all posts post new thread

Kettlebell Neck pain after swings

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
offwidth said:
This is the caption associated with the picture you posted...
That's all I am saying...

This head down position puts unnecessary tension from the neck through the spine.
Click to expand...

Again, you are looking at the wrong picture.

The reference is to the picture below which is a completely different picture to the first picture that I posted.

"Here's what most people look like when performing a kettlebell swing - a good example of what not to do:

swing-neckerrorbottom.jpg



Kenny Croxdale
 
Both of those pics display how not to do it (in the author's opinion). That neck forward pose demonstrates a bit of what I was mentioning in my earlier response - folks sort of tossing their head forward or not bringing it up entirely at the top of the swing.

Personally I do go a slight bit past vertical to put extra glute into the swing - not with the lumbar but with the hips.
 
Since this is the StrongFirst forum, I think we should advocate doing the swings the StrongFirst way. I can attest that it works and I believe it to be the best way to do swings. Eyes on the horizon throughout the swing with neck not excessivly extended at the bottom of the swing, neck in line with the rest of the spine (standing tall) at the top of the swing, shoulders packed, keeping tension out of the face and neck.
 
Heads Up! The Neck Position in Kettlebell Swings and Snatches | StrongFirst

Article from Pavel and the Strongfirst article index. As this article talks about (in summary at the end) one can have slight extension with eyes on the horizon and not hyperextend (in my estimation what the girl in the "do not do" photo in the downswing is doing, it is not what I would consider hyperextending). Other posters above have alluded to fixing the thoracic spine...improving flexibility, which will decrease needing to compensate at the bottom of the swing by hyperextending in order to keep the eyes on the horizon....which I myself personally have found helpful and which this summary alludes to as well.

I am going to now bow out (of dissecting the article), so as to not start getting further nit-picky over semantics and away from what may not even be the issue with the original poster. A video or personal SFG instruction for the original poster would be more helpful perhaps than us speculating even further here.
 
Everyone, thank you for keeping the conversation civil.

It is not our purpose here to discuss the finer points of other approaches to swing technique - most of you either are StrongFirst instructors or have learned from StrongFirst instructors in person or by watching their instructional videos online.

The best advice for our original poster is simple - if your neck didn't bother your before you started doing kettlebell swings, and it bothers you only when you do kettlebell swings, get some hands-on instruction in the kettlebell swing from a StrongFirst instructor.

If you're still having problems, see a medical professional.

-S-
 
Steve Freides said:
If you can accomplish some of this by moving your eyes and not your head, that’s best./QUOTE]

That makes sense. I developed some neck pain (where the tendons of the neck muscles attach to the spine ) when I started doing kettlebells swings because I was trying to face the horizon the hole time. Now I try to keep my neck in a neutral position.
Click to expand...
 
The neck packing issue is good to be aware of. One can have the neck neutral (spine bent neither forward nor back at the neck) or slightly extended (spine bent back at the neck) while keeping the neck/upper back "packed".
The picture that Kenny shared shows excessive neck flexion. The feeling of packing the neck is like rotating the skull forward without bending the neck forward. If you keep a "tall" spine all the through the neck, but then kind of try to form a "double chin", where your chin is pulled into the front of your neck, you get an exaggerated version of neck packing, as long as you aren't rounding your neck forward to achieve it. It can be counter intuitive at first to keep neck neutral or even extended while keeping the chin tucked.

You can have your neck flexed forward without neck packing (like in the picture), but you can also have your neck extended back without packing, where you end up with two exaggerated curves in the upper back/neck, one for the flexion of the t-spine, and another in the extension of the neck. That's the "computer" posture that many of us need to get out of.
 
Yes, don't jut the chin, essentially. The deep cervical flexors can still be engaged with the neck in some extension during the swing. If you jut the chin, the deep cervical flexors disengage.

You can cherry pick articles to support either argument (neutral neck at the bottom or slightly extended). I've read plenty of them. Pick what works for you.
 
Patient: Doctor it hurts when I do that.
Doctor: Then don’t do that.

I’ve always found that there’s usually no one right way to do a movement that applies across the board to everyone. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to perform something exactly as written only to find I’m not able to do it that way without pain. For me it’s a matter of stop doing what doesn’t work and keep experimenting until you find something that does.

And the more complicated the movement the more it applies. The kb swing looks deceptively simple but there’s a lot more going on there than meets the eye. I had the same issues with neck pain and found the only way to get rid of it was to keep my neck perfectly neutral during all phases of the swing. But I would never tell anyone that this is the correct or only way to do a swing. Just experiment one small change at a time and note the results.
 
So the OP has not posted again and I would like to ask them directly:
1) have you had your neck cleared by a medical professional (Dr., PT, Chiro, etc...)
2) can you post video of your swing
3) have you had instruction from an SFG
4) how is your neck doing now?
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom