Belly Lifting 

AMC Outdoors, November 2007

How to start strengthening your core

Second only to the common cold in triggering trips to the doctor’s office, lower back pain zaps 80 percent of Americans at least once in their lives. Half this demographic experiences one or more bouts of pain within two years of the first occurrence–and that often leads to a lifetime of chronic backaches.

Mary Marcinkowski, a licensed physical therapist for the past 24 years, says lower back pain doesn’t have to be a fact of life, or of getting older.

“It’s the stomach that’s going to make your back strong,” she says. “If you get your stomach to do the right thing, your back muscles turn on automatically, so that you’ll get the full carriage of strength that you want to have.”

Marcinkowski is referencing your core, or trunk, muscles, the center of your gravity, posture, and range of motion. The brain may be mission control, but the core is the set of thrusters that gets the whole rocket moving.

A deep layer of abdominal muscles–including the one you use to suck in your stomach–make up the main thrusters, sup-ported by pelvic and hip muscles. You use your core in every activity you do. If neglected, it can weaken and provide you with less endurance and stability.

FALL INTO LINE Remember being browbeaten by your parents about good posture? Well, that advice is a lynchpin in keeping your core engaged. Stand in front of a mirror and take a good long look. Does the middle of your ear line up over the middle of your shoulder, and does that line up directly over your hip, knee, and ankle? It should.

“You want to keep your rib cage stacked on top of your pelvis,” Marcinkowski advises. “You don’t want it behind your pelvis or in front of your pelvis–or you’re just going to change the dynamic of where the spine is and ask that it work harder than it should.”

WALK SOFTLY AND TALL  When we wear a heavy pack and hike a steep section of trail, we often stoop forward. This puts most of the load on our weaker back muscles. Marcinkowski says hikers should keep themselves upright and think tall. “It’s the difference of lifting yourself up or letting yourself really be compressed down by gravity.”

There’s a trick for this. Listen to your feet as they hit the ground. If you are stomping, then your thrusters aren’t firing correctly; your center of gravity is skewed. With correct posture, you won’t hear your feet as much as you might hear the leaves crackle under them.

There is an antiquated exercise you can practice: Grab a book, balance it on your head, and walk.

“You can’t let your head be forward, you can’t let your back hunch down because the book’s going to fall off your head,” says Marcinkowski. “When you put that book on your head, you’re not going to clod around on your feet; you’re going to walk softly.”

NAVEL MANEUVERS We’ve all sucked in our bellies at one time or another, but doing so on a regular basis can do more than hide some extra holiday girth. It can strengthen your core and help address bad posture.

“The right way to do stomach exercises should be the belly coming in from your lower stomach area–not from lifting your rib cage in the air,” advises Marcinkowski. Try lying on the floor. Concentrate on using your muscles to bring your belly button toward your spine. Remember–rib cage down! Repeat this exercise.

THE BACKSTORY  In a 2006 study in the U.K., two groups of active individuals suffering from chronic lower back pain were monitored for six weeks. One group participated in a one-hour, once-a-week Pilates class that focused on core strengthening; the other group did not. Both groups otherwise went about their normal activities. The group that completed the class reported improvement in general health, flexibility, and pain reduction. The control group noted no significant change to physical well-being. So, belly in, people. Get your thrusters firing.