Hello everyone! My name is Alex Bartkowiak. I am a Doctor of Chiropractic and Clinical Director at Health HQ here in sunny Southsea and TODAY we're going to be discussing your core.
You have probably heard about your core, or your core muscles and know that they are important for some reason and that they can get weak and we should be doing exercises to strengthen them. We might not know what, how, when or why, we just know we should.
Well I'm going to give you a little information on what your core is and why core strength is important, and then a little bit more on how and when to do the best exercises for it.
My aim here is to get you to know;
If you have core muscles (you, probably do)
One super-simple, super-easy exercise you can do to build a strong core.
(0:49) Now, if someone rudely pokes you in the belly or side, apart from very justifiably clipping them round the ear and reprimanding them, we also tighten up. Same thing happens when we cough. When we tighten up like that we stabilise our trunk and to do so we employ a number of muscles that all contract together to make our trunk like a tree trunk; solid, stable and strong! (But with maybe a spot of padding on the outside)
A good way of thinking of this area when it's tightened up is like a food tin; a solid cylinder formed by your diaphragm at the top, your pelvic floor muscles at the base, Rectus abdominis also known as your 6-pack or just 'Abs" at the front (they are in there, I promise), a few spinal muscles at the back and your Internal & External obliques and Transverse abdominis round the sides, wrapping all the way round from your spine to the sides of your 'abs'.
One of the functions of this bundle of muscles, and the function that we are going to focus most on, is turning your soft-centre, solid. By doing this we have a much bigger and more stable area from which to produce or resist force; like running & jumping or bending & lifting, or staying stable when holding or carrying things.
Like we said, what makes your trunk solid is the contraction, or ‘turning ON’ of a number of muscles and we know that when it comes to muscles, if you don't use it, you lose it. Unfortunately, sitting down turns these muscles OFF, and that can be a BIG cause of core weakness, so proper sitting posture and keeping mobile is important too! To see my top tips on making sure you’re sitting the best way you can then check out my post on sitting comfortably and my post on keeping mobile.
Your core muscles also help to hold you upright. If you get a pain in your low back that slowly builds when you're standing for longer periods, a weak core could be part of the problem.
So how do we get from going wrong to getting strong?
(2:47) I know full well and from bitter experience that if I give someone the most effective twenty-minute core exercise regime, it may get done once or twice... ever. What we need is something quick and easy and simple that will get results but only take two minutes. Fortunately, I have just the thing and it's called Dead Bug.
To do this exercise, lie on the floor face up. This exercise needs to be done lying on something relatively solid and stable. The bed or sofa is not going to work I'm afraid. Lying face up, bend your knees up to your chest and hold your knees with both hands. This is your starting and resting position.
(3:40) From here, take a deep breath in, and slowly breathe out. As you get close to the end of your breath out, pretend someone is about to poke really hard just below the belly-button and you should feel all the muscles tighten up. Make sure the bottom of the front of your rib cage is pulled down, your belly button is pulled in and your low back is pressed against the floor so there is no gap. This is the contraction. Make sure that whilst doing this you haven't tensed and rounded your shoulders and raised your chin. You need to keep your belly tight, but your chin down, shoulders back and as much of your spine flat against the floor as possible.
(4:17) When you can adopt the position and perform the contraction properly, then we come to the ‘Active Hold’ position. Once you have your core muscles properly contracted and engaged, and only then, let go of your legs and bring your arms and thighs away from each other slightly so they are at 90° to the floor and the rest of your body. Your knees must be bent so your lower leg is parallel to the floor. You MUST hold and maintain the contraction in your core when you move your arms and legs! Don't let go of those muscles. Keep your spine pressed against the ground, your belly-button pulled in and no gap under your low back! Hold this position AND the contraction for ten seconds. Oh by the way, the position you're in now... That's why it's called Dead Bug.
(5:06) Count for ten seconds. When you get to ten, bring your hands back onto your knees, breathe in, let go of the core contraction and relax into the rest position. You now have 10 seconds rest. Well, actually there is 10 seconds in total between stopping the ‘Active Hold’ position and restarting it again, but you actually need to start getting ready for the 'Active Hold' after seven seconds.
(5:28) So after seven seconds rest, take a deep breath in and as you breathe out pull the bottom of the front of your rib cage down, pull your belly button in, press your low back against the floor so there is no gap, shoulders back and down, chin tucked, release your knees and bring your arms and legs apart so that hands and knees both point straight up, towards the ceiling. Hold that contraction for ten seconds, then come back to the rest position and THEN release the contraction. Rest for seven seconds, deep breath in, and repeat a total of ten times.
As you get to the later holds you will likely find that the bottom of the front of your rib cage wants to rise, or your belly button doesn't want to stay pulled in or your low back wants to lift off the floor. This is the muscles starting to tire. This is where we get them to up their game. Keep those muscles tight! Don't let the position or the contraction slip! If you're struggling to hold for the full 10 seconds, don't worry, we will talk about changing intensity in a moment.
Ten second holds. Ten times. That is a total of 100 seconds of 'Active Hold'. With ten second rests between the 'Active Holds', the whole thing should take less than two and a half minutes.
When should you do this exercise?
This exercise doesn't take long, but with these kinds of holding muscles, they don't need a lot of resistance, what they need more of is "time under tension" and they need to be done little and often. So it doesn't take long, but aim for as close to EVERY DAY as you can.
I often get people coming back to me after doing these exercises saying how much they feel it working, just from a couple of minutes and that after a few weeks they feel like they have better control over their tummy muscles and some even saying that they'd swear that it's pulled their waistline in. How's that for a good side effect?!
And when things start to get a bit easy….
(7:30) Now, these exercises work so well that most people (so long as they actually do them) start to find them a bit easy after a couple of weeks or so and fortunately they are very easy to advance. There are three things you can alter to adjust the difficulty, both harder or easier;
how long you hold for,
how long you rest for,
how far out you straighten your arms and legs.
The further out you straighten, the more load your core will have to work against making the exercise harder. Play around with times and positions and keep it taxing! If it is too difficult, shorten the time doing the 'Active Hold' and/or lengthen the rest time. If you get to the end and it feels easier, congratulations, you're getting stronger! Now up the difficulty accordingly.
With just that one exercise and the variations that you can do with it, you can have a profoundly beneficial effect on your core strength, which is one important part of getting your low back strong and healthy, and one that not even the most talented Chiropractor can do for you.
So, go! Try it out and have fun with it. If you have pets, or children then they will love making it more challenging for you too, so enjoy that. If you have any questions about the Dead Bug, ask your Chiropractor, or get in contact with us and we will do all we can to help.
We are working to bring you all the great little tips and tricks that you can do that really make a difference and help you, so please tell us how you find the stretch and if there are any other topics you'd like us to cover and any videos that you want to see us make.
In the meantime, stay safe, stay well, stay mobile and I'll see you soon.
Did you try the dead bug? If so, let us know you found it!