Sitting at a desk — or any extended sitting — are a unavoidable reality of modern life.
Upside: we can concentrate 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 targeting hip flexors. When I first learned about this in 2001/2, it worked well—until it didn’t. The looseness never held. Research shows hip flexor stretching briefly boosts deep abdominal activity, but it declines when training ends. Sitting then reinforces tightness, creating a loop. At the same time, I relied on abdominal bracing for core stability. Which worked —until it didn’t. A hard brace increases 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 elevates 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 tore 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 reflexive stabilization , is also called reflexive stabilization.
Studies show the Transverse Abdominis and read more Multifidus fire early in pain-free lifters but late 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 highly recommended is the Dead Bug, demonstrated to restore anticipatory control . We use this and others 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.
10 minutes after.
Then move on to Strength and Power.
This reboots the deep abdominals, re-strengthens them with the pelvic floor and diaphragm, and restores the ability to create intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) to shield the spine in Swings, Cleans, Squats, and Snatches.
Should You Ever Brace?
Yes—on maximal , deliberate lifts like Deadlifts, Squats, and Presses. But bracing should layer on top of reflexive stability, not replace it.
Stay Strong,
Geoff Neupert.