- Morning Trainiacs, just go for a
60 minute interval run.
Now, before I get to the intervals,
I got to do some loosening up.
Now MTK and I just spent yesterday, the entire day,
driving back from Calgary and my lower back from sitting for
14 hours, a pinch tight.
Now most endurance athletes are white collar workers.
So a lot of endurance athletes have lower back problems
because the sitting is like
the worst thing for your lower back.
We're just primed to have back injuries and take us out of
the game completely,
which is obviously important to avoid because, well,
A, we want to stay in the game.
We want to be able to continue to train.
Downtime, complete downtime, complete rest,
which is often what back injuries require to help fix,
that is one of the worst things for your body.
So today, when I get home,
I'm gonna give you a kettlebell exercise routine
to help fix back issues.
Not just if you have been driving for the past 14 hours,
but also just if you are a desk worker.
(labored groan)
Okay.
So this is a workout that I do anytime I've flown
and then have access to kettlebells,
or let's say I am driving for a long period of time.
Anytime that I've spent a lot of time sitting and then I get
up and like, you know, that feeling when it's just like,
(groaning)
everything just feels kind of tight?
That tightness can be the start of lower back issues.
Now this workout that I do,
it tends to counteract that and right away,
everything just kind of falls back into place.
I'll also explain why this works so well
and then actually do the workout with you through one time,
so you know how to do it
and then you can repeat it for as many times as you want to
get the desired amount of workout that you want,
whether it's 15 or 20 or 30 minute workout, your call pal.
Before we get into that,
if you want to skip ahead to the workout,
because let's say you saved this workout and you want to
come back to it frequently,
there is a timestamp in the description below that you can
hit, that'll take you to the start of the workout,
or if you're going through the workout multiple times,
just come back when you're ready to start again,
hit that timestamp and it'll take you
right to the start of the sequence.
Why a lot of people end up getting back pain
is because we're hunched so much like this,
whether it's driving or we're sitting and we're texting or
working, whatever it might be,
that kind of hunched posture right here.
It's really not good for us.
What it does is it shortens and tightens
everything on the front.
And then typically to compensate for that because everything
here is really tight and locked up,
the opposing muscle groups on the back
in this case, they get really loose.
So I've ended up working with a couple of athletes
who've had low level back pain, nothing structural,
and obviously check with a medical professional about this,
if you so desire and I recommend that you do that.
But what I've found often works with a lot of athletes is,
to fix back pain, we end up stretching out the front,
stretching everything, getting it loose and open again,
and then strengthening everything on the posterial chain.
Let me write out the workout and I'll explain it to you.
So the workout that I do starts with kettlebell swings
with the right arm only,
then a windmill with the right arm up
then kettlebell swings with the left arm,
windmill with the left arm, so this is strengthening.
This is stretching all of that core area.
Then we do a goblet squat, deep,
deep down into the squat to stretch everything out.
We do a Cossack squat to stretch everything out.
We're adding strength while we're doing this,
then a cross clean with the right arm.
This is strengthening that posterior chain
and strengthening the side stabilizer muscles,
then a racked back lunge again,
strength while we're stretching out the front of the body.
And then we're doing that same thing with the left arm
and the left arm.
We're gonna do this for 20 seconds of work.
Ten second rest.
Why we're doing this setup is because 20 seconds is roughly
somewhere in between about five and eight reps.
That's a really good amount of reps for strength building
without putting on mass,
for endurance sports and general life,
we want to have a high strength to weight ratio,
not a whole bunch of bulk that ends up adding to the load
that's on your body.
We're gonna do each of these with 20 seconds on,
10 seconds rest.
Then we're gonna get through all of that.
Take 50 seconds rest.
I'm gonna do it five times
just to get in a 30 minute workout.
You can repeat this as many times as you want.
Okay, so I'm gonna do this with a 36 pound bell.
I recommend that if you're just getting started
with kettlebells that females start with around
10 to 15 pounds, if you're of normal strength,
15 to 25 pounds, if you're like a very strong female.
Males starting with around
20 to 25 pounds for the average person
and 30 to 35 pounds for the really big strong fellas.
I've had to work up to this
and it's taken me basically 10 months
to get up to doing this because this workout
is more about technique and stretching
and adding a little bit of load
at ends of the range of motion while you're stretched,
as opposed to like big, big efforts.
So even if you are pretty strong, stick with something,
that's a lot more comfortable.
So let's do it.
So we're gonna start with single-arm kettlebell swing.
Feel that little bit of a stretch in the lap.
You want to have thumb to bum, not way down under the knees.
And it's a swing where the arm is connected to the body.
Rest a little bit,
and then a windmill is gonna be up like this.
So get it up.
Rack position up,
stretch all the way down, straight legs
and squeeze with the glute
that is on the same side as the arm.
Scratch and strengthened,
- Three, two, one, rest.
- Always be controlled with the kettlebell,
treat everything like it's a 90 pound kettlebell,
back to swings with the left.
How it's working is big connection
between the body and the arm
and the body is what's actually throwing the kettlebell.
It's not a shoulder movement.
That's how you're able to do this
for minutes and minutes on end.
- Two, one, rest.
- Kettlebell down again, arm overhead, not forward,
not back, straight up and down.
- Three, two, one, go.
- Helps to look up,
which is gonna add a little bit of stretch to the chest,
which is another thing that gets tight
as you're sitting at a desk, sitting down.
- Three, two, one, rest.
- Goblet squat, it's gonna be here.
You can do this a couple of ways.
You can hold it by the horns.
We want to go down to get that big stretch or like this,
or if you really want like this big stretch,
deep down, controlled up.
Big, big stretch down, strength up.
You close that squat, same thing, you hold it,
the bell the same way, however is most comfortable for you.
Big wide legs,
doing a ninja squat.
Pushing off the inside of the thighs
and the outside of the glute,
stretching and strengthening at the same time.
Next is the cross clean.
You're gonna set up with the bell by your left foot.
- Three, two, one, go!
- Clean.
Clean.
I'll link to a video at the end of this
if you find that your hands are getting torn,
on how to handle a kettlebell.
This is strengthening all the side stabilizer muscles.
- Two, one, rest.
- Next, we're gonna do back lunge.
So you're gonna set up like a lunge, or actually, sorry
set up like standing and then end up in a back lunge.
That's gonna get the stretch at the front of the body
while adding stability,
because the kettlebells wanting to pull you that way.
So you're strengthening your core while stretching.
- Three, two, one, rest.
- Now to the cross clean,
exact same thing set up with the right foot.
Often when physiotherapists end up treating lower back pain,
they will strengthen all the side stabilizer muscles,
which tends to suck that back pain from the sciatic or down
the back of the leg, back into the bottom.
And we will end with the back lunge,
get that rack up, in control,
resting on the bicep and the forearm.
10 more seconds.
And then we get nice big 50 second rest.
Tends to get tough,
Put it down, and we've got a minute rest.
So what you can do is you can skip back.
I'm gonna repeat this five times
to get a 30 minute workout.
You can do 15, 20, 30.
Those tend to be the most common that people do.
And if you aren't already subscribed,
hit the subscribe button below.
And if you want to see that video on how to make sure that
your hands don't get torn up,
check out the video right here, kettlebell on.
I'll see you in four more of these.
Later Trainiacs.
And if you want to get some of these
super attractive primal bells from our pals over at Onnit,
there's an affiliate link in the description below for that.