This is exercise #5 in our series on Core Strengthening Exercises – the side bridge. If you do all of the exercises in this series daily your core will be super strong… But like with everything in life you do need to do it daily for it to be effective … you got to do it and keep doing it to stay strong.
Instructions
so as always follow the video below – but in general don’t forget to brace and do these steps:
lay on one side
prop yourself up on one elbow
support your shoulder with the opposite hand
bend your knees to 90 degrees
brace
lift your hip off of the floor and keep your body in a straight line
hold 10-20 seconds
repeat 5-10 times at first
repeat on other side
Video
Final words
if you have any questions as usual please don’t hesitate to call or send an email!
We love core strengthening right? So I bet you think you know how to do a crunch right? Are you sure? Hmmm. Maybe not…. to do crunches properly and make sure you are really strengthening your core as much as you need to read on…
Instructions for proper core strengthening with crunches…
step by step instructions are easy and almost exactly what you have always done with one or two new twists…
These extra bits make all of the difference in activating the proper muscles including a muscle called the transversus abdominus which really helps to activate the whole core (anteriorly and posteriorly).
Here are the steps:
Lay on your back with your knees bent
place one hand on your belly
place the other hand behind your neck with your thumb and fingers spanning your neck to the upper back
brace (this is exercise #1 – told you that you would need it again)
put your tongue on the roof of your mouth (yes you read that right)
crunch and lift your shoulders slightly off the floor without moving your neck into flexion.
Ok so why with the tongue thing? It makes it so you can’t engage your neck muscles and you have to use your core. This is the way you were always supposed to do crunches. Who knew right?
Video
for a step by step how to please see my YouTube video below!
Questions, Comments and Queries
And as always, if you have any questions or need more help with something please don’t hesitate to call our office. If you aren’t sure this one is for you please also ask us. If you have an injury this may not be appropriate for you — yet. I always give this exercise to my lower back pain patients but it usually requires some treatment first before we can get to this point. If you have pain, please seek treatment first – Pain is your body’s way of letting you know something is wrong… go get it looked at and fixed! Let us help…
In our series on core stability we are on week number 3 which brings us to Resisted Side Stepping. This is a great core stability exercise and this chiropractor gives it to many of her patients to build good core strength. Good core stability helps prevent lower back pain.
If I am really lucky I have finally figured out how to get my own YouTube Channel, upload this video and imbed the link in this blog post. I have been trying to make my videos short but feel rushed and they end up being too long for this site so hopefully this is a tech solution for this chiro who is trying to learn the tech!
Equipment
Ok so for this exercise you do need one piece of equipment and that is a resistance band. You can use a large rubber band like I have in this video or something like theraband which is easily found at a sports store or your chiropractors office in many cases. Start with a light resistance because this silly little exercise can be quite challenging. If you have no idea what I am talking about when I say resistance or exercise band see the picture below – it is essentially stretchy material that will provide resistance at the ankle level during this exercise.
How to do this Core Stability Exercise:
Start by bracing – that is contracting your stomach muscles (see exercise #1).
Then hands on hips, band around ankles and bend knees.
Take steps to the side one direction 5-10 times and then the other.
Make sure not to waddle!
Video
For the video please click on the link to my YouTube video link below! (guess I got really lucky and figured this out!)
Summing up
So this is core stability exercise #3 – as always if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call and ask or contact us for more information or help.
Over the next 5 weeks I will be posting one exercise per week via video to show you how to build a strong back and core stability.
I only like teaching one exercise at a time because that way you are much more likely to incorporate that exercise into your daily routine, get good at it, and be ready to add another one in a week.
So we will start with the Brace which I think I have blogged about before but you need to do this exercise and be good at it to do the following 4 weeks of exercises.
Please click on the underlined words “Brace2” below to watch a quick video of how to do this. I made this video for a lifting post I did but the exercise is the same (yes by the way you should do this when you lift too!)
Try doing this every time you stop in your car at a red light or stop sign and hold it as long as you can. Remember you should be able to breathe normally during this exercise or you are doing it wrong. Just engage your abdominal muscles and hold. It helps build strength in your abdominals and even some deep layers of the lower back muscles.
That’s it for now – call, email or text me If you have any questions!
