Core stability. Why do I need to control the deep abdominal muscles?

A strong core and visible abs must be one of the most common goals for people who train. When we set this goal, we often focus on training the surface muscles or the straight abdominal muscle (Rectus abdominis), but that leaves many important areas without any attention. To be able to take on different sports and ways to exercise including gym, ball games, and group exercise classes without risking injury, we must also pay attention to the deep abdominal muscles underneath the surface muscles.

What is the core?

When people use the word core, they usually mean the muscles in the middle of the body including back and abdominal muscles. Anatomically thinking the core consists of different parts of the body including the abdomen, spine, pelvis, hips, and chest. The core takes part in every movement we make during the day, whether it is a daily task like lifting up a pen from the floor or squats with heavy weights at the gym. If the core muscles are not functioning properly, more additional stress is caused to the rest of the body, which can then lead to for example an aching back.

Even though the core includes a wider area, today we will focus on the deep abdominal muscles and why we should all train these muscles. It’s an easy question to answer; we should train our deep abdominal

muscles to stay healthy and so that the core will support all the movements that we make as part of everyday life and when we exercise.

A quick look into the anatomy of the transverse abdominal muscle

The transverse abdominal muscle, sometimes called transversus abdominis, is the deepest layer of the abdominal muscles. The transverse abdominal muscle extends from the connective tissue in the lumbar region of the back, ribs, and hips straight to the synovium of the abdominal muscle. It has an important role in adjusting the pressure in the abdominal cavity and in stabilizing the spine.

A flat stomach

Many people dream of a flat stomach, but aren’t necessarily aware that the secret to a flat stomach is to get the transverse abdominal muscle into a good shape. You might have seen a bodybuilder with a very low body fat percentage and clearly visible muscles. Even though they have a visible sixpack, the stomach might look bloated. This is because the deep abdominal muscles haven’t activated and the stomach doesn’t stay flat. A low body fat percentage doesn’t guarantee a flat stomach if your deep muscles are asleep.

Support belt

When the core is activated, it should form a support belt that wraps around the whole spine. If we only train the surface muscles without activating the deep abdominal muscles, this natural belt won’t form around the core, and it won’t have the support it needs for movement. Lack of a support belt or weak activation of the muscles leads to the risk of back injury even in typical routine tasks, for example getting up from the bed. And how many times have you heard someone hurt their back doing deadlifts? In both of these situations, the stabilizer muscles didn’t function properly, and the muscles weren’t able to react quickly enough to protect the spine.

Support for movement

The support belt described in the above paragraph should activate automatically; even slightly before you take hold of a heavy box to lift it. Especially ball games require rapid movements that force our bodies to have lightning fast reactions. To keep our bodies healthy and react to these fast movements like a change of direction, we must have these reactions built into the body. You can use a quick test to check how well your own body reacts: place your hands against each other around chest height, after a moment, try to surprise yourself by pressing your hands forcefully against each other. What do you feel in your body? If you feel contraction in the core, you can congratulate yourself: your abdominal muscles reacted. If there was no reaction, you know you have to pay more attention to the deep muscles in the future.

Posture

Doing only crunches will not lead to a strong and healthy core. Sit-ups activate not only the abdominal muscles but also the iliopsoas muscles, which most people find are already tight due to the current sitting culture prevalent in our society. When the iliopsoas muscles tighten, they start to affect our back negatively by changing the position of the hips. This emphasizes the curve in the lower back and leads to increasing pressure on the back, which can lead to back pain symptoms. Strong crunches can also cause our front line to tilt and decrease its flexibility.

This brings us back to training the abdominal muscles. Our training for this muscle group can’t consist of only exercises for the surface muscles and crunches. We must take into account these different topics and different muscles diversely in our training. To keep your core healthy so it can support you in everyday life and in exercise, you need to activate the deep muscles, strengthen the straight and transverse abdominal muscles and do integrated exercises, which help the core function together with the arms and legs.

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