Why Your Abdominal Exercises Can Help Back Pain
Your abdominal muscles (often called the core muscles) help to support the upper body and spine. So, an important part of any plan to end back pain is strengthening the abdominal muscles.
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 Lie on your back. Bend your knees with your knees pointed to the ceiling. Keep your feet flat on the floor, and bring them close to your hips. You can either place your hands on your chest, as illustrated, or behind your head. Keeping your lower back pressed to the floor, make abdominal muscles tight and raise your shoulder blades off the floor. Hold this position for 3 seconds. Now then lower yourself to the ground. Do five repetitions and rest for a minute. This is one set. Now do another set. Try to increase the number of repetitions each week. Aim for three sets of ten repetitions.
