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I'm James Woodall Co-Owner of Woodall's Fitness and Performance. This year we are celebrating 20 years in business in Johnston County! Before I moved to NC I was a trainer, massage therapist and rehab specialist in Las Vegas!
(I'll tell you more in a separate newsletter.)
I think that’s a really smart and fair question.
Especially since most people think kettlebells “work the core.”
The Truth “It depends on the individual”....
I’ve seen many people “fix their issues” from kettlebell training.
Here are some reasons you should do direct and systematic core work even if you’re using kettlebells:
1- Your lower back hurts, gets sore, or gets tight after using KBs.
This could be an indication that your deep core musculature is not working properly to stabilize your spine and pelvis and your lower back is overworking.
As a result, your hips and hamstrings are doing their jobs - moving your kettlebell!
Either that or your technique is just bad.
Or the first is causing the second.
2- Your knees hurt during or after using your KBs. Or both.
Same thing here.
Unless of course you’ve gone to your doc and he’s said you have osteoarthritis, are bone-on-bone, and you’re staring down the barrel of a total knee replacement.
Many times, your body’s innate stabilization mechanism is “offline.”
So the hip doesn’t work properly. It can’t fully internally and externally rotate or move into extension.
As a result, your body rotates or “ducks” your foot / feet, your arch or arches start(s) to collapse, and your knee or knees take the brunt.
This is only exacerbated by loading like Swings and Squats.
3- You had some kind of abdominal, lower back, hip, or knee surgery…
… And no follow up rehab.
And if you’re a woman reading this, yes, a C-Section counts.
And that’s because for whatever reason, when you have surgery on your abdominals, the lower back, hip, or knees, your body “shuts down” or “unplugs” its internal stabilization system.
So you need to “reboot” your body’s stabilization mechanism.
Failing to address this, and then loading the lower back, hips, knees, or even shoulders with KB training can lead to injury.
4- You’re trying to lose fat by using kettlebells, but you're not losing fat…
Ok, this is a weird one, so hear me out.
Working out is a stressor on your body.
You have 2 types of stress - DIS-stress and EU-stress.
Fighting off an infection is a distress.
Laughing at a movie is an eustress.
Working out is a distress that becomes an eustress, when the right conditions exist.
If you’ve met any or all of conditions 1 thru 3 above, using kettlebells increases stress - distress - on your spine. Your spine houses your spinal cord, which is part of your CNS - your Central Nervous System.
Your CNS controls your entire body - both consciously and subconsciously.
If you’re unduly stressing the spinal column, this increases what’s known as a “threat response,” which amps up your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) -
And keeps it amped up.
Your SNS is responsible for the “fight or flight” response - the adrenaline dump you get when you almost rear end the car in front of you - but don’t. Or you’re being chased by a bear…
Your body also mobilizes cortisol for quick energy.
Many people are in a chronic “fight or flight” state, so their cortisol levels are always elevated above normal.
Chronically elevated cortisol levels signal fat storage in your midsection - the heart attack inducing stomach / visceral fat.
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