Do you suffer from back pain or just want to build a stronger core?
Watch this video and I'll take you through Dr. Stuart McGill's.
Big three exercises for core strengthening.
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I release a new video today I'm going to talk to you about the big three
exercises.
Dr. Stuart McGill is a professor in spinal
biomechanics at the university of Waterloo that's right here in Ontario,
Canada where I also live and he's basically the
master of helping people recover from back pain.
He's done a lot of research.
He teaches clinicians so he knows what he's talking about when it comes to
spinal health.
Dr McGill has three exercises that he calls his big three that are important
for spinal stability and those are the ones I'm going to share with you today,
particularly important for people with lower back pain and make sure you watch
the video all the way to the end because I'm going to show you how to
incorporate these exercises into your routine and I'm going to explain the one
very important instruction that Dr McGill insists on for all exercises.
We're going to start off with the bird dog exercise,
which you've probably seen before,
but this is a very specific version for McGill.
He likes to do the isometric hold and it's a very slow controlled movement
with a hold.
So you're on your hands and knees here and about
whatever's comfortable, hip distance for you.
First thing that you're going to do is make sure that you've got an arch in your
lumbar spine, maintaining that natural curve and you're going to pull in,
drive your abs up without rounding your back. So maintain the curve,
tighten up with the abs and then move.
So you're holding for about 10 seconds at the top and then bring it back down.
It's very important that you avoid shifting from side to side.
Everything is done with the control of the abdominals. When you're finished,
all your reps on one side, you switch
and then come back down. So this is a great exercise for the core,
the TVA, the back,
everything that's involved with stabilizing the spine.
The next exercise is the modified curl up.
You're going to start this on your back.
Okay?
Lace your hands underneath your lower back and you want to maintain that arched
throughout the exercise.
The other important thing here is that you're lifting your elbows up, okay?
Just to take the attention off there.
So that's your starting position with your upper body. One leg, in this case,
one knee is going to be bent and the other leg is going to be straight.
So it focuses and helps you brace on that side.
So what happens here is that you want to do that bracing action.
So like you're tightening up your abdominals before you make any movement.
Kind of think about when you're in a plank position. That's the bracing action.
So you brace and then lift the head up
and then you're holding there.
So you do your accounts from here and then back down.
Now it's really important that you don't start cranking your neck up or anything
like that. It's a very gentle lift.
You just want to lightly lift your head up,
hold it there, and then back down. Remember also that your elbows are still up,
your back is still arched and you've got one leg in front.
When you're done all the repetitions and holds on one side,
you can switch over and do it on the other side.
So left brace to begin and hold. One,
two, three, four, five, six and then,
and the last exercise is the side bridge or the side plank.
Now are you going to try?
You're going to come sideways and the important part of this one is that the top
leg is going to come slightly in front of the bottom leg and that will set your
position up. It's a little bit more stable than what you often see,
which is one foot over top of the other,
so one over top of the other here in front of the other,
and then you're going to come down on your elbow and forearm really pressed in
and then lift
and you want to make sure that your spine is aligned.
You've got that little curve in the lower back and you're pulling in your TVA if
you want. You can either put your hands here at the side.
I like to do this one with the hands. Is that just to hold that position
and the same thing.
It's a bracing of the abs so you can feel the obliques working primarily here.
You're going to get a little bit of glute work there as well.
That's your whole position and then you come down
and then you're going to come up and do this.
So it would be 10 seconds on one side and then come back up for
another rep of.
10 Seconds.
And then come back down.
And then you do this six times on one side and switch over and do six reps on
the other.
You'll notice that if you go through the entire protocol that it can take a long
time. So you can modify this,
you can do one of these big three exercises per day,
or you can just do a shorter amount.
You can go straight up to the ten second you can modify the holds in general
throughout the program and just do whatever works for you.
It's better to be doing these exercises some way and partially
then not to be doing them at all.
And the one thing that Dr McGill absolutely insists on is the neutral
lumber spine.
And that means just maintaining that curve in your lower back while you're
performing these exercises. So to be honest,
despite the fact that McGill is such an expert,
the idea is somewhat controversial and a lot of people think it's perfectly safe
to be able to flatten the back. Just kind of flatten this,
this way to train the TVA and it's okay to do some exercises that way.
His expertise is with back pain patients particularly.
So perhaps for someone with a healthy spine, it's not an issue.
I've actually found that with beginners,
flattening the lumbar spine helps them to learn how to activate the
transversus abdominis.
And I think that's the key because we need to learn to activate the TVA
first and then we can use it in all positions.
Because remember the role of the TVA is to stabilize the pelvis and the
lower back before you, before there's movement of the arms or legs.
So you really want to make sure that you know how to activate that TVA one way
or the other.
So let me know in the comments if you've used these exercises before,
what your experience was. If you haven't tried them out, leave a comment.
Let me know what you think.
And I also want to help you with the rest of your health and fitness journey.
So head over to my website ivanachapman.com where you can pick up your copy
of my free ebook and of course subscribe,
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