What is a low pressure ab exercise and why i teach them when working to retrain & reconnect the core…

So we all know and love high pressure ab exercises (crunches etc), but what exactly is a low pressure ab exercise? Well, it’s pretty much any ab exercise where the spine stays in neutral, and it can have varying degrees of intensity. Here’s an example of a moderate low pressure ab exercise for you to try:

• Lie on your back and bring your legs into tabletop position.
• Lift your pelvic floor and wrap your transverse abs to a level 3 like we talked about above 
• Bring your right hand and press it against your left knee and raise your left hand up towards the ceiling
• As you exhale, press your right hand and your left knee towards each other quite hard without changing the position of your spine or pelvis, whilst simultaneously reaching your left arm and right leg out straight to about 45 degrees from the ground (diagonal)
• As you inhale, bring it back in
• Think about diagonal energy coming across your core from your right ribs to your left hip and notice just how much core strength is required in order to keep the spine in neutral, to prevent the ribcage from flaring out, and to prevent forward pressure in the core
• Do this 10x on each side

Notice just how MUCH ab strength is required to keep the spine in neutral (a little bit of space between the low back and the mat) and to prevent the rib cage from flaring out. If you are unable to prevent these two things from happening, you would be better off doing more beginner low pressure ab exercises, and you definitely should not be doing crunches yet!

My 12 week course works in 3 phases, with beginner, intermediate and advanced low pressure ab exercises. Building in intensity as you move through the course, and preparing your core pressure system to handle crunches without putting forward pressure on your abs, so that you can do things like lifting heavy children without putting all the weight into your low back and feeling like everything is squishing out in all the wrong places.

>>Click here to come join us<<

Emma xo