First, a training tip to make you stronger and to protect your spine better.
StrongFirst views an athlete’s torso as a cylinder: muscles all around the spine are equally braced to anchor powerful efforts of the limbs.
If any one of the sides of the cylinder is not on, weakness and injuries are around the corner. Here is one way to activate the right muscles and get your cylinder working.
Take a light
kettlebell and go somewhere where dropping it is not a problem, e.g., in the snow or in the sand.
Start passing the kettlebell around your body from hand to hand. Faster and faster. Watch your fingers.
When you drop the bell, pick it up and keep going.
Switch the direction from time to time.
If you go fast enough, the muscles all round your waist will wake up while your spine will remain neutral.
Rest for a minute and do a set of a strength, power, or “conditioning” exercise of your choice: the kettlebell swing, the barbell deadlift, a bodyweight pistol, you name it.
Enjoy greater strength and spinal stability.
Neuroscientists have an expression: “What fires together, wires together.” For best results, alternate sets of the kettlebell “slingshot” and your chosen lift.
Speaking of which, almost two decades ago Rob Lawrence, who had attended one of the first kettlebell instructor certifications at our old school and who would become one of the first Senior Instructors, wrote:
