ABDOMINAL MUSCLE EXERCISES

Abdominal muscle exercises, lower back pain exercises and injury prevention

Whether you aim to run a marathon, perform step aerobics, scrummage for Harlequins, or cycle the London to Brighton, you shouldn't neglect a proper conditioning routine as part of your training if you want to achieve muscular balance and avoid injury.
The best prepared sportsmen and women tend to have a comprehensive routine, often involving muscles that are not directly connected with their particular activity.
One of the most common sites of injury, regardless of the sport, is the lower back region. There is a whole host of causes for lower back pain; for example, in runners weak or inflexible hamstrings can often be the culprit. Poor posture is another common cause, so conditioning of the muscles that help to maintain solid posture should form part of the schedule of anyone who exercises regularly, whatever their discipline or sporting standard.A variety of muscle groups contribute to good posture and all require attention. Naturally the lower back muscles can do with strengthening. Work on the abdominal muscles is also important because it will complement work you do on the back region; it is dangerous to develop muscular imbalances by working on just one side of the body. The contribution of the gluteal and hamstring muscles should not be overlooked when considering sound posture and preventing injury to the back region.It makes sense, therefore, to develop a session that will work on all these areas and give the right level of conditioning for injury prevention. As a number of different exercises are used in the following training session, it is possible to construct a mini-circuit. But don't get the idea that I'm talking about normal 'circuit training', with athletes working eyeballs-out in a gym, trying to pump out as many reps of each exercise in as short a time as possible. Far from it - if you adopt that attitude to this particular session, you'll be risking injury rather than helping to prevent it. Your emphasis here should be on completing the exercises in a controlled manner so that there is no loss of form and no unnecessary tension throughout the body. For this reason I often call the session the 'No-rush Circuit'. There is no stopwatch involved and no target heart rate; the intention is to gently condition the muscles rather than to boost cardiorespiratory fitness. Six exercises are involved and you simply move from one to the next to complete one circuit. If you incorporate such a session, once or twice a week, into your exercise schedule, it will prove valuable, whatever your sport or activity.