Are You Wasting Your Time by Strengthening Your Core For Back Pain Relief?
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Have you been told that you need to strengthen your core to get back pain relief?
This is one of the most common solutions that’s reported as being effective for reducing back pain. The problem with this solution is that there’s a difference between strengthening your core and training your core, and the difference isn’t widely advertised.
Why do you need a strong “core”?
The core muscles are like finely tuned sensors, anticipating and reacting to every movement, position or load that is placed on your body. You can think of your core muscles working the same as an automatic pilot system on a plane: your core is constantly making small unconscious adjustments so that you react appropriately to your environment.
There’s an overwhelming amount of information about what exercises you should do for “your core”, but not a lot of explanation about what it is, what it does for you and why it’s important when it comes to relieving your back pain.
So what IS “the core”?
The Core typically describes the area between the base of your pelvis, the pelvic floor muscles, and the diaphragm, the primary muscle of breathing that separates your chest from your abdomen. The core is also supported by the deepest abdominal muscle, called the transverse abdominus, and the deep muscle of your spine, known as the multifidus.
Imagine your rib cage and pelvis as two circular rings, suspended one on top of the other. The base of these rings, the pelvis, is supported from below by the pelvic floor muscles. Above is the “roof” of the diaphragm supporting the ribcage. Around the middle, wrapping the rings like a cylinder, is the combined support of the transverse abdominus and the multifidus.
The shape created by this muscular support system is roughly like a beer can.
Now imagine the same two rings supported only by a thin strip of muscle down one side, with no support below or above, and no wrapping effect. How do you think the two rings would stay aligned and supported? Probably not very well.
The muscle that creates this strip down one side is the rectus abdominus – the very muscle that most people are anxious to strengthen with “core” exercises. This muscle is typically know as the “6-pack”. The rectus abdominus is not a core muscle, nor is it a solution to back pain.
Can you visualize the difference between having an integrated cylinder of muscles that support your ribs and pelvis as a unit, and just a thin strip of muscle that only supports in two dimensions?
The bottom line is that you need to train your “beer can” – your inner core – before you start to train your 6-pack. If you don’t, you’ll end up making your back pain worse.
Why is this?
Because the deep core muscles are muscles of control and support and operate unconsciously in preparation for movement. The timing of these muscles is critical for proper movement and spinal stability. Without this support and control mechanism, you’re constantly putting excess load on your spine and throwing it off balance.
After any episode of back, pelvic or abdominal pain, the inner core muscles no longer coordinate properly to support the trunk. Even after an episode of pain has passed, research shows that the fear of pain is enough to stop the normal functioning of the core muscles. So after even one episode of back pain, you need to consciously retrain your core or you risk repetitive episodes pain.
The problem after back or pelvic pain is that your brain and nervous system are no longer communicating effectively with the core muscles. It’s as if you flipped a switch that turned these muscles off – like turning off your cell phone.
If you don’t restore this communication system, no amount of core strengthening will help. Simply put, you can’t strengthen a muscle that your brain and nervous system can’t find.
The solution is to train your brain to train your core muscles before you strengthen them.
How do you do this?
First, you have to restore the correct timing and activation of your core muscles. And before you can do that, you have to understand the feeling of contracting your core. This requires concentration, awareness and focus. There’s no exercise that will automatically activate your core if it’s been switched off due to pain. The way to train your core is the “how”, not about the “what”.
Here’s a quick way for you to tell whether your inner core muscles are working correctly: lie on your back on the floor or firm surface with your fingertips resting on your lower abdomen. Inhale. Exhale slowly and empty your lungs completely. What did you notice under your fingertips?
If your inner core muscles are working correctly, you felt a slight tightening under your fingertips as your abdomen flattened out a bit. If you noticed that your abdomen domed up or pushed out into your fingertips, you’re probably not using your core muscles. Coordination of breathing and core muscles is key.
Try lifting your head or lifting one foot off the floor as you monitor your abdomen. Did your abdomen dome up into your hands as you lifted your head or your leg, or did it contract and stay flat? Sometimes we call this doming effect the “rectus poofus”. It means that your rectus abdominus, or 6-pack, muscle is engaging too quickly, or too much, and that your core muscles are under-engaging.
This pattern of too much 6-pack and not enough beer can is a recipe for continued back pain.
We intuitively want to “do” something to train the core, but the solution to back pain relief is not always doing what seems to be intuitively correct.
The solution? Train your brain to train your core muscles first, then begin to strengthen your core with more traditional exercises. Otherwise, you’re not only wasting your time doing core strengthening exercises, you’re also going to make your back pain worse.
If you found this information helpful and would like to practice training your core, you can find an audio with more specific breathing and core training here:
www.thenaturalback.com/themastersystem/environment.php
Just click on the “breathing and relaxation audio” link
Copyright: Body Mind Online LLC 2009
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Source by Lindy Royer