Don’t know if you’ll see this reply so late after the original blog, but here’s an interesting NYTimes article on abs/core/back related work. It seems to contradict some of the stuff we’ve been reading.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/?em

Watch how you lift, they were very strict on all this in my job back in the UK and it was policy to not lift more than e.g. a pound of sugar, any more than that and you are already putting strain on your backs. The education on this was drilled into us every year. Shocking facts, but true.

Lift from bending down first at the waist, and use your legs more to lift the weight keeping the load close to your body, and then stand up straight.

Any thing too heavy should be lifted by more than just one person, or by use of equipment to lift it instead.

If you lift by bending over, the more you do this the more pressure you put on your backs, and each time it makes your back weaker, until one day ‘Bang!’ your back is put out, and permanent damage results, putting you out of work, along with many other lifestyle limitations along with it.

I swear by osteopaths myself over a chiropractor, mainly as I like the massage that goes with it along with the clicking manipulation of getting your back into alignment, shame there are none in Canada however, and why ever not????

http://gaijinkettlebell.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/breath-behind-the-shield/

Mike P.

Anyways, here’s a little exercise that helped me find these muscles. See the arrows in the 2nd to last picture? Basically, we want to reverse the direction of the arrows – the goal is to develop a “posterior pelvic tilt” – in contrast to the anterior tilt displayed in the image.

Find a hard floor and lay on your back and fully extend your legs, arms relaxed at your sides. Your lower back is arched in it’s natural position, and probably not in contact with the floor. Your glutes may have engaged here – relax them – can you feel the bony area around the top of your butt-crack touching the floor, maybe a little uncomfortably? That’s OK – hopefully the next movements will alleviate that!

Those next movements are where we reverse the direction of those arrows. Imagine a steel bar through your hips – check out the 2nd to last image, where the dot is – your lower abs/lower back on one side, and your pelvis on the other. Press your lower back & abs into the ground, and draw your pelvis towards the ceiling, rotating around that imaginary steel bar. The pelvic movement will be minimal compared to that of your lower abdomen. Now your entire back should now be in contact with the ground. Squeeze, then relax your glutes – keep ‘em relaxed – theres a different muscle “in” there that’s drawing your pelvis towards the ceiling.

You might also try it with your knees bent (say, 45 degrees), soles of feet flat on the floor. Same as above, pressing your lower back/abdomen into the floor. This is a great position for finding “feel”, and isolating all those different individual muscles in the area. Try sucking your belly-button to the floor (is this the transverse abdominus at work?) versus simply squeezing the “6-pack” abs. Squeeze the muscle that stops the flow when peeing (google : kegel exercises). Practice that minute motion of drawing the pelvis to the ceiling, without engaging the glutes. **** Combining these will give you a “bandha”, or body lock, which I believe is referred to as an engaged core. ****
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Once you get the feeling, start bringing it into your everyday activities, walking running climbing etc. Anytime i’m in a chair – driving, in class, wherever – I focus on pressing my lower back into the surface.
But it’s A LOT easier to cultivate that feeling on the ground, where you can really feel the lower & upper back in one straight line.
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**** This statement above may not be accurate – maybe someone who is friends with a yoga instructor will ask them to add some insight. ****

WOW that was incredibly difficult to translate thoughts and actions into these words. I have so much respect for people who can communicate these things with ease. Here’s a video youtube recommended for me while I was writing this (how’d they know?!?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0BLxSY2L3Y

I hope some of you find some of this helpful!

Dave

Of a similar importance (and also overlooked) is the multifidus group (which is actually labeled in your anatomical picture)! These are small muscles connecting segments of the spine. They go from 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 segments. Awesome little muscles. They are used mainly for balance, keeping posture and so on. The thing is that people believe that the big muscle groups are the important ones for everything, including posture and balance, which is totally wrong! Standing on a slackline, for example, engages multifidus (and trains the core too), doing tree-pose engages multifidus (then close your eyes and you’re really engaging it). If multifidus doesn’t work then the spine becomes super sensitive to muscular imbalances amongst the large muscle groups… leading to slipped discs.
Examples of exercises for both multifidus and the core: NEARLY ANYTHING. That’s why we are learning that they are so important, because those are our base groups. That’s the thing, it’s not so much which exercises use them its making sure you don’t not use them.
Examples: Bicep curls or lat pull-downs or bench presses or … you name it really, but do them while kneeling or sitting or lying on one of those large yoga/exercise balls, or incorporate a slackline, or on one foot. Something unstable that gets the body to fine-tune and stop relying on the superficial groups.
The machines are the gyms are made so that you don’t get injured and sue them! So they immobilize your spine. You sit against a hard surface, or lie on the bench… Or, and this is one of the worst, you put a belt around your waist – at which point your body learns to keep the spine safe by pushing out against the belt instead of strengthening its own belt: the core. (p.s. belts are great for “one-time” uses). Most gym exercises actually teach multifidus and the core to disengage!

So start engaging them!! Have fun! And thanks again Sonnie for getting this out to the climbing community!!