Lower back strength can be an excellent preventative measure when it comes to lower back pain. Stretches and flexibility can be effective at easing back pain when it flairs up, but strengthening the muscles with kettlebell back workouts can be even more beneficial to your health.
Lower back pain is a very complex issue, it can be caused by a wide variety issues. These include physical injuries and psychological factors like stress. Before undertaking any interventions to help your back pain be sure to consult your doctor.
Movement can be on the best ways to prevent lower back pain in the first place. Having a high level of physical activity is a great way to ensure you don’t suffer from chronic lower back pain. Kettlebell training can be part of this movement routine and there are very effective movements that can be done with kettlebells to help strengthen the spine stabilising muscles.
Never train through pain. Pain is a signal telling you to stop, and it should be take very seriously. The key thing to do is to find exercises that don’t create lower back pain or inflame your lower back injury. This can be done through trial and error and looking for exercises which can build strength in the lower back without causing pain. You can try these exercises, find which ones you can do that don’t cause any pain and build them progressively, ensuring they can be done pain free at all times.
Your kettlebell back workout or workout in general should be done with very light weights if you’re just coming back from injury. The phase of training while coming back from injury is really important and needs to be performed with both caution, if you rush to where you were or where you want to be you will be stuck in the post injury phase for a long period of time. Take your time, find exercises that can work around your injury and progress slowly over time.
The kettlebell swing is an amazing exercise, but it can create a very sore back for people who are struggling with lower back pain. It lowers the weight onto the lower back in a very fast dynamic fashion, which can aggressively aggravate the lower back, so consider avoiding the kettlebell swing when designing your kettlebell back workout.
When dealing with lower back pain, you should be looking for a wide variety of exercises you can add to your workouts and not only limiting yourself to kettlebell back exercises. Have a look through our extensive exercise library, especially the movements which can be very useful for those who are dealing with injuries and chronic pain.
Complete 3 rounds
Yes. This depends on where your back pain is currently. If you’re in a lot of pain starting with kettlebell training may not be a good idea, you want to start with lighter movements and once you've recovered use kettlebell exercise to help prevent another flair up in the future.
Yes. Some of the exercises in this list are the most effective kettlebell exercises at strengthening the lower back. Strengthening the lower back is one of the best ways to prevent lower back pain.
Yes, but I would start with less dynamic deadlift variations like straight leg deadlifts, suitcase deadlift etc rather than jumping into the swing as the first movement.
None. Every case of lower back pain is different and there is no magic exercise that can fix this complex issue that may be caused by something like stress or diet.
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This resource was written by Sean Klein. Sean Richard Klein has thousands of hours of coaching experience and a BSc in Sports Science with Management from Loughborough University. He owns a gym in Bayonne France, CrossFit Essor, which runs group classes and a Personal training studio.