Hopefully by now your allegiance to the church of crunches has been shaken if not broken. For those of you in crunch rehab, here’s an anti-crunch sequence that will strengthen your deep abdominal muscles and help you practice controlling movement from your center. A block or pillow is an optional prop for this sequence.
Table top
- Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and arms open horizontally with your palms facing up
- Put a block at its most narrow level between your upper inner thighs
- Exhaling, squeeze your block and engage your core as you draw your navel toward your spine and cinch your waist
- Keeping your low back still, bring your knees up over your hips so that they create a 90-degree angle
- Keep hugging your belly down toward your spine and keep your low back neutral as you hold your legs there
- Relax your neck and shoulders, and try to relax your hip flexors (take the work out of your legs and put it into your belly)
- Hold for 3 – 5 deep breaths.
Lift and lower
- Keep the 90-degree bend in the knees and keep squeezing your block
- Inhaling, lower the legs just a few inches forward toward the floor
- Exhaling, hug the belly back toward the spine as you bring your knees back over your hips
- Keep your low back still (if you feel it arch, your movement is too big)
- Keep moving to the rhythm of your breath, squeezing your block and using the core to control the movement of your legs
- Keep relaxing your neck and shoulders
- Continue for 10 – 20 reps
Side to side
- Keep the 90-degree bend in the knees and keep squeezing your block
- Inhaling, lower the legs just a few inches toward the right
- Exhaling, hug the belly back toward the spine as you bring your knees back over your hips
- Inhaling, lower the legs just a few inches toward the left
- Exhaling, hug the belly back toward the spine as you bring your knees back over your hips
- Keep moving to the rhythm of your breath, squeezing your block and using the core to control the movement of your legs
- Keep relaxing your neck and shoulders
- Continue for 10 – 20 reps
Now set your feet back down and ditch the block. Straighten your legs and reach your arms long overhead for a full body stretch to re-lengthen your abs. And see if you can take this awareness of using your core to control the movement of your legs with you…
