Speaker A
If your lower back hurts all the time, there's one muscle that most people totally forget about: the transverse abdominis. This is one of your deep core muscles that acts like a corset, stabilizing your spine, but most people don't know how to train it properly. This deep belly muscle hugs your spine, creating stability and making your back feel better. And if it's not strong or active, well, then your back and your spine have to do all the work. Strengthening it for just 2 minutes a day can take the pressure off your back and make you feel so much stronger and so much safer. Here's one of the easiest ways to turn it back on. First, lay down on your back. And you can even do this on a couch or in bed. Then, lift both knees up towards your chest like this. Next, press your lower back into the ground and make sure you keep pressing it into the ground the entire time. From there, turn your palms toward the sky and drive your hands and shoulders down and away from your ears. And you can either lift your head nice and tall like this or put a pillow behind it and just rest it. From there, take a big belly breath in, tap one heel, and bring it back up like this. Then alternate to the other side. To make it harder, you can straighten your legs more like this. And repeat the same exact motion. And if your back arches like this as you drop one leg, that means your transverse abdominis is not turned on yet. So reduce the range of motion, make small movements, and go a whole lot slower. Okay.
