Kettlebell Swings & Low Back Pressure Pain Threshold

Short Term Effects of Kettlebell Swings on Low Back Pain Pressure Threshold in Healthy Young Adults Utilizing a Tabata Protocol Format.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a high intensity kettlebell workout, utilizing a Tabata protocol format, can decrease objective measures of pain pressure threshold in subjects without low back pain. The results of the study could have implications for the use of high intensity kettlebell workouts in the rehabilitation of patients with low back pain.

The kettlebell swing is a full body, posterior-chain focused, ballistic exercise shown to register large recruitment of the gluteal muscles, which are frequently weak in a patients suffering from low back pain. The Tabata protocol is a high-intensity training protocol in which subjects perform 20 seconds of all out effort (i.e. as many swings as possible), followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for a total of eight rounds. The rapid contraction-relaxation cycles utilized in the kettlebell swing are theorized to aid in the pumping out of muscle metabolites in the low back musculature, thus providing potential relief of chronic low back pain.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Those subjects between the ages of 18 and 45
• No current low back pain or pre-existing injuries that may be currently affecting them
• No positive response on the Health History questionnaire and PAR-Q.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current low back pain
• Pre-existing injuries currently affecting the subject
• Positive response on the Health History Questionnaire or PAR-Q
• We will also be excluding minors and prisoners from this study.