Do you ever find yourself slouching in a chair, slumping at the computer or your belly sticking out after standing for a while? This is a sign of core muscle weakness that can negatively affect your health and create long-term back or neck pain.
What are Your Core Muscles?
Your “core” is the group of muscles that help stabilize your body and give a strong anchor point from which your skeleton can move properly with good posture. The core is made up of your abdominal, low back, pelvic and gluteus muscles. When anyone of these groups is weak, it causes instability and makes it hard to use your body properly. The result is strain to different areas of your body, especially the back and neck muscles. This causes bad posture, fatigue, inflammation, aches and pain.
Can’t I Just Do Sit-ups?
Actually traditional sit ups are probably the least effective exercise to strengthen the abdominals. Plus, abdominal strength is just one component of strengthening your core muscles, remember there a lot more core muscles than just your abs. It takes an expert, trained in the science of human movement to analyze where your pain is coming from and just what core muscles you need to strengthen.
Are you able to do this?
- Lie on the floor face down and prop-up on your elbows
- Now lift your torso off the floor so only your toes and elbows are in contact with the floor.
- How long can you hold this?
30 seconds or less = very weak core muscles
30 seconds to 1 minute = moderate weak core muscles
1 – 2 minutes = normal strength in core muscles
2 minutes or more = good strength in core muscles
If you found yourself also shaking while doing the above test, you probably have poor motor control of the core muscles.
Get Stronger and Healthier!
Our physical therapy professionals are medical experts in the muscle and skeletal systems of the body and we have been helping back pain and sciatica sufferers in Algonquin for the past 23 years. Whether your pain is from your back, neck, shoulders or legs, we perform a thorough analysis of your posture, your movement and strength. This allows us to pinpoint exactly what is causing your pain. Only then, can an effective t plan be made to obtain the fastest results. Call us today at Diamond PT, 847-854-0196 to learn more about how we can eliminate your pain and improve your health!
