Engaging the abdominal muscles during exercise helps build a stronger core, promotes better movements, and protects against injuries. However, contracting the abdomen isn’t always easy, especially if you’ve never intentionally done it before. In all sports practices and exercises, you can practice abdominal contraction with a simple technique and improve over time.



Why Contract Your Abdomen?

The abdominal muscles form the core of our body. This part of the body is crucial because it connects the lower and upper parts of the body, helping them work together to perform quality movements. It also supports the spine, contributing to good posture and preventing back pain and injuries.

However, if your abdominals are weak or relaxed, they won’t provide the necessary support for the lower back. Strengthening the core muscles, not just by doing crunches but also by contracting them during all exercises, allows you to exercise more safely.

Weightlifting is a good example of when it’s important to keep the abdomen contracted. Performing a heavy squat or lifting a lot of weight off the floor in a deadlift can wreak havoc on your back if your abdomen isn’t contracted.

If you’re a runner, keeping the abdomen contracted during a run can help prevent compression of the lower back due to impact.

But it doesn’t stop there; if you contract your abdomen every time you perform movements like picking up bags from the car trunk, tying your shoelaces, among other activities, you will always protect your lower back and strengthen your abdominal muscles over time.

Contracting Your Abdominal Muscles

To learn how to contract your abdomen during exercise, first practice this technique. Then, you can incorporate the technique into your workout:

1. Lie on your back on the floor or an exercise mat.

2. Bend your legs, keeping your feet on the floor, hip-width apart.

3. Place your hands on your abdomen.

4. Intentionally start contracting your abdomen and pressing your lower back against the floor so that your pelvis lifts slightly.

5. Take a deep breath without running out of air.

6. Exhale, slowly emptying all the air from your belly while pulling your navel towards your spine to achieve full abdominal muscle contraction.

7. Inhale, filling your belly with air, not your chest. While filling the belly, do not lose the abdominal contraction.

8. Inhale as much air as you can and exhale all the air while maintaining the contraction.

9. Repeat the exercise as many times as necessary.

Tip:

Always monitor your breathing to avoid overdoing it, especially during inhalation. If you breathe too hard, you might feel dizzy after a few repetitions, which can be dangerous.

You might also keep your abdomen slightly relaxed during exercise to allow your body to move more naturally. But you mustn’t relax your abdomen completely. The idea is to keep the abdomen as contracted as possible.

Therefore, use this exercise as a way to learn how to fully contract your abdomen to keep the CORE engaged and then adjust the contraction during exercise as needed.

Abdominal Contraction During a Squat

Practice incorporating the technique into your workout by contracting your abdominal muscles during squats.

1. Stand upright and slightly contract your abdomen. Inhale and exhale, contracting the abdominals. As you inhale again, start lowering into a squat by bending your knees and directing your buttocks back without hyperextending your lower back, as if sitting in a chair.

2. While doing this, maintain the abdominal contraction. When you are in the squat, you should be at the end of the inhalation. Exhale as you begin to rise, pushing your feet down, contracting your abdomen even more. Always maintain the abdominal contraction.

Abdominal Contraction Bicycle

Keeping the CORE contracted during abdominal exercises serves two purposes:

1) it protects the spine from strain and

2) it makes the exercise more effective.

1. Lie on an exercise mat on your back with your legs extended and your fingertips lightly touching your head behind your ears. Practice the abdominal contraction technique for one round of exhalation and inhalation.

2. Retain the contraction while lifting your legs off the mat, keeping them a few inches off the ground. On your next exhalation, pull your right knee in and twist your body to the right, bringing your right knee and left elbow to touch.

3. Inhale and return to the center, maintaining the abdominal contraction. Then, bend your left knee and twist your body to the left, bringing your left knee to touch your right elbow. Return to the center, maintaining the contraction.

Abdominal Contraction During Aerobic Workouts

When running or cycling, or during an aerobic class, engage your core to promote better posture and reduce the risk of injury. Always keep your abdomen back, as if pressing your navel towards your spine, almost as if preparing for a punch.

This will help remove the arch from the lower back, which, especially during high-impact activities like running, can cause back pain over time.

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