Hard Core Muscles for Mummies (Part 2)
July 10, 2010
In the previous article on "Hard Core Muscles for Mummies (part 1)", we have touched on the importance of strong core muscles. Now let us look at some simple exercises (that do not require equipment) people can do at home to help strengthen their core muscles.
Exercises should be done daily for 3 -4 weeks to see results.
Hard Core Muscles for Mummies (Part 1)
June 29, 2010
Recently our physiotherapist Cheryl Ng was interviewed by Young Parents Magazine and published in the July version on why having a "hard" core can save your neck and back from daily activities.
Do you have neck and back aches during pregnancy or after delivery? Do you really think it is part and parcel of parenthood? Think again.
What are the core muscles and why are they important?
Core muscles stabilize your body and the pelvis during dynamic movements, such as walking and running. The core muscles include the transverses abdominis (TA), multifidus, pelvic floor muscles and the obliques. These muscles are attached to the inner portion of your thorax, (the trunk region below your ribs to your pelvis), allowing them better control of your spine and pelvis while you move. Imagine a tree trunk that has been cut into half. The rings of the tree represent the layers of your core strength. The transverses abdominis (TA) is the innermost ring, acting as a thick corset around your spine. It gives stability to the trunk and support your spine to help maintain a correct upright position.
All movements of the trunk activates the core muscles, so even when you are lifting your hand, the core muscles in your back and abdominals are recruited to assist the movement. Hence, it is crucial that your core muscles are activated before movement occurs, in offer to offer support and strength to your spine, as failure to do so will result in excessive or faulty loading to your spine, leading to low back strains and pelvic dysfunctions. Fortunately, our core muscles are normally already activated when we are in good posture, the problem comes when we deviate from good posture or sustain back injuries, thus deactivating the normal auto-recruitment of the core muscles.
How are they related to persistent back and neck pains?
Weak or inefficient core muscles are one of the contributing factors to persistent back and neck pains. We are constantly loading our spine with our activities of daily living, such as, working at the desk or computers prolonged, and carrying laptop bags or groceries. These activities stress the spine and the muscles that worked to support it may strain and get injured. This results in faulty postures which either avoid or aggravates the pain, hence, changing the normal activation of the core muscles, thereby reducing the protective function of these muscles. This may eventually set in motion a vicious cycle, in which faulty posture lead to incorrect muscle activation and less protection of spine, which lead to pain, and eventual muscular weakness , which lead to more faulty postures and pain and eventual degeneration of the spine, with persistent and recurring back and neck pains.
What are the negative effects weak core muscles can have on pregnant women and parents (who spend a lot of time bending over to take care of the baby, carrying children etc.)?
During pregnancy, your core requires greater stabilization due to changes in your weight, posture and centre of gravity. As your pregnancy progresses, the muscles that make up your core, plus the muscles that support you and your growing baby become stressed and extremely challenged. In addition, relaxin, a hormone emitted during pregnancy, ‘loosens’ your joints and ligaments in preparation for birth; as a result your supporting muscles have to work harder to achieve adequate stability. This in turn may lead to overstraining of your core and supportive muscles. A weak core will then result in higher probability of back and pelvic strains, which can be debilitating. Hence, strong core muscles play an important role in supporting your spine during pregnancy and also in assisting recovery from child birth.
The same goes to parents who spend a large portion of their time nursing and doing other back-breaking tasks, such as carrying children, lifting heavy cradles or large bags. Since such tasks are repetitive, the stress in the back accumulates over time and may eventually lead to fatigue of the supporting back muscles, resulting in back sprains. Again, having strong core muscles will help in better supporting the spine and back, thus reducing the likelihood of injury.
Weak muscles lead to bad posture. So why doesn’t a gym workout help?
April 4, 2010
Weak muscles lead to bad posture. So why doesn't a gym workout help? If you have chronic back or neck problems, you almost certainly have bad posture, though it may not be certain which came first. Nevertheless, you will often hear (or get) advice that you need to strengthen your postural muscle and correct your posture.
And after months of hard work at the gym with weights and cable machines, you feel slightly better but you still slouch now and then. Why didn't it work fully for perfect posture ALL the time?
Muscles Types
The reason gym workouts fail to completely correct and support your posture all the time, is that it simply did not target all the relevant muscles – the stability muscles. And it was the wrong type of training for some of the muscles – gym works targets the power muscles. And muscles exercises alone isn't enough – postural awareness is also required.
What are the different types of muscles and why does the differences matter?
We tend to think of muscles as simply muscles but in fact, there are broadly two basic muscle types - striated muscles (that includes those postural muscles) and smooth muscles.
- Striated muscles are your skeletal muscles. Muscles that you usually think of such as your bicep muscle or calf muscle.Your heart muscle is also a type of striated muscle but stands distinct from the rest of the skeletal muscle.
- Smooth muscles are usually involuntary muscle that blends in other tissue type to form say your bladder or intestines.
Longer weaker, Shorter stronger
One key difference between striated and smooth muscles is that the strength of the striated muscle weakens the further it is stretched apart. So the same muscle, at say, 10cm length will exert a lot of more force at both ends as it contracts then if the same muscle is stretch to, say, 20cm. More specifically the strength of the muscle is a function of the area of its cross-section – the fatter, the strong the muscle.
Smooth muscle is different is this respect. It doesn't lose its strength as it gets stretched out. An important feature to have with a full bladder or stomach.
So now we know that skeletal muscle, a type of striated muscle, is weaker when it is stretched and stronger when it is shortened. What does this mean to people with bad posture?
It means that one of the key things to do to strengthen weak posture muscles it to shorten the lengthened ones and lengthen the shortened ones. That is get your posture right to strengthen the key postural muscles and to release to the overly tight/strong muscles that is pulling you out of the right posture.
Sustaining good posture and strengthening the postural muscles is further confused by how we think about muscle strengthening programmes. To build strong muscles, we generally think about more repetitions, heavier weights and repeat as required. This works if we are talking about big power muscles such as your biceps and thigh muscles. Postural muscles have a higher percentage of Type I (slow twitch) fibres. These are fibres that are designed for endurance, not power.
This means for slow twitch fibres, a better type of exercises is one where we use lower load threshold and holding it for longer periods of time. Again, it sounds exactly like holding the right posture for prolonged periods of time (with proper rest periods in between) will improve your posture over time.
When a movement is loaded with too heavy a load, the fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibres take over.This is one of the reason why lower load exercises like pilates and yoga are better for people with low back problems than heavy workouts at the gym.
| Fiber Type | Type I fibers | Type II a fibers | Type II x fibers | Type II b fibers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contraction time | Slow | Moderately Fast | Fast | Very fast |
| Size of motor neuron | Small | Medium | Large | Very large |
| Resistance to fatigue | High | Fairly high | Intermediate | Low |
| Activity Used for | Aerobic | Long-term anaerobic | Short-term anaerobic | Short-term anaerobic |
| Maximum duration of use | Hours | <30 minutes | <5 minutes | <1 minute |
| Power produced | Low | Medium | High | Very high |
| Mitochondrial density | High | High | Medium | Low |
| Capillary density | High | Intermediate | Low | Low |
| Oxidative capacity | High | High | Intermediate | Low |
| Glycolytic capacity | Low | High | High | High |
| Major storage fuel | Triglycerides | Creatine phosphate, glycogen | Creatine phosphate, glycogen | Creatine phosphate, glycogen |
| Myosin heavy chain, human genes |
MYH7 | MYH2 | MYH1 | MYH4 |
4 signs that you may not be ready for Yoga
November 14, 2009
After our recent article, “Is Yoga Bad For You?“, we had a lot of questions on what are the signs that they need to look out for and if they are ready for yoga. Read more
Is Yoga Bad For You?
August 3, 2009
It depends on whether it is done appropriately. Yoga along with today’s other similar lifestyle exercises such as Pilates are often prescribed as a way to take care of your back or neck pains. However, the problem doesn’t really lie with the exercises. Rather with the understanding of what it can do and what it can’t do.
Prevention is not Cure
April 27, 2009
"Hi, I am suffering from pain in my lower back. It has been going on for some time now, about 6 weeks of so. Hot packs and heat rubs don’t seem to be working as before. And it seems to be getting worse. I heard that Pilates and Tai Chi is great for preventing back pain, so I was thinking one of them. Which would you recommend? Thanks!" – Pauline Shi
How to choose a Swiss-Ball
April 22, 2009
The Swiss ball has been with us for a long while, since 1963 to be exact. It was invented by Aquilino Cosani, an Italian plastics manufacturer. Swiss balls today are almost de-riguer in gyms and it is not unusual to spot one in place of a chair at work or at home. But with so many choices available, buying one can be a daunting. So how does one go about choosing a Swiss ball?
Multifidus – Smallest Yet Most Powerful Muscle
March 15, 2009
What is mutlifidus?
The multifidus muscle is one of the smallest yet most “powerful” muscle that gives support to the spine. Most people have the misconception that small is insignificant but it is not the case when it comes to this particular muscle.
Multifidus muscle is a series of muscles that are attached to the spinal column. These series of muscles are further divided into two groups which include the superficial muscle group and the deep muscle group.
Warm-up Routine For Golfers – Part II
September 11, 2008
In the previous article, we looked at 6 different warm-up exercises for golfers designed by one of Australia’s respected physiotherapist, Dr Barbara Hungerford. Here we’ll show you the remaining 6 warm-up exercises designed and recommended by Dr Barbara Hungerford. Read more
Confused Over Core
July 12, 2008
If you suffer from back pain, you would have likely been told that exercises are good for you and specifically those that strengthen your core. Unfortunately, these days it is harder to get by a week without reading somewhere in the newspapers, health or fitness magazines, hearing in the gym about core strength, core conditioning and core stability or about some new fitness equipment.
It can all be rather confusing. So, if you are suffering from back pain, what sort of core exercises should you be doing?
What is core?
Before we start discussing which core exercises are relevant for back pain sufferers, what exactly do we mean by the ‘core’ muscles?
The core area relevant for low back pain is the trunk region below your ribs to your pelvis. On this point, both physiotherapists and fitness instructors generally agree.
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Lenia Teo, B.HSc(physio)
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