Seated Abdominal Exercises Improve Spine and Waistline!

Crunches don't work. They are out, old news, finished. Crunches make your gut bigger, not smaller, and they rip apart the connective tissue in your abs leading to diastasis. If you disagree, think about all the hundreds of crunches you've done throughout your life, and then look at your waistline. If you want an exercise that truly works your entire core, then don't lay down ... Sit down!

Doing exercises in a chair isn't a popular trend, but for the elderly, out-of-joint, chronically ill, and handi-capable among us, chair workouts provide an exercise option that doesn't stress the joints and maintains better spinal alignment. Desk jockeys working eight to five shifts in front of computers can appreciate a few leg lifts, neck rolls, arm circles and Pilates teasers, too! But throw in this amazing yet simply transverse abdominus exercise, and you've got a stomach-flattening friend for life!

Your transverse abdominus (TA)is located under your six-pack and obliques, and it wraps all the way around your body like a god-given girdle. People with weak TA's will feel the flex in their lower back, belly button area, and sometimes also above their hips. To activate the TA, sit up straight with your back supported. Relax your shoulders down and back, and place your hands on your waist with your fingertips in your center. Take a big belly breath, expanding outward. Now exhale your air as you suck in your gut, pulling your navel back into your spine.

You just flexed the most ignored, most important core muscle you have. Here's a video that my Fit2B Studio filmed with The Tummy Team that will help you determine how strong your core really is based on the integrity of your transverse abdominus.

 How strong is your core? from fit2b.us online studio on Vimeo.

To tone your transverse, you need to do several sets of pulsing flexes every day. Exhale as you pull your belly button to your spine, and then hold it there and pulse it in as far as you can for 50-100 repetitions. It sounds like a lot, but you can do it in a chair with good alignment, and it takes less time than all those dumb crunches!