Sitting at a desk — or any prolonged sitting — are a unavoidable reality of modern life.
Upside: we can focus for long periods and work in comfort.
Downside: sitting damages posture.
We end up with:
Forward head → compromised respiration & core stability (diaphragm inhibition).
Slumped shoulders → limited overhead mobility , higher shoulder injury risk .
Tight hips → weakened butt muscles, excessive strain on lumbar spine, back pain.
So on Swings, instead of hips initiating the movement, the lower back overcompensates . A common “fix” for tight hips is stretching hip flexors . When I first learned about this in 2001/2, it worked well—until it didn’t. The looseness never lasted . Research shows hip flexor stretching briefly boosts deep abdominal activity, but it declines when training ends. Sitting then maintains tightness, creating a loop. At the same time, I relied on abdominal bracing for core stability. Which helped—until it didn’t. A hard brace raises hip joint forces. Research shows strong bracing reduces shear at the lumbar spine but increases hip compression by 8–12%. It also reduces hip-knee flexion and raises ground reaction forces, shifting stress to hips instead of glutes.
Combine tight hip flexors, weak glutes, and max bracing, and you get aching backs and damaged hips. That’s how I injured both labrums after years of stretching and bracing.
The Fix: Restore Anticipatory Control
In a balanced body, the deep core engages milliseconds before moving an arm, leg, or kettlebell. This feed-forward activation , or automatic stabilization, is also called reflexive stabilization.
Studies show the Transverse Abdominis and Multifidus fire early in pain-free lifters but delay activation in those with back pain. Conscious bracing can’t substitute—once the bell moves, you’ve only got milliseconds. If the reflex is off, shear forces hit when load peaks, often causing that “lightning shock” in the lower back. So, how do we restore it? With specialized stability drills that re-train feed-forward activation.
One of the top is check here the Dead Bug, proven to restore proactive balance. We use this and additional exercises in the Stability phase of the SSP Model (Stability–Strength–Power) from Systematic Core Training for Kettlebells.
The prescription:
5 minutes of stability training before KB sessions.
A brief 10-minute period after.
Then advance towards Strength and Power.
This reboots the deep abdominals, reinforces them with the pelvic floor and diaphragm, and renews the ability to create intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) to safeguard the spine in Swings, Cleans, Squats, and Snatches.
Should You Ever Brace?
Yes—on maximal , controlled lifts like Deadlifts, Squats, and Presses. But bracing should layer on top of reflexive stability, not substitute it.
Stay Strong,
Geoff Neupert.