What is the best exercise to improve core stability and lessen low back pain?
Abdominal bracing.
Abdominal bracing is one of the simplest exercises you can do pretty much anywhere. Abdominal bracing is simply contracting your abdominal muscles. If you are unsure of this movement, pretend you are about to be hit in the stomach. The natural reaction to this is to flex, or brace, your abdomen.
Now, it is important to breathe while you hold this bracing. The breathing component may take some practice, but the best part—you can practice this anywhere and no one will notice!
It has been proven that abdominal bracing has the highest %EMG value (muscle activity) in the internal oblique muscle, when compared to other common core exercises like planks, abdominal hollowing, sit ups, curl-ups, and others. The internal oblique (IO) is a very important muscle in humans because it is a deep abdominal muscle. This means the muscle surrounds our spine and is what provides stability to our fragile spinal cords. If we have strong internal obliques, we have a strong core, which leads to proper posture and mobility. This posture and core stability is what will prevent low back pain! Even though you can’t visibly see the IO like you can other ab muscles (rectus abdominis and external obliques), having strong IO’s may be more beneficial for you and your body.
Would you rather have a 6-pack or no back pain? Most people would choose no back pain…hopefully.
If you want to take it one step further, you can add an extra movement to your abdominal bracing to further activate your core. If you are laying on your back, with your knees bent and feet on the surface, lift one leg straight. This straight leg raise adds a slight increase in muscle activation of the deep abdominal muscles that will get you that strong core you’re looking for!
If you actively complete these abdominal bracing exercises once a day, you will gain a strong core and lessen any low back pain you may have (or prevent it if you don’t have any).
Having a strong core includes a strong front and back. This means strong abdominal muscles and strong back muscles. It is common that we have stronger back muscles than abdominal muscles. Because of this, these back muscles overpower the abdominal muscles and it is hard for us to strengthen the front when our posture is improper. Finding the right exercises to properly strengthen your core is the most important part! You don’t want to be spending your time doing ab exercises that are actually strengthening your back because you are doing them incorrectly. Sometimes doing exercises in a mirror can help to ensure you have correct form for exercises because of the visual feedback you are receiving. Try these abdominal bracing exercises at home and see where it gets you!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3772590/
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpts/26/1/26_jpts-2013-340/_article/-char/ja/
How to thaw a frozen shoulder
Exercise WITHIN your pain limits.
It is common for people with injuries to want to heal them as quick as they can—no matter the pain they must go through. This is especially common for athletes who want to return to play as soon as they can, and they are willing to suffer through the pain of exercising and pushing their pain limits. A lot of the times, these people can get better faster if they DO push the limits and exercise outside their pain limits. However, frozen shoulder doesn’t listen to these rules.
Frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, is one of the rare syndromes that you MUST exercise within your pain limits to get better faster. If you put yourself in pain and push the limits of your shoulder, chances are you are regressing yourself and prolonging your recovery. A research study done in 2004 found that 89% of people who went through “supervised neglect”, or exercising within pain limits, had normal or near-normal painless shoulder function after 12 months. This is compared to 63% of people who received intensive physical therapy treatment. There are very few physical syndromes or injuries that physical therapy is not the recommended solution for. Frozen shoulder is one of these rare syndromes.
Frozen shoulder is very interesting in and of itself. Frozen shoulder can be caused by wearing a sling for a few days without stretching or if you don’t receive physical therapy after tendonitis or an injury. It may take months to develop, and months to cure. Pain may improve in these months, but range of motion may decline, and stiffness may increase. The connective tissue in your shoulder thickens and contracts, losing its usual ability to stretch. This limits your range of motion and causes inflammatory pain.
It has been found that the best treatment for frozen shoulder is a closely monitored home therapy exercise program that includes moist heat and anti-inflammatory medication. A physician or physical therapist must prescribe the exercise program so you know the proper form and function of the exercises you are completing, but once you are taught correctly how to complete them, it can be done from the comfort of your home.
The road to curing frozen shoulder may be long and discouraging, but it is possible to regain your range of motion and get rid of any pain!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1058274604000825
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/how-to-release-a-frozen-shoulder
Does adding a Swiss ball to exercise really make your muscles work harder?
A Swiss ball is one of those big bouncy balls you’ve seen in a physical therapy clinic. They come in different sizes and colors. They can also be called stability balls or physio balls. These Swiss balls are commonly incorporated into strengthening exercises for the core and trunk and are looked at as a “step up” from the original exercise you were doing. They make the exercise more challenging because the instability of the ball theoretically forces your muscles to engage and activate more to account for this instability. But, is there actual science behind this Swiss ball instability and an increase in muscle activation?
The answer is…yes and no.
Adding a Swiss ball to prone bridging, that is, bridging with your stomach facing the floor, results in an increase in myoelectric activity in the rectus abdominis and external oblique (both abdominal muscles). Prone bridging is like a plank on your hands and feet. When you add a Swiss ball, only your hands are touching the floor and your feet are now resting on the Swiss ball. Adding an unstable Swiss ball to this exercise is in fact more challenging and a progression from just a normal plank on hands and feet.
Adding a Swiss ball to supine bridging, that is, bridging with you stomach facing the ceiling, results in NO INCREASE in myoelectric activity of any muscle studied in this 2005 study. This leads us to believe that a bridge with your feet touching the ground and a bridge with your feet resting on an unstable ball (when your stomach is facing the ceiling) make no difference in muscle activation or “challenge” of the exercise.
Progressing from a normal bridge to a bridge on a Swiss ball is in fact no progression at all, it is the same exercise in terms of muscle activation.
It only makes sense knowing this information that the following is true:
Overall core muscle activity is greater in prone position exercises compared with supine and side position exercises.
A 2016 study found that upper and lower rectus abdominis, external oblique, and internal oblique activity was significantly greater in prone position exercises than side and supine position exercises.
This means that you should be doing most of your core exercises in the prone position! Remember, the prone position means your stomach is facing the floor.
To sum everything we learned:
- Add a Swiss ball to prone bridging for greater muscle activation.
- It doesn’t matter if you add a Swiss ball or not to supine bridging—you will get the same muscle activation regardless.
- Complete core exercises in the prone position for greater muscle activation.
Call us today for help!
Be sure to call us today for help. We are here if you want to schedule an appointment to find relief!
https://chiromt.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-1340-13-14
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1941738116653931