Core muscle group training 4 abdominal muscles front bridge to prevent injury

Office workers are prone to lower back pain, waist, shoulder and neck stiffness, and there is a high chance that their core muscles are insufficient! The better your core strength is, the lower your risk of injury in daily life or on the sports field, and you can naturally avoid problems such as back pain. As long as you exercise your core muscles and practice the correct bridging movements, you can easily say "no" to pain and sports injuries.

If you want to exercise your core abdominal muscles, try the front bridge exercise, which uses a lot of abdominal strength. (Photography by Hong Yuqi)

Hong Fanen, a coach at Lige Sports and Health Center, said that most people mistakenly believe that training six-pack abs is called training abdominal muscles. In fact, training the core abdominal muscles is to create a muscle shape like the human body's "golden bell and iron cloth shirt". Training the core muscles is not about increasing muscle size, but about strengthening the muscle groups inside the body that are closest to the spine, shoulder joints and hip joints. The concept of health care is the concept of pre-strengthening, which takes into account stability and mobility, and can naturally avoid sports injuries.

Exercise the abdominal core muscles in 4 areas

The so-called abdominal core muscles refer to the muscle tissue group located in the human abdomen. The abdominal core muscles can be roughly divided into 4 parts: the first part is the six-pack muscles that boys often see and love to train, also known as the "rectus abdominis", which is a relatively shallow part; one layer inward on the left and right sides, it is also divided into "internal oblique muscles" and "external oblique muscles" that utilize rotation functions, which are roughly located on both sides of the abdomen.

The most important and deepest layer is called the transverse abdominal muscle, which is the weight belt that bodybuilders or weightlifters carry after winning gold medals. The shape of the transverse abdominal muscle looks like this. The main purpose of exercising the abdominal and pelvic muscles is to lock the human trunk. Through training, the rectus abdominis can be subjected to a great deal of pressure, or under the resistance of deformation, it can withstand the pressure of body weight and prevent the risk of injury to the upper and lower torso.

Lying on a vibrating device and doing the frontal bridge exercise will help increase the difficulty and make the shoulder muscles, shoulder joints, and abdominal core muscles more stable. (Photography by Hong Yuqi)

Exercise the core muscles to improve body movement stability

But why does exercising your core muscles help prevent sports injuries? Coach Hong Fanen further explained that taking arm movement as an example, when the joints of the human arm and torso are connected together, a stable and solid soft tissue such as muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc. is needed to help build it up, and this strength is collectively referred to as the core muscle group. If you can successfully train your core muscles, especially the abdomen, shoulder joints, hip joints and other easily injured parts, you can prevent sports injuries in a very solid and stable state.

Frontal bridge exercise helps to train the shoulder joint, hip joint and trunk stability

What should I do if I want to exercise my core abdominal muscles? Coach Hong Fanen suggests that you can try doing the frontal bridge exercise on flat ground, which not only helps to strengthen the stability of muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints, but also has the effect of exercising the abdomen, shoulders, hips, core muscles, and stabilizing the torso.

The most important thing is that when performing the movement, you must use the correct muscles to maintain it. The arms that support the ground actually also have the function of training stability. Therefore, it is not only the trunk and hip joints that bear the force. In contrast, the shoulder joint must have sufficient stability to be able to be established. Therefore, the front bridging movement can also help train the stability of the shoulder joint.

The side bridge movement helps strengthen the "internal oblique muscles" and "external oblique muscles" on both sides of the abdomen.

Increase the difficulty! Try the dynamic frontal bridge exercise

If the static frontal bridge movement can be maintained stably for 30 seconds without any random swaying and the movement is very solid, you can consider challenging yourself to reduce one of the centers of gravity, such as raising one hand or one foot, or adding a dynamic movement, such as lying on a constantly vibrating vibration device and performing the frontal bridge movement. This will help increase the difficulty and make the shoulder muscles, shoulder joints, and abdominal core muscles more stable. In addition to the front bridge movement, you also need to do the side bridge movement to strengthen the "internal oblique muscles" and "external oblique muscles" on both sides of the abdomen, which will help to stabilize the abdominal core muscles and make the waistline more distinct.

Coach Hong Fanen reminds that whether you are exercising the core abdominal muscles or other parts of the body, you should proceed step by step when performing the movements. (Photography by Hong Yuqi)

【Expert Tips】:

Coach Hong Fanen reminds that whether it is exercising the core abdominal muscles or other parts, the movements should be performed step by step, from short time to long time, from static to dynamic, from no weight to weight, and implemented in stages according to the difficulty. Execute and complete each movement step by step slowly, and do not force it. This is the only way to prevent sports injuries.