Stabilizer muscles help us make thousands of different movements every day, keeping the spine in the correct position and protecting us from injury. In most people, these muscles are not well developed. How can one train them?
Core Muscles
Attractive muscular relief is a cherished dream of many. Including women. But the superficial muscles, as they are called by professional trainers – are just the tip of an iceberg. Training is needed for the stabilizer muscles that form the skeleton of the body. Core muscles are especially important. Their functional strength depends not only on the quality and effectiveness of fitness training, but also on our overall health and spine health. These include oblique, transverse and straight abdominal muscles, small and medium-sized glutes, adductors, the muscles of the back of thighs, subcutaneous muscle, shoulder muscle, and a number of others.
Weak Core Muscles Cause Spine Problems
Unfortunately, these important muscles are not developed enough in many people. The main reason for this is sedentary lifestyle and the fact that, as a rule, people spend most of the time sitting at a desk in front of a computer. The result may follow in the form of unhealthy deformations and deflections in the spine.
Office Workers’ Biggest Health Problems
For example, most office workers suffer from pain in the neck, upper back and lower back. In the first and second cases, discomfort appears due to overexertion of the trapezius muscle when we are sitting for a long time without keeping our back and shoulders straight, the entire burden falls on these parts of the spine. Such a posture affects the lower back in a not very good way. When combined, these factors could lead to protrusion of the intervertebral disc, which ultimately causes hernia.
Workout Tips for Core Muscles Training
Core muscles are so important that their training implies special fitness exercises. It is very difficult to reach them with the help of conventional weight training. The most effective way is lessons for the development of balance and functional training. Unlike traditional weight training, functional training imitates basic human movement. As a result, carrying bags of groceries, carrying a grown up child without straining the back, climbing the stairs to the 10th floor will not seem difficult. Plus, this will improve coordination, flexibility of the body, and the risk to get a trauma would be minimal.
Bosu
Bosu is a hemisphere simulator with an elastic “dome”. You can do exercises while sitting or standing on it with one or two feet, or even when lying. The platform is unstable, so in order to keep the balance you will have to keep almost all the muscles of the core working.
Fitball
A big bouncy ball is one of the most popular accessories for workouts both in a gym and at home. It does not matter if you sit, lie or lean on it, fitball always strives to bounce away. Fitball can help you train your abdomen muscles, lying on your back, or do push-ups with your feet on the ball.
Medical Ball
This sports equipment is not as big as fitball (its size is not more than in basketball), but compared to it a medical ball is heavier – 1-27 kg). To have a good workout, for example, to do push-ups, you should place hands and/or feet on the medical ball; you can train abdomen and do twisting with the ball in your hands.
Core
It is designed to simultaneously involve back muscles and the abdomen in the exercise. Working on the simulator requires special facilities, and it is better to start using them under the supervision of a coach.
TRX Rings
It is a versatile trainer for strengthening the stabilizer muscles. Exercises develop strength, endurance, coordination, sense of balance and equilibrium to a very large degree. This exercise is good for those who get quickly bored of the usual power exercises – there is a wide variety of exercises with TRX rings available.
Core Muscles Workout Contraindications
The exercises for stabilizer muscles require correct methods of doing them. This is especially important if you already have back problems and problems with joints. Before you start, consult with your doctor or personal trainer.
Core Workout for Women Wearing High Heels
Calf muscles are also referred to as stabilizer muscles. But if you constantly wear shoes with high heels, they do not benefit from it. When wearing high heels, you walk as if on tiptoes and the muscles do not work in full force. In addition to pain in legs, it may also lead to tendon injuries. To strengthen calf muscles, you need cycling, standing with the balls of your feet on a platform, jumping on your toes on one spot, forwards, backwards and sideways.
Plank
Plank is a good exercise for core muscle training and a way to recharge your batteries. The essence of the exercise is to keep the whole body straight as long as possible over the floor, leaning on one or both hands (or bent arms) and feet. It is important not to bend at the waist and not to lift your pelvis up. The line of the spine from the crown of your head to the coccyx must be perfectly even. Trained people can try plank with a fitball, putting their feet or hands on the ball.
