So I see some NOT great things with kettlebells, especially for my postpartum gals! One of these exercises is great, the other three – NO! (The formatting is being weird for me – click below video)
Kettlebell Exercises for the Abs – — powered by ehow
In this video, I LOVE the first exercise for those of you with a diastasis, but who have already started STRENGTHENING the transverse with the Seated Tuplers. If you can hold you transverse at the 5th floor, you are good to go for this one!
The second exercise in this video…UMM…a big NO for those of you with a diastasis! WHY you ask? Because of the SHEARING motion – it will make your diastasis worse! IF you DONT have a diastasis anymore, this one should be fine, although I don’t like the rounded shoulder motion – there is too much of that in everyday life that we have to undo!
The brings me to my complaint of the THIRD exercise – too much ROUNDING of the shoulder! I work SO hard with my clients to undo that ROUNDED SHOULDER – such a problem for mom doing all those tasks that round the shoulders – nursing, feeding babies, food prep, computer, changing diapers – we need to constantly focus on opening up the chest and strengthening that upper back to CORRECT IT! Also – look CLOSELY at this ladies abs – there is a FOREWARD FORCEFUL MOTION – which can CREATE a diastasis!
My experience with kettlebells are to generally steer clear. Having said that I sometimes see decent exercises, but I feel too many of them are jarring for the shoulder complex in general, rounding of the shoulder, and are prone to creating a foreward forceful motion of the abs! Some of the places I train at – when I see other trainers doing these with clients and see what is going on with their clients abs – I JUST CRINGE!!!! YIKES!
Oh thank you so much for writing this. I’ve received quite a bit of pressure from my members to create a kettlebell workout DVD and I just get a sick feeling whenever I watch the videos. Maybe i do need to make a workout video with kettlebells, but it will be with my own tummy-safe exercises, not these!