How to Improve my Abdominals? Part 1

Have you ever gone to a class and wondered: is there a way I can improve my abdominal strength? Maybe due to women’s health changes, a diagnosis or a treatment you have recently recovered from. There is an important lifestyle factor to improving your abdominal engagement and i’ll be starting this series with this.

How’s Your Pelvic Floor?

Do any of these sound like something you are experiencing:

• Pain during sex or any bladder and bowl movements?

• Pressure in the lower back and mons pubis during activity?

• Upper back pain or neck tension during chest flexion (crunches and such)?

• Numbness, hot/cold or tingling in the leg?

These are often signs of some more attention is required. Ideally you will be properly diagnosed by a medical provider such as an orthopedic doctor, a physical therapist, etc. A proper diagnosis can create a streamlined treatment needs and exercise focus. However my quick assessment is a breathing exercise, I like to call 360 breathing.

How to do 360 Breathing

Placing the hands on the side of your rib cage, see if you are able to breath equally into the sides of your ribs.

Continue to hands spread across your belly as close to having your pinky touching the top of your hip bone and your thumbs to the lower ribs (floating ribs). In this position notice if your ribs align with your top hip bones. If so continue to expand your breathing so that you now combine the side breathing into your ribs with this new hand placement. Focusing on opening all sides equally as possible. Some clients may benefit from standing in from of a mirror.

Having difficulty?

A posture assessment maybe the better option for you, finding if you have other imbalances that could improve your breathing patterns. Sometimes a muscle can be so tight and underworked that it pulls on other parts of the body making this exercise difficult. Other times it maybe related to your past injuries or experiences (such as stress or overworked muscles) that inhibit your ability to feel this expansion. You are welcome to book an assessment with me whenever you feel like you need that extra knowledgeable teacher to assist you.

How does this relate?

Well this is the common question but one that means a lot for most clients with long term goals to move better, feel better and reduce tension aches and pains. Your pelvic floor works as a piston with your extremities. When your breathing is better the control of your pelvic floor contractions into your deeper abdominal muscles (transverse abdominis) improves and vice versa. With this you can actually feel your full ability of your abdominals to manage pressure and control movement rather than “throwing your limbs around” as I like to put it.

So let’s continue into the next part which is the posture assessment that can be something you need more of than you’d think.