Core The strength of muscle groups is very important. For many people, especially those with low back pain, strengthening core strength can greatly relieve low back pain and protect the lumbar spine!
So many people began to find a lot of videos on the Internet to exercise core muscles and follow them, but after doing so, their waists hurt even more! What's going on?
As long as you search for online videos, you can see a group of people exercising their core muscles with a variety of movements. The fact is that many people are not clear about what the core muscles are being exercised.
Will your core muscles become stronger if you practice sit-ups and crunches?
In fact, the six-pack abs, mermaid lines, vest lines, etc. that you know are not real core muscle groups.
Will your core muscles become stronger if you practice sit-ups and crunches?
Sit-ups or crunches are the exercises I least recommend. Because the chance of injury is too high and the chance of making mistakes is too high.
What exactly are the core muscle groups?
The core muscle groups are mainly found in two parts of the human body Parts: Waist and neck. The more commonly mentioned waist core muscles (deep core) include the diaphragm above, the pelvic floor muscles below, and the transverse abdominal muscles covering the front and sides of the abdomen. muscles, as well as the small invisible paravertebral muscles on the posterior side - multifidus, rotator muscles, etc.
The real core muscles are an important natural waist protector for humans: they surround the abdominal cavity, large intestine, and small intestine, and are mainly responsible for stabilizing the lumbar spine. According to the adjacent joint hypothesis theory, the lumbar spine needs high stability, otherwise it will be easy to Intervertebral disc herniation caused by wear and tear can lead to degeneration of facet joints and long-term low back pain. Therefore, the stability of the lumbar spine depends on the core muscles. Only by breathing correctly can the deep core myocardium be trained.
strong>The activation of the waist core muscles is closely related to breathing. When inhaling, the diaphragm descends to fill the chest with air, and then slowly exhale until 1/3 of the breath volume is left. Holding your breath lightly will activate the abdominal core muscles, and the lumbar spine is the most stable at this time.
At this time , you will find that your waist and abdomen are all tight, not one muscle working alone!
Some people are prone to tension or have poor breathing methods, so they use the muscles of their neck to help them breathe. Or the shrugging movement when breathing will cause shoulder and neck pain in the long run, and it will also cause the deep core of the neck to become incapacitated due to lack of use for a long time, and you will forget how to use it.
The first Pilates class. It is to teach you the correct breathing method. With the correct breathing method, you can avoid abnormal tension in the cervical spine and shoulders, and at the same time activate the deep core correctly.Myocardial group.
When learning how to breathe correctly for the first time, many people will feel deeply frustrated and no matter what they do, it will not be correct. But don’t be discouraged, as long as you practice more and master the tricks of exercise, you will make rapid progress!
Forget sit-ups! Even the U.S. military doesn’t do it
As mentioned before, the function of the core muscles is to stabilize the lumbar spine, while sit-ups repeatedly bend the lumbar spine, which cannot train the true core at all. . Moreover, not many people do it correctly, which makes the lumbar spine more susceptible to injury. Sit-ups can strengthen the core. This is a concept that has been instilled in us since childhood, but later we found out that it was completely wrong! I have seen countless patients whose lumbar spine becomes more painful after doing sit-ups. They are basically one of the "lumbar spine killers"!
Because too many people have been injured doing this movement, the U.S. Marine Corps has decided to eliminate sit-ups from the physical fitness test.
When doing sit-ups, the lower back spine has to bear hundreds of kilograms of force and is easily injured. Many people use their necks to exert force in the wrong way, which can lead to neck stiffness in the long run. The core purpose of training is to protect the lumbar spine, and it also needs to be coordinated with breathing to exercise the deep core muscles to truly have a protective effect.
I still want to train my abs, what should I do?
If you still really want to train your core or abdominal muscles, you can choose relatively safe and stable exercises: dead bug pose, bear crawl pose, bird dog pose, plank, and bridge. ), side supports, etc.