You can learn to strengthen your abs to avoid straining your lower back and neck when doing sit-ups and other lifting movements.
What is abdominal muscle training?
Abdominal strengthening occurs when you contract the muscles around your spine to create a rigid midsection. This stiffening protects the spine from movement that could damage or injure it. Since your nervous system, and more specifically your spinal cord and the nerves that flow from it, pass through your vertebrae, it is very important to protect your spine from positions that could harm it. The most common movements that cause spinal injuries are the loaded spinal flexion and the loaded spinal flexion with rotation.
To get a better idea of abdominal support in action, think of it as creating a rigid muscular corset that protects your back and nervous system. This is especially important when moving heavy loads or performing explosive movements that generate a lot of force.
Basic training is something you can practice and perfect with repetition. The ultimate goal is to be able to unconsciously create intra-abdominal pressure with the abdominal lining.
Muscles used for the abdominal lining.
The core muscles are:
– the transversus abdominis
– internal and external obliques
– the quadratus lumborum
– erector spinae
– rectus abdominis muscle
These muscles create intra-abdominal pressure to keep the spine in a safe, neutral position.
What are the benefits of abdominal muscle training?
Strong core muscles are essential to perform daily tasks and activities. To strengthen these muscles, experts often recommend doing abdominal exercises several times a week.
When done correctly, abdominal exercises can help tighten and tone your midsection and reduce the risk of injury. But if you don’t use the correct form, you can suffer the areas you are trying to protect.
Lift objects safely and more efficiently
Learning to strengthen your core will allow you to perform everyday tasks and movements safely and more efficiently. The extent to which we need to strengthen our abdomen depends on the demand of the movement we are performing. For example, the amount of force required to bend down and lift a shoe will be very different from the amount of force required to bend down and lift 20 kg. So we’re still creating some level of abdominal strengthening, but the activity requires a different level of intensity.
Engage more abdominal muscles
One study compared the effects of digging exercises and bracing exercises in middle-aged women and found that performing abdominal bracing exercises, which can contract both the deep and superficial muscles, is more effective in activating the abdominal muscles. By comparison, digging exercises only contract the deep muscles.
Improve runners’ form and gait
For runners, using the core method to activate the abdominal muscles can help support the lower back if the pelvis tilts too much while running.
Good preparation for contact sports.
In addition to being beneficial when performing heavy exercises, abdominal containment is a useful strategy to prepare for impact. For example, increasing core rigidity is useful for contact sports like soccer, rugby, or martial arts.
It can be used in most activities.
The best thing about abdominal support is that you can do it during almost any exercise or daily activity that requires you to protect your spine.
How to do abdominal exercises?
Now that you understand the importance of abdominal compression, it’s time to apply this knowledge and learn how to perform this movement. The abdominal lining technique consists of two basic steps. You can practice these steps in many positions.
Step 1: deep inhale
Inhale deeply as your chest expands.
– Standing or lying down, inhale using the diaphragm, preferably breathing through the nose, expanding the ribcage.
– The volume of inspiration depends on the activity for which you are preparing. For example, when performing a high intensity movement like a heavy deadlift, you should inhale about 70% of your total lung capacity. But if you do a less strenuous movement, like bending over to pick up your backpack, you only need to inhale a small amount of air, around 5-10% of your total lung capacity.
– You usually don’t need to consciously think about strengthening your core to perform low-intensity movements because your body does it automatically.
Step 2: Contract the abdominal muscles
Create rigidity by contracting all of your abdominal muscles.
– To create tightness in all the muscles surrounding your abdomen, lower your ribcage. Imagine that you are creating a rigid muscular corset, which protects your back and nervous system. Tighten your abdomen by pulling your belly button in toward your spine. Remember to breathe as you do this.
– Regarding the first stage, you must adapt the intensity of the contraction of your trunk to the activity that you are practicing. For example, if you’re performing a heavy deadlift, you’ll want to contract your core muscles as much as possible. But if you are lifting a backpack, you can do a low intensity contraction, say 5% of the contraction intensity.
Progression of abdominal contraction
To perform abdominal lining, start in the supine position. Then, once you’ve mastered the move in a prone position, move onto hands and knees. After learning the strengthening technique in this position, perform a static squat while strengthening your abdominal muscles.
Exercises on which to use the abdominal plank
Again, the abdominal trainer can be used for all kinds of exercises and everyday activities where you want to support and protect your back.
At the gym, focus on strengthening your abs before doing exercises like:
– squats
– dumbbells
– slits
– bombs
– pull-ups
– hand support
You can also practice abdominal core training by doing basic exercises like
– boards
– the side tables
– bird dogs (alternating arm and leg lifting exercise)
– pelvic floor exercises
to retain
Practicing abdominal restraint while exercising or performing daily tasks, such as heavy lifting, can help reduce neck and lower back strain. You can also protect those injury-prone areas. While crunching your abs can be uncomfortable once you get used to it, it’s not normal to feel soreness or pain. If you experience sharp pain or find this movement extremely uncomfortable, stop what you are doing and see a physical therapist. He can help you repeat the steps and watch you do the push-up movement while you do other exercises.
* HealthKey strives to convey health knowledge in a language accessible to all. In NO EVENT can the information provided replace the opinion of a health professional.
Well Being3 months ago
