ShareIt’s easily the #1 most dangerous exercise of the year, and it does absolutely nothing to cardio.
What is it?
The Kettlebell swing
Believe it or not, doing exercises like the Kettlebell swing with the WRONG technique (like the idiot I saw at the gym yesterday) can place harmful stress on the discs between the bones in your spine, potentially causing severe back pain and nerve damage.
Don’t get me wrong – I love doing Kettlebell swings. It totally rocks for training your posterior chain (aka your back, butt and hamstrings). But ONLY if you do it right.
Research from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) has shown that you can burn up to 20 calories per minute, which means you could burn off yesterday’s “treat” in about 10 measly minutes.
It’s the highest level of calorie burning you can get – even more than hill sprints.
If you were to do intervals on the treadmill, you’d probably hit
a maximum of 16 calories per minute (even with a steep incline). And risk breaking your neck on the dreadmill… 
The ACE study – performed on men AND women – also found that this ONE workout method increased their abdominal core strength by an amazing 70%.
NO sit ups, NO crunches – and hey, they didn’t even do boring planks.
All they did was the Kettlebell swing (by the way, you can use a dumbbell too).
BUT… like I said, almost everybody does this exercise the wrong way. It’s NOT a squat – it’s NOT a front raise – and the Kettlebell definitely DOES NOT go over your head.
Why?
When you throw the Kettlebell overhead, you lose muscle engagement of your lats (big muscle in your back) and core… the main muscles you’re trying to work! Plus, you put your shoulder joints under extreme stress.
Here’s how to do it RIGHT:
Always remember: doing a lot of spinal flexion-based movements can be harmful to your lower back because it will compress the disks in your spine.
That means if you’re doing the KB swing with the wrong technique, you’re damaging your back.
So please, STOP doing Kettlebell swings with terrible form.
If you want to use Kettlebells to blast your metabolism and skyrocket your conditioning:
Learn how to do the Kettlebell Swing with perfect form here
And… here’s the rocking “Accelerator of the Week” you can add to the end of your workout today.
It’s called the “BOOM” Accelerator.
“Why is it called the BOOM Accelerator KV?”
No reason. It just sounds awesome….
Do as many rounds as possible in 6 minutes. You can also use this for an “off-day” workout – do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes.
A) Crab crawls x 20 (total)
B) Jumping jacks x 20
C) Push ups x 20
D) Split shuffle x 20 (total)
Ah, total awesomeness!
So what’s your next goal? Do you need help getting your first pull-up or starting a new program? Is it time to step it up a level? Or are you closing in a goal, and now it’s time to fine tune and get sexy results?
Drop a comment below the post and let me know what you’re working towards, and I’ll give you a hand.
I look forward to hearing from you,
KV
