The Deeper Muscles of the Core
Transverse Abdominus (TA) & Quadratus Lumborum (QL)
These muscles are not talked about often, but they are essential for establishing a strong core, good posture, and alleviating back pain.
Torso stability exercises are going to be your best bet for strengthening these muscles.
Let’s start by identifying our TA and QL.
Pretend someone is standing in front of you and about to punch you in the stomach. How would you brace your core? Deep under the surface rectus abdominus is your TA, you may feel it engage as you brace your core. Another way to find it is to take a deep inhale in filling up your belly and lungs, and as you exhale, use your stomach muscles to push air out. If you have never done this before, practice this a few times and familiarize yourself with the TA.
The QL is located in your back between your ribs and back hip bone and attaches from the back bottom of your ribs to the crest of the back of your hip bone. Can you feel it?
So first and foremost, the plank is going to be an awesome exercise to strengthen these muscles. Click and scroll to about 3 quarters of the way down to see how to plank here.
To focus on all-around core stability aside from planking, let’s do Bird-Dog. There are a few variations to this as you can use small hand weights or a cable, once you master the basic move.
The set up:
- Begin in a tabletop position on a mat; wrist directly under shoulders and knees under hips
- Shoulders should be relaxed (not shrugged), and not rounded
- The spine is neutral, yet core engaged (braced as stated above)
- Tops of the feet flat on a mat
The move:
- Raise your left arm straight out in front of you, then bring your right leg straight out behind you (keep your spine neutral but glute muscle engaged)
- You may feel wobbly. Focus on core engagement and gain stability.
- Breathe.
- Once you have gained stability and are breathing, slowly return back to tabletop position.
- Repeat on the other side. Do 10 on each side
The Progression:
- The same set up as above
- Extend your left arm straight out in front of you and your right leg straight out behind you (keep your spine neutral and glute muscle engaged)
- Hold for 3 seconds, stabilizing your core
- Then bring your left elbow and your right knee to touch or close to underneath your torso
- Hold for a few seconds, then extend straight out again – repeat 5x each side
Weighted Progression:
You can do the above exercise with a 2 or 3lb hand weight or check out this video using cables.
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EM: alexis@synergywellnesslv.com