Don’t hurt your back! How to do Russian Twists safely.

No, this isn't clickbait.

I promise!

Russian twists can be bad movement when they involve a lot of rotation at the lumbar spine simply because our lumbar spine is not meant to rotate.

This is how I used to do russian twists:

Notice that I’m rotating in order to touch the med ball to the ground on each rep. I’m prioritizing the “rep” rather than the desired stimulus of core rotation.

Thinking only about touching the ball to the ground and “finishing” each rep is causing me to put my spine in a bad position and expose it to the possibility of injury.

But I didn’t send you this email to tell you to stop doing Russian Twists. I sent you this email to show you how to do Russian Twists better.

Rather than twisting at the spine and touching the ball to the ground, think about trying to reach the ball as far away from your midsection as possible WITHOUT twisting.

(Sounds completely counterintuitive, I know).

Here's an example of how we can turn the russian twist into an anti-rotation movement rather than a rotation movement while also drastically lowering the risk for injury.

Try these out as a core movement at the end of a workout and let me know what you think of them!