This resistance band trick will teach you how to properly activate your core

This resistance band trick will teach you how to properly activate your core

Even if you've memorized the definition of "activating your core" and can easily repeat it to your confused workout friends, completing the walk can be a challenge. Finally, the actions required to contract and tense your core muscles and help create stiffness and stability in your midsection are not exactly intuitive. But a simple hack recently posted on Instagram might help you finally master the move.

Developed by Katie Clare, DC, a certified chiropractic sports practitioner in Minnesota, this core engagement trick involves lying faceup and pulling a resistance band—attached to a kettlebell handle at your side—tightly under your lower back. As you perform your ab exercises (Clare performs dead bugs in the demo), you'll work on keeping the resistance band tight. When it wears off, that's your clue that your core is no longer engaged.

And this isn't just another viral hack that lacks legitimacy: This simple core engagement trick actually works, says Kelly Froelich, certified personal trainer and co-founder of digital fitness platform Balanced. To properly activate your core—which consists of muscles in your abdomen, back, and pelvic floor—you should tense your midsection as if someone were punching you in the stomach, she says. This bracing then changes the position of your spine, making it “neutral.” "You have a natural curve in the lower part of your spine when you're just sitting normally, but when you engage your core, that curve basically flattens out," she explains. "If you don't tighten your core, then that natural curvature of your spine is back. This is actually a pretty good trick to make sure you're tightening that core and pushing those back muscles into the floor by doing that with the resistance band."

It may seem like a small detail that doesn't really matter, but you'd be completely wrong: Properly activating your core is essential to getting the most out of your workouts and avoiding injuries - not just in fitness, but in life. "If you don't have that commitment, those core muscles don't work, and there are actually other muscles that compensate for that," says Froelich. For example, if you perform leg raises without activating your core (the main moving force for the exercise - aka the muscle group most responsible for the movement), other muscle groups, such as B. Your hips, which accommodate slackness for carrying on the go, she explains. “These secondary movers take on more work that they are not accustomed to, which can lead to strain and injury,” says Froelich. However, by keeping a resistance band tight under your back, you can ensure that all the correct muscle groups are working to complete the exercise.

Although this novel hack can only be performed during supine exercises, it is still useful if you plan to perform upright or prone movements in other aspects of your routine. “The goal and function of your core is to stabilize, and the best way to do this is to brace or hold your core in a clenched position,” says Froelich. "By doing this with the resistance band, you're forcing yourself to really maintain that core engagement, [which is] really important when you're doing a core exercise." In other words, practicing this trick regularly—even without dead bugs or leg raises—will teach you exactly what it feels like to have your core engaged. Then, as you tackle other exercises that call on your core stability like Russian twists, planks, and squats, you can remember that tight feeling and adjust your form as needed.

Additionally, the resistance band trick can be a useful tool for any person, regardless of fitness level, says Froelich. "That's amazing for beginners - even if you're not doing any movement of your body - just feeling that core support to get those stabilizer muscles working," she explains. "I think it's also a really good test for intermediate or advanced athletes who want to make sure they're still supporting their core as they add more choreography or other movements [to an exercise].