Balance abs
Balance abs
Load the weight of your body on one leg that should be slightly bent, slide the other back and feel how, as you stretch, you drag your pelvis back a little, creating a curve in the lower back. Join your hands and raise your arms above your head to help raise your ribs and stretch the front of your torso. Switch legs. Do 10 stretches (5 with each leg).
Stretch the anterior rectus
Stretch the anterior rectus
Standing, plant your feet firmly on the ground. Join your hands at the height of the sternum, as if you were praying. As you breathe in, lengthen your arms by slowly raising your hands above your head. The heels should not come off the ground, while the legs are extended without locking the knees. Let a curve in your back naturally form without feeling pressure on the vertebrae. Hold on and return to the starting position. Repeat the movement 10 times.
Tone the anterior rectus
Tone the anterior rectus
When you reach the maximum stretch from the previous exercise, exhale and against the pelvic floor as if you were zipping up from the pubis to the navel. Try not to lower the ribs and keep the sternum elevated. Feel the air rising, pushed by the pressure of the perineum and abdominals, and out through your open mouth. Lower your arms and repeat this stretch 10 times.
Balance stretch
Balance stretch
Distribute your weight evenly between your two feet, then aim to balance on one leg and then the other. Keep your hands on the waist to ensure that the area between the ribs and the pelvis does not move when changing legs and that the waist remains firm and stable.
Torsion
Torsion
Standing, raise your right arm and stretch it diagonally to lengthen the right side of your trunk, both laterally and twisting to the left side: this allows you to stretch your right minor oblique. Now bend the left leg and bring the right leg back, so that the pelvis also moves back. In this position, breathe in and out slowly. Return to the starting position and repeat with your left arm. Repeat 10 times.
Balance your abs
Balance your abs
Lying on the floor, raise your legs and arms trying to find balance with your abs, making sure that your lower back does not lift off the floor. Then raise
your head but respecting a distance between the chin and the throat. Perform this movement with an inspiration, opening the ribs to prevent the rib cage from lowering and the
belly from bulging, otherwise the pelvic floor would have too much pressure.
Doing abdominal exercises as has always been done, that is, on your back, raising the upper part of the trunk, can damage your lower back and cause the dreaded low back pain or low back pain because it is usually done by “throwing the arms forward and hyperflexing the trunk in the regions low, ”explains Blandine Calais Germain, author of Safe Abs and an expert in anatomy on the move. As Calais Germain says, "There is a risk of wearing down the lumbar intervertebral discs."
In addition, these types of crunches can also put excessive pressure on the pelvic floor, weakening it. Not to mention the risks to the cervical vertebrae if the trunk is raised by pulling the neck with the hands.
For this reason, Blandine Calais Germain proposes another way of doing them, "you can wake up the abdominals in much more varied ways, working with alternations and coordination". Therefore, we give you some exercises in our gallery, so that you can follow an exercise routine at home. It may surprise you that almost all postures are standing, but it is one of the easiest ways to get your abs working without putting your back at risk.
