What’s the best way to stabilize your spine while you’re exercising? Should you pull your belly in? Or should you brace your abdomen without pulling it in? Here’s my take:
Author: Nick Ortego is the owner of N 2 Action, a wellness studio in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, offering personal training, health coaching, yoga, and assisted stretching.
What is bracing exactly? I get lower back pain when I swim and have been concentrating on pulling abs in tightly as I swim. This is not helping. Do you think bracing would help? What would be considered good technique? Thanks!
Bracing possibly could help. Pretend someone is about to hit you in the stomach. This activates all the abdominal muscles including the deep muscles which draw the abdominal wall inward, and the superficial muscles which push the wall outward. There is no crunch movement involved and the abdominal wall moves neither inward nor outward. Good luck with this Imelda.