Why Your Abdominal Exercises Can Help Back Pain
An important part of an exercise plan to relieve back pain is strengthening the abdominals. The abs or abdominal muscles, which are sometimes called the core muscles,support the your upper torso and spine.
6 abs: The abdominal muscles comprise the internal and external obliques (that run down the side of your waist), the rectus abdominus, that run down the middle of your abdomen (giving you a six-pack if youre lean) and the transversus abdominus that wraps around your torso.
1-the transversus abdominus, which supports your back, wraps around the abdomen. It lies deeper than the rectus abdominus. We cannot see the deeper muscles in the picture,because they are below the superficial muscles.2-3-the external obliques, one on each side of your abdomen,superficial, meaning that they lie close to the skin. These help you to bend to one side (lateral flexion) and rotate the spine 4-5-the internal obliques, one on each side of your abdomen, lying deeper than the external obliques. These help spinal rotation and enable lateral flexion. 6-the rectus abdominus which lies close to the skin (or superficial). This is the six-pack muscle.
Muscles are working together. The abdominal muscles work to bend the spine forward. This is called spinal flexion. At the same time as the abdominal muscles are contracting when you bend forward, the back muscles are stretching. The rectus abdominus is the spinal flexor, while the muscle running down the middle of your back, the erector spinae, is performing the opposite action. This is why it is important to develop strength and flexibility in the opposing sets of muscles.
Abdominal exercises – don’t hurt your back. The first exercise that comes to mind is sit ups, which may not be a good idea, particularly if you suffer from back pain. To reduce the chance of injury to your back, here are some guidelines: 1.Legs bent and close to your torso. Doing crunches with your legs bent will put less stress on your back than straight leg sit ups. Do bent leg raises rather than straight leg raises. 2.Back flat on the floor. The crunch is safer than a sit up, because your lower back is supported by the floor. 3.Don’t twist and flex your body at the same time. Choose an exercise that uses only one plane of movement, flexing or twisting, not both. For example, broomstick twists involve twisting your body while crunches flex your body.They only perform a movement in one plane. There are other exercises, like a twisting crunch, where you twist and flex at the same time. This is also known as using a compound plane of movement. 4.A smaller range of movement. Take note of this point, especially if you are beginning an exercise programme. The smaller the range of motion, the less your chance of hurting your back. Rather perform a crunch where you only lift your body 10 inches/25cm inches off the floor than a sit up where you go through a full range of motion from lying on your back to sitting up at 90 degrees.
Crunches-knees bent. Lie on your back, bend your knees and bring your feet towards your hips. Put your hands behind your head, or fold them across your chest, as illustrated.Tighten your abdominal muscles and raise your shoulder blades off the floor. Hold the position for 3 seconds, then lower yourself to the ground. Do five repetitions, rest for a minute, then do another five. Aim to increase the number of repetitions every week. Eventually you should aim to be able to do ten repetitions in three sets.
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Written by Andrew de Bruyn on December 8th, 2009 with
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