Desk jobs — or any extended sitting — are a common challenge of modern life.
Upside: we can focus for long periods and work in comfort.
Downside: sitting wrecks posture.
We end up with:
Forward head → reduced breathing & core stability (diaphragm inhibition).
Slumped shoulders → limited overhead mobility , higher shoulder injury risk .
Tight hips → weakened butt muscles, shear forces on lumbar spine, back pain.
So on Swings, instead of hips initiating the movement, the lower back strains. 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 temporarily enhances deep abdominal activity, but it fades when training ends. Sitting then reinforces tightness, creating a loop. At the same time, I used abdominal bracing for core stability. Which worked —until it didn’t. A hard brace raises hip joint forces. Research shows strong bracing lowers 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 activates milliseconds before moving an arm, leg, or kettlebell. This feed-forward activation , or anticipatory postural adjustment , 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 get more info 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 the Dead Bug, shown to restore proactive balance. We use this and supplementary moves in the Stability phase of the SSP Model (Stability–Strength–Power) from Systematic Core Training for Kettlebells.
The prescription:
A short 5-minute session of stability training before KB sessions.
Ten minutes after.
Then move on to Strength and Power.
This resets the deep abdominals, rebuilds them with the pelvic floor and diaphragm, and restores the ability to create intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) to protect the spine in Swings, Cleans, Squats, and Snatches.
Should You Ever Brace?
Yes—on heavy , slow lifts like Deadlifts, Squats, and Presses. But bracing should complement reflexive stability, not take the place of it.
Stay Strong,
Geoff Neupert.