Exercise Breakdown: Abdominal Bracing

Abdominal bracing is the basis of all core strengthening exercises. It is also something that many people  struggle with!

Core strength provides a stable base of support for all of our movements – from reaching up over our heads, walking and running, to sitting up and getting off of the floor. Therefore, having good core strength is imperative, and when the core is weak, it can affect not only your back, but shoulders, hips, knees and more.

When performing core exercises, group fitness leaders may say “brace your core”. But what does that mean, and how do you know that you’re doing it correctly? What are signs that you are training your core properly, what might indicate that you need to change how you are performing core work well, and how can you make the appropriate changes?

Signs You are Training Your Core Well

1. You are able to breathe through all movements

2. Your spine is in a neutral position

3. You feel the work coming from the front of the abdomen, not your back

Signs You Need to Work on Things

1. You are holding your breath: Breathing is a large part of your anticipatory core. Your diaphragm (breathing muscle) is one of 4 key components of your “deep core” which helps maintain intra-abdominal pressure, aka bracing your core. Breath holding can be a way to create intra-abdominal pressure, but this doesn’t train your other core muscles to do the work to do this. Additionally, if your abs are used to working while holding your breath, this doesn’t translate well to using your abdominal muscles while walking, running, or performing other movements, because you need to breathe during these activities!

2. You are forcing your low back flat onto the ground, or feel it arch away from the ground as you perform the exercise: The optimal position for your spine while performing exercises is a neutral position. This means you should have your natural lordotic curve (slight arch in your low back), not forcing your back into a straight position with spine flat on the ground. The reason for this is that when performing exercises and daily activities, your spine is in a neutral position, so we want to train the abdominal muscles this way. If you are flattening your back, you are in what’s called a posterior pelvic tilt, which is not a normal position to be in. It also impairs the piston function of diaphragm with the pelvic floor, which helps maintain intra-abdominal pressure.

3. Your back feels sorer after exercises than your abdominal muscles: This one should make sense – if we are trying to exercise the anterior core muscles, your back shouldn’t feel sore after! That usually means that your back is doing too much work to help stabilize the spine and pelvis, and other muscles like the transverse abdominus, isn’t doing enough.

How to Make Changes:

1. Focus on your breath: When performing all exercises, but especially core focused exercises, make sure you are breathing and not holding your breath! Typically it is best to exhale on the harder part of the movement. For example, when performing a dead bug, inhale as you lower leg and arm to the ground, and exhale on the way up. Establishing breath to movement patterns ensures that you are actively breathing.

2. Put it (your spine) in neutral: This is a great OPI nail color (iykyk) and what you should do with your spine when performing core work! Find your neutral pelvis by lying on your back. Tilt your pelvis all the way forwards so that your back arches off the ground. Then tilt your pelvis all the way back so that your back flattens to the ground. Repeat a few times, then find the midpoint in between those two extremes. That is your neutral position. From here, engage your abdominal muscles without changing the curve of your spine.

3. Use your abdominal muscles, not your back: Engaging the correct muscles is the hardest part! Some cues that I use to engage the correct muscles are “bring your belly button towards your spine”* (*note: this does NOT mean suck your stomach in. It means using your ab muscles to tense up and get closer to your spine, and is best performed with a big exhale); “tense up like someone is about to punch you in your stomach”; “Think of your ab muscles like a corset or belt, tightening up to squeeze everything together”. I like to practice by incorporating breath, starting on your back or in quadruped, taking a big inhale to fill the belly with air. Then, exhale forcing the air out from your lower belly first. Think about squeezing a tube of toothpaste from the bottom up. Did you feel your lower belly muscles tighten to push the air out? Those are the muscles we want to activate. Most importantly, if you feel your back muscles taking over when performing core work, stop, take a break, reset your core, and start again.

I hope that this helps you better understand your core and how to best train it! A physical therapist, like those on the Precision team, can help you better understand your core and help you select exercises that are appropriate for you! Your pelvic floor is also an important component of your core, so check out Dr. Perrin's blog posts about the pelvic floor as well!

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Elizabeth Karr PT, DPT, OCS