Kettlebell Russian Twist

The Kettlebell Russian Twist was the first exercise I was ever introduced to that targeted my obliques as well as the abs and I fell in love with it instantly. I think this is a great exercise to start with when you want to work on lateral core stability and oblique strengthening. There are some limitations to the scalability of this exercise but it’s a fantastic place to start training the oblique and abdominal muscle groups.

The movement pattern of this exercise is relatively straight forward but there are plenty of nuances to keep in mind to ensure good (and safe) form. I always start athletes off with a relatively lighter weight for two reasons - 1) it’s safer, too heavy a load can be very dangerous to the lumbar spine if an athlete doesn’t have good form and they’re leaning into the weighted side versus twisting into it. 2) we can still produce great results with light weight combined with higher reps and that’s a better starting point than aiming for max effort right out of the gate.

One of the best ways to hurt our lower back is to lean side to side with a load, it doesn’t even have to be a heavy load but that lateral spinal flexion can be very dangerous. We want to keep this in mind when we begin the exercise because it can be very easy to start to lean to the side during the twist (especially under a heavy load). When we begin the exercise it’s important to pay attention to the space between your ribs and your hips. Think of that space as a large, wide belt that has sharp edges, we don’t want to scrunch to the side and feel those edges jab us.

When we pick up the Kettlebell it’s important to keep your torso rigid and under good tension. We want to use your arms to lift the bell, not your trunk. When we twist our arms should lower the bell down, we don’t want to lean to lower the weight. Paying attention to isolating the movement to a twist and lift will ensure that each rep is targeting the obliques and arms and not endangering our low back.

As with most weighted exercises I like to start athletes off lighter and increase the weight as we go. I will typically program ten reps to each side with a light weight (10-20 lbs.). Once the athlete is comfortable with the movement we increase the weight. Once an athlete can hit 20 reps with 40-50 lbs. I graduate them to a more advanced oblique core exercise like hanging oblique knee raises or hanging windshield wipers.