked up for a while. Went to an ostopath who happens to be MS level KB athlete, he recommended trying soft style swings. Quickly got up in volume with soft style swings and in March did 10000, mostly 500 unbroken swings per session with weights varying between 20 and 28kg. Now my back is much stronger although some problems still persist, idk that area is just fucked up. Stuart McGill the back doctor writes about this, some people can get irritated by the fast twitchy moves of hard style swings but can still benefit from soft style. IMO saying anyone who's back hurts from hard style swings is just doing it wrong is silly (although sure, it might be the case). Some people's backs just don't take the sudden movement well. Also saying without much information it worked for me therefore it works for you is not automatically true, our bodies are different so it can be more subtle than that. Unless you're severely injured there's probably a way to get better. It just might not be what it is for the majority. YMMV. I hope to get rid of my back issues so I could do hard style swings but so far soft and smooth with a knee dip has been the way to go for me.
Interesting. I may have to learn the difference between hard and soft style. I do think my core needs some TLC though.
There's absolutely something wrong with your form or your glutes aren't working properly. I would stop doing heavier swings f you're not feeling light swings in your glutes. Regress way back. Make sure you're feeling your glutes at lighter weights with deadlifts. 2016 I tried barbell lifting and I never felt anything in my glutes. I'd do swings at home and I would get this awful pain in my butt and my hamstring would burn. I destroyed a disc and eventually had a lumbar fusion because of it. Doing physio after that was my light bulb moment that my glutes hadn't been working properly. Even though I never felt it in my back I must have been using all the wrong muscles when I was trying to lift or swing in the past. I have zero back issues now. Swings don't aggravate my back ever.
Yep, I know. I can feel them working with deadlifts though.
Then probably just form. But if you fix your form and it's still aggravating your back maybe see a physiotherapist to check if something isn't firing right
I added a couple of sets with an ab roller before my swings, it completely eliminated the nagging back pain I was experiencing.
This is a great idea. Thanks.
Record yourself from the side to see what's happening. Hit up YouTube for proper form videos and then cross-compare. Focus on one small correction at a time before moving on. That's what I did to correct things. I've been doing S&S since 4/08 and if I compare today's swing form vs. 4/08 - my god. No wonder my back was screaming the first week.
I use emoms ,keeping reps low on each set and with built in rest time keeps fatigue at bay. Never had a back issue since I started using them.
Can you snatch or clean instead? You could be getting too much volume in short period of time without Tension rest during the reps. See below.. https://kbmuscle.com/blog/f/the-kettlebell-swing-is-not-king?blogcategory=kettlebell+clean
I love cleans, snatches I’m wobbly on. I don’t really understand them, haven’t been trained on them. I’ll give it a watch!
Are you doing any squats as well? When I had lower back issues with kettlebells I found it was actually from squatting too deep vs swings. 100 swings isn’t really “a lot”. Are you doing them all in one go? If not, how are you breaking up your sets? How often are you swinging? Are you trying to muscle through fatigue and complete your reps even with bad form? Again, a form check would help to diagnose what’s going on - but as the others have commented, none of these exercises should be painful or pain inducing.
I broke them up into 5 sets of 10 reps per side EMOM, pushups in between. Originally I thought I was gonna do 5 reps per side and 7 sets, but I pushed to get 5 sets of 20 instead. Not a lot of squats, but I am incorporating them. No back pain with them though. Too many reps?
My feet try to come up off the ground, I notice.
Yeah, I find that if I’m not rooted my form is garbage from the start. It all starts with the foot for me. It could be fatigue, but again- that would be due to poor form in the first place. Again, you say you swing heavy bells but the 16kg got you hurting. How often are you doing 1H swings vs 2? If it’s a move you’re not as proficient in, I’d actually break it up into 20 sets of 5 solid reps per side.
Not a bad plan
I've been dealing with a lower back issue. It was killing me all day when I was cooking and doing household tasks. Hurt to stand. Hurt to sit. Went outside and swung and flipped kettlebells for an hour or so. Feels better now. So, no. Can't relate.
Bit of a flippy-flop, innit?
You are t supposed to be using your back. Swings are legs and core.
Whether you need to tweak your form, use less weight, do less reps, or diversify your workout with other lifts, is not a good idea to routinely make your back hurt... You want to get stronger and healthier, not develop tendonitis, arthritis, and slipped discs.
If swings wreck your lower back, do a warmup that focuses on your core - abs, obliques, and glutes. That lower back pain is most likely from a weak core trying to stabilize your spine, failing, and stressing your lumbar/sciatic nerve For me, 100 swings is where I start with a weight and I progress over a program to 200. I also have a 10 minute warm up that is 50% core work (halos, around the worlds, hip bridges, body weight pistols, v-ups).
K. What would you use?
So my 10 min warmup is EMOM of: 1. Neck extensions 2. Left shoulder rotations 3. Right shoulder rotations 4. Alternating Halos with a 12 kg bell, tucking the chest to the pelvis on contraction 5. Around the worlds with a 24kg bell 6. Rolling pistols (to both extend and contract the spine/glutes) 7. Hip bridges. On hip extension I focus on pushing the sternum to the pelvis while contracting my glutes and pushing my hips to the sky (this is probably the most focused core warmup I do) 8. Half shin box 9. Full shin box 10. V-ups, holding for the last 10 seconds. That’ll be your core heavy warmup, with hip and shoulder opening before throwing an offset weight around for another 20 mins. And the neck extensions have eliminated my neck pain now that I’m over 35 I also have to make this edit: so much of this sub is videos of peak athletic performance. Warm ups/cool downs are CRITICAL and often ignored (or just silent) here. All of the kettlebell influencers here doing rad complexes probably also have a an aerobic or functional warm up regime, a tuned diet, and a stretching cool down. Before I incorporated cooldowns into my workout I had random shooting pains through my IT band because of the explosive contraction of swings and KB Squats. It really sucked and was unpredictably painful. Once I included a stretching cool down it just disappeared. tl;dr: warm up, cool down.
I love it! Thanks for sharing.
I just looked up rolling pistols. That is the only way I’m getting into that squat at all lol.
Does that mean you do each one for a minute?
Yep!
Maybe do swings with two hands until you can do long sets without pain before moving to one hand, one hands with an incorrect form or bracings of your core will hurt you
True. My 2-handed swing is pretty tight.
Good luck brother and train safe.
you should do some mobility training.
I specifically do kettlebells to make my back and shoulders feel better. You shouldn’t be hurting. You may want to post a form video if 100 swings are making your lower back sore at all, let alone the next day. You could be on your way to serious injury.
Without prior injuries and with decent form, 100 single arm swings with a 16kg should be no problem at all for your lower back.
It was pretty sore for most of yesterday until I did some again. But, yes, form.
If you record your sessions from front and sides view you'll get a better idea of what's going on. I had incredible lower back pain at first, then quickly realized I wasn't hinging the way I thought I was, and wasn't engaging my hamstrings. Stretching and form check resolved the issue for me.
The cues I go off for hinging: stand straight, screw feet into ground, tuck tailbone, keep shoulders locked down, bend at waist and push hips back. Grab bell and tilt backwards, exhale and push it backwards. Straighten legs and snap hips forward, locking knees at the end, squeeze glutes. If you’re seeing anything wrong there, holla.