How to wake up your backside

You’re going to wake up your backside today!

Your core includes the front abdominal muscles, the back muscles, and the muscles that stabilize the hips and we must address all of them to build your entire core. I hear you, it can be a lot to take in. And how in the world do you build up every area?

You do it by starting with small, consistent actions. Today, you’ll learn 2 ways to build muscles that contribute to a strong core by strengthening the back muscles.

Keep on reading to learn 

• The importance of a strong back

• How to strengthen your back

• The importance of strong hip stabilizers

• A great way to build up hip stabilizers

Why you want a strong back

Our society tends to focus on strengthening the front abdominals, ignoring our backside. You want both strong deep abdominal muscles and strong back muscles. Why? A strong back…

• promotes correct posture

• can prevent back pain

• stabilizes the spine 

We tend to want to stretch the back muscles. This is reasonable since they often feel tight. If a muscle feels tight then what’s a normal reaction? Stretch it.  

But. You want muscles to be flexible and strong. Emphasizing just one will not serve you. 

One way to strengthen your back

This practice will require that you make your way to the floor and lie on your belly. You’ll connect your breath with the movement. I have instructions below and also an audio version. My suggestion is to read through the instructions and then listen to the audio.

Instructions

1. Lie down on your belly with your chin or forehead on the floor.

2. Place your arms alongside your body with the palms touching your outer thighs.

3. Help protect the low back by engaging some abdominal muscles.  Do this by gently pressing your pubic bone into the floor or reaching your tailbone to your heels (both cues accomplish the same thing). 

4. Lift the heads of each shoulder (where 80s-style shoulder pads would sit) to the sky. You are not trying to squeeze an orange between your shoulder blades here. Lift enough to feel muscles engage.

5. Keep your face soft.

6. As you inhale lift your head and shoulders a few inches off the floor. Don’t lift your gaze, keep the back of the neck long.

7. Keep breathing as you hold this lift for 5-10 breaths. 

8. Lower on an exhale.

9. Repeat 3 times. You can lift slightly higher each time, but NOT if you feel the work go into the low back. We are targeting more mid and upper back here.

10. Now as you lift you can lift one leg. Just one. As you lift it, imagine the lift comes from the inner thigh or inseam of your pants (I assume you’re wearing them). This prevents you from rotating the leg out, which will engage different muscles. 

11. After a few rounds of lifting one leg at a time, try to lift both. Keep breathing. 

12. When done make a pillow with your forearms and take a moment to rest. Great job! 

**Don’t hold your breath, breathe in and out the nose.

**GO SLOW! 

**Don’t make faces. Keep it soft.

**Keep the pubic bone into the mat or tailbone toward the heels.

**Take a break if you’re feeling it only in the low back. 

**Be patient with yourself. 

Why you want strong hip stabilizers

We can’t forget the pelvis/hip stabilizers when building your core! Muscles that stabilize the hip joint are crucial to prevent injuries at the hip, knee, and ankle. Weak hip stabilization can lead to poor alignment of the pelvis. This can then lead to compensation from other muscles creating muscle imbalances.  You don’t want that! 

The gluteus medius is a muscle on the side of your hip that stabilizes the pelvis while standing or walking. It’s pretty important! We won’t give all the credit to the gluteus medius though, it does work in combination with other muscles to stabilize the lower body. However, the gluteus medius is often weak and is important to strengthen.

How you can strengthen hip stabilizers

One of my favorite and accessible ways to improve hip stabilizers is to focus on balancing. This is something you can do almost anywhere and doesn’t require that you get down on the floor. 

For this practice, I have instructions below and a link to a short video demonstrating this practice. 

Instructions

1. Find a place where you can stand with a wall, desk, table, or counter nearby that can be used for support.

2. Stand with your feet under your hips. 

3. Bring your belly button toward your spine to engage the front abdominals.

4. Place a hand on the wall, desk, table, etc.

5. Shift your weight to your right leg. Keep the leg straight and really push your heel down. Don’t shift your weight into your toes

6. Pushing your heel down will engage gluteus medius (and other muscles). This won’t let your hip push out.

7. Start to bend the left knee and lift the leg. This doesn’t have to be high off the ground and you have your hand on your support.

8. Keep breathing! 

9. Bring the belly button toward the spine and keep your shoulders over your hips. You don’t want your torso to lean forward or back.

10. Here you can play with lifting the left leg or touching the toe down. How high this leg lifts up is NOT important. Letting the hip stabilizers work on the standing leg is the focus.

11. Repeat on the other side. 

12. Start out with 10 slow breaths on each side. Then build up to longer holds.

13. When you’re done, shake your legs out and pat yourself on your back!

Click here to access the 4 minute video!

Today you learned 2 practices that help to build a strong core. They also help calm the breath as you breathe slowly and with your movement. So it’s really a 2-for-1 deal. How great is that!

My best suggestion…

Be patient. Be consistent. Be kind to yourself. 

Do you wanna learn about another important movement? Check out this article on backbending!