Here are some quick tips on how to activate your transverse abdominal muscles. #short #badyogi #badyogitips #yogatips #transverseabdominalmuscles #TVAmuscles #activateTVA
It's really important to learn to use abdominal breathing in order to exercise abs properly. Otherwise, you're not contracting a whole lot of muscle which leads to either cramps and low results or worse, muscle damage.
Diastasi recti, I have three kids and I have a huge gap in my core muscles and when I do this type of exercises, my abdomen gets all weird like all popped up. I was told to use a special garmet for people with diastasis when doing core workouts, and it’s getting better now
Activating it is acting like someone is about to punch you in the gut, and you're bracing for it. Or, imagining your belly button pushing towards your spine
yeah same! I hate that instructors will yell it without explaining! I've done standing ab workouts before and felt nothing in the region. Turns out I needed to be clenching the whole time?
@brittanys505 I don't know! All I know is that with standing ab workouts I don't feel it at all, in comparison with good old fashioned bicycle crunches
Also, because technically it helps with managing a safe blood pressure, if you exhale on exertion. Standing up from a squat, exhale. Overhead press, exhale. Any time you're working against gravity, it's likely that you're on the exertion side of the exercise. So, exhale on exertion. I like to remember it as E&E.
It's mostly because of the biomechanics of your diaphragm/lungs in combination with your core muscles. With breathing out the lungs shrink in size. You need this "extra space" when your muscles are tensed up, otherwise there would be less room for your organs (they get pressed down a little when you use your belly muscles) + your abdominal muscles are able to contract better that way
It’s the lung and blood thing mentioned in the other comments. More abdominal space means you’re less likely to cause a hernia. Which is also why flexing your TVA during a crunch is a bad idea. It increases abdominal pressure which can cause hernias. 🤢
This is a really helpful visualization! I’ve recently started getting into exercising and it pisses me off to no end when they use phrases like “activate your core” “pinch your shoulder blades together” but don’t actually explain how to do it and so beginners end up doing it incorrectly. So much more helpful for me to hear “visualize pulling your belly button through your spine to the floor” and “shrug and then drop your shoulders” or (helpful specifically for my experience) “stand with choir posture” to figure out how to hold my body.
@@tanie3543 wait, are they different things? i’m just starting to get into working out and i keep seeing “engage”, “activate”, and “brace” your core and i don’t know what it means exactly lol i try to practice but i have no idea if i’m doing it correctly or not.
She explained it so well! Breathing in when you are putting your head back down and then exhaling while pulling your belly button in as if you were pulling it into your lower back flattens the stomach out and works those muscles that she's talking about when you're crunching up. Of course she knows what she's talking about.... look at her dang abs! Amazing!
I can’t seem to get it.. does it mean my abs are not strong enough just to hold that? I think I get it until I do the exercise lol (not sure tho either 😭).
That's not at all what this is about. This is about controlling the correct muscles to preserve the integrity of your core, and not going further than you can properly and safely do, it's not about how much fat you have
Really great video! The bread loaf' is made up of the stronger muscles, that easily help you sit up. The more you bread loaf, the more you'll never achieve flat abs or a really strong core. Mini sit ups, for a few months, where you only move as far as you can while keeping your abdomen flat, will do more for your abs than anything else. When your abdomen is flat, the deeper, weaker muscles are getting a proper work out. Mini sit ups are SO boring and unfulfilling... They are a bit soul destroying...until you realise they are SO worth it! They're great for lower back stability, weight lifters, dancers, gymnasts and athletes
Warning - if you recently had a pregnancy or have had a period where you had extreme belly fat, you may have diastasis recti and need to activate your transverse abdominis with exercises that let you SAFELY heal your abdominal tearing before doing something like a sit up (as shown here) or you may cause worse “coning” or “doming” aka breadloaf. (Look up diastasis recti on RU-vid for lots of videos on how to diagnose but if you had a baby or have a belly overhang you probably have it.)
This makes so much sense. This also makes me hate laying down ab exercises even more. Not only do I have asthma which makes breathing in general difficult after a short while of doing exercises, but now I also need to make sure Im breathing properly into the stomach... Im happy when Im breathing period.
My core got so much stronger after being pregnant, especially the 2nd time, because I was forced to learn to pay attention to the way i use each muscle. Mind body connection is crucial.
Squat University and many other physical therapists/trainers often talk about NOT drawing your belly button towards your spine during core work, but rather breathing in deeply to expand and then bracing, in order to create stability in the spine and fully engage all core muscles in the lower back and lower abdomen. This basically contradicts that and I’m wondering what are the benefits and downsides of doing it this way versus the other?
That bread loaf can also signify a separation in your abdominal muscles. If that exercise pushes your muscles out then it is most likely causing the separation to get worse
I am overweight so it's hard to tell what's going on under there when I'm in the gym 😂, but I have diastasis recti from pregnancy and it's resulted in back pain as back then I had no idea this problem existed and that it's pretty common. Important to engage your core even in your usual posture but I keep forgetting!
That’s one of the many core muscles most people don’t activate. You can also push out your belly, pull it up, pull it in, pull it right or left, try it out. All of that should engage when doing core exercises. It’s the hardest mind muscle connective imo, I can’t get it right yet
Hardest mind muscle connection? Thank you so much for saying this. As a man of 27 years of age I’ve always felt like my core was my weakest point in my body. Seems I gotta do lots of research now.
It’s because your body is built like that naturally to support your weight. Please don’t damage your body to hide “imperfections”! Everyone needs muscle and fat to survive!
Thank you so so much! I literally just followed along and felt the difference immediately! This is the type of shorts that percolate in my subconscious in such an instant way I’m super grateful
There are exercises that are definitely contraindicated if one has diastasis rectii, which is what causes this doming effect- the muscles separate (often as a result of pregnancy or weight issues, but can also separate as a result of exercising them too hard/incorrectly) and this can cause a ton of other issues. I absolutely do not do crunches because of this, they’re crap exercises anyway.
If you get the "loaf" stop doing the ab-excersizes and get it checked by a physio tgerapist or foctor first. It happens a lot because of rectus diastatis. It can occur due to pregnancy, overweight, c-section and abdominal surgery. A lot of people never heard of it. If you have RD, pushing through with regular ab-excersizes can cause hernia abd un-nessecary strain on the mid- and lower back.
@@jaybeanzx When you're severely underweight you have no fat tissue to cover your abs. So if you try to do this exercise the wrong way, you don't get a loaf. You get a Tablerone triangle chocolate bar. I hope your question was out of pure confusion and if so, I hope I explained what happens to skinny people's abs
Thank you!!!!! I have diastasis recti that I’ve been working on (at one point I couldn’t even suck in my gut) … but I still get the weird peak when doing a sit up… this made it go away (mostly, there’s still a little piece that sticks up still where my ab still opens)
This is... If you have a belly either you're bloated or you have excess fat on your belly. You don't need to keep your belly flat just for the duration of doing the crunches though, unless your crush is watching you exercise. And doing variations of crunches won't benefit you in any meaningful way, you could be doing many other exercises and getting a lot more bang for your buck.
@@MatteoFitness It may well be, but what I'm saying is further than that, what I'm saying is that it's not even worth targeting your abdominal muscles. Not as a woman. At the right body weight your abs will look fantastic. I think most people would agree that not-so-muscular abs _with low belly fat_ looks equivalent to (or even often more aesthetically pleasing) than muscular abs with _or_ without low belly fat. ( _Building_ the ab muscles is not what makes abs look better on women) On men I recognise it's more up to preference, enough so that it at least makes sense to have it as a goal to have more muscular abs. It's also part of the conversation that there's an opportunity cost involved. In most circumstances, unless you spend a crazy amount of time working out, you could be exercising some other area instead and reap more rewards.
oh my god I’m a guy and this has happened to my since forever!!! I’ve been so frustrated because I knew my abs weren’t supposed to look like that while doing excercise and not a single gym pro / instructor has been able to tell me what was wrong until I saw this video!! Bless you ♥️🙌🏻
This is really helpful to know! I'm sad we live in a world where you thought you'd get roasted for this! Thx for teaching us how to bake our belly loaves 😂
My PT said that when you activate properly the waist widens rather than bulges up. I still have to look down for the “widening” to see if I’m doing it correctly!
Just don’t lift the head from the ground. All you accomplish is to increase pressure on your Pelvic Floor muscles. Then, you can develop urinary incontinence. Exhale to activate your TA’s and that’s all you need to do. Replace crunches for hipopresives. Good luck ladies
This is important, i tried for years without instruction and i struggled. Having to retrain and seeing strength increase a lot 👌but it hurts all over again xD its improved my posture too.
I hate knowing there could be something wrong with me like I swear the next comments are gonna be "if you have this you are pregnant, have brain cancer and diabetes 😭
Thanks a lot it's working. Never knew I was a 'loafer' until I saw this. Now wonder why crunches aren't working on me - because I didn't do it right 😅😂
Its called doming. You could also take 2 fingers on each side tap firmly and brace your core against the tapping or with the breathing, place your hands on either side of your belly button and push against your hands. Practicing doing it will help it feel natural so it will happen organically at some point.
