The Secret to Protecting Your Back and Lifting Stronger

Do You Really Know How to Brace Your Core?

Do you know how to brace with your abdominal muscles? We often give cues like: turn on your abs, imagine you’re about to be punched in the stomach, or brace your core – but what does this really mean and how do you know if you’re doing it right? I finally learned how to do this properly after over a decade of dance and once I was already a CrossFitter, after my second child. I was so sure I knew how to brace that I thought the women’s health physio was funny for asking me about it! Then when she had the ultrasound over my abs and watched the muscle layers to see if I could do it, that was a real eye opener.

Why Abdominal Bracing Is So Important

Abdominal bracing is really important to support and protect your back for so many functional movements, including lifting the barbell or picking up your kids. Here are some tips for how to get it right.

“It’s Not a 1RM!” – What the Physio Taught Me

That’s what my physio told me as soon as she watched me do that first bracing attempt on the ultrasound. I was contracting my external layers of abdominal muscles very strongly, but nothing was happening in the deep abdominal layers – the ones that really count for bracing properly. Her tip was “it’s about 10% of that and in the deepest layers”.

How to Feel the Deep Core Activation

You can lie on your back with your knees bent and head lifted slightly off the ground, with your fingers on either side of your abdominal muscles. When you activate the deepest transversus abdominis muscles it should feel like, deep beneath your fingers, the sides of your rectus abdominis (the vertical muscles) almost slide inwards towards each other. It’s a delicate movement and you’ll only feel the slightest activation under your fingertips, but when you get it right, you’ll get how this is the core (pun intended) of bracing.

The Balloon in a Box Analogy

The cue “imagine you’re about to be punched in the stomach” might also work well for you to activate an overall contraction that includes bracing correctly. But for some people, myself included, it might just lead you to suck in the abdominal area and flex those exterior muscles.

Think of your core as a box. The top of the box is your diaphragm, sitting under your lungs. The bottom of the box is your pelvic floor, that supports your pelvic organs. The sides of the box are your abdominals. Imagine that inside that box is a balloon – and you want to inflate that balloon so that it’s pushing out equally on the top, bottom and sides of your cardboard box.

Breathing and Pressure: The Key to a Strong Core

The way you do this is take a breath, hold and push OUT and to the sides. Don’t bear down, and don’t suck in. If you do this right, your core should feel like a strong and supported column, and you should be able to maintain that feeling as you move – which is exactly what we want when we’re lifting weights.

Using a Lifting Belt to Practice Bracing

Coach Gem wrote a great article about lifting belts – you can also imagine pushing out into the lifting belt to get that same sensation of even outward pressure. The key is maintaining gentle pressure on all sides and the top and bottom of your column/imaginary box.

Why Expert Guidance Makes a Difference

Sometimes a demo does the trick! You may have seen us show what bracing looks and feels like with your hands on someone’s core before and after they brace. This tactile cue can be really helpful to understand what we mean by “pushing outwards”, so next time you’re in the gym feel free to ask the coaches about it.

Post-Pregnancy? Why Women’s Health Physios Are Essential

And if you’re a woman who has had a baby, it can be a bit harder to purposefully activate your core after all it’s been through. It’s very worthwhile to see a women’s health physiotherapist for targeted information and tools on abdominal activation and how to brace correctly to protect your back and pelvic floor inside and outside the gym.