Is Kettlebell Training ENOUGH for EFFECTIVELY working your CORE?
- Geoff Neupert
- 18 minutes ago
- 3 min read
👉 Systematic Core Training For Kettlebells
I hurt my back severely while deadlifting 405 lbs for 10 after heavy Olympic lifting. On rep 8, something went “POP.” Like a typical meathead, I wiggled to check, then finished the set. The next morning, I could barely move, and when I tried to get out of bed, I couldn’t. My body locked up for two weeks. I couldn’t bend or take a deep breath.
That was January 2002.
Fast-forward 3 years to January 2005, and I tore my labrum after one of my best Power Clean workouts ever - 140kg - for 16 sets of 1 - OTM - warming up on a Squat Clean.
All told, it took me until April 2012 to demonstrate to myself that I was fully healed.
And yes, you’re right, that’s a LONG time.
See, I barely did any true “core” work until 1995, when Mark Cohen, my first weightlifting coach, made me do focused work.
I did that for about a year.
My second coach, Alfonso Duran, didn’t really think direct core work was necessary.
In fact, many strength coaches “back in the day” didn’t think it was necessary.
The “big lifts” will automatically work your abs.
Taken a step further, others advocate(d) actively contracting your abs during your big lifts.
This is the “general” stance in the kettlebell community at large.
Contracting your abs (bracing) while you Swing, Clean, Press, Snatch, and Squat with your kettlebell(s) is enough “core work”.
[NOTE: Interestingly enough, I braced the bejeezus out of my abs from 2002 to 2006 and still had lower back issues doing 2-Hand Swings.
Even though I had either used or was using all the popular core stability / strength training methodologies of the day.]
The Truth?
It CAN be.
For the right individual.
Who’s that?
Primarily the guy who’s -
1- Never slowed down and been active his entire life and
2- Never had a lower back or lower extremity injury or surgery, or
3- Never had an abdominal injury or surgery.
For the rest of us?
Including those of us who sit all day and have chronically tight hip flexors?
More likely than not, we need to do some focused core work to augment our KB training.
Why?
Here’s what the research says happens once you rack up a back tweak, a surgery scar, or years of desk-chair hip flexor abuse:
Your nervous system “slaps the snooze button” on the deep core stabilizers - particularly the Transverse Abdominis and Multifidus. Their firing becomes weak and - worse - late. [1]
Late firing means your spine’s “natural weight belt” isn’t cinched when the load hits. Shear forces spike - increasing your injury chances.
Bracing harder shifts even more force into the front of your hips and your lumbar spine’s facet joints - exactly how I hammered my labrums over thousands of well-intentioned Pulls and Swings. [2]
So the issue isn’t that kettlebell work lacks core stimulus…
It’s that the right muscles may be offline when you do the work.
So, how do you fix it?
Systematically.
First, you address your core stability - specifically reflexive stability. (Also called “reflex stabilization”.)
Using a specific series of drills - starting with diaphragmatic breathing.
Work up to 30 breaths in a row lying on your back in a comfortable position.
Diaphragmatic breathing and stability exercises “turn up” the signal - the neural drive - between your CNS and your deep abdominal musculature so your Transverse Abdominis and Multifidus are recruited on time - instead of late, like the research shows.
You also re-strengthen those muscles, along with the pelvic floor and your diaphragm.
As a result, you now have the ability to create the IAP - Intra-Abdominal Pressure - necessary to protect your spine on Swings, Cleans, Squats, Snatches, etc.
Next, you strengthen your “Outer Unit” - the muscles that actually transmit force from your center to your arms and legs.
And finally, you add Power - more complex and/or faster movement.
This is called “The SSP Model” - Stability - Strength - Power.
That’s the basics to get you started.
RESEARCH:
1- Hodges PW, Richardson CA. Inefficient muscular stabilization of the lumbar spine associated with low back pain. Spine 1996;21(22):2640-50.
2- Hodges PW, Richardson CA. Delayed postural contraction of transversus abdominis in low back pain associated with movement of the lower limb. J Spinal Disord 1998;11(1):46-56. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9493770/ (PubMed)
3- Hides JA et al. Evidence of lumbar multifidus muscle wasting ipsilateral to symptoms in patients with acute/sub-acute LBP. Spine1994;19(2):165-172.
4- Shah et al. 2021 Ann Med Surg 61:198-204
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