By Anthony Conti
Welcome to "TrainSMART at Home" a new series that is going along with our new incentive to educate and help people as longevity experts. We want to help you move without limitations, stay strong for life, and enjoy the activities and sports you love through safe strength training. Nothing beats coming into the gym, getting a tailored program and being coached by one of our trainers. However, with this series you will be able to do some of the exercises we do the most with out clients in your very own home.
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At TrainSMART, we specialize in creating safe, customized programs designed to build muscle and bone, burn fat, increase strength, enhance balance, boost energy levels, and improve cognitive function. As experts in longevity, our intelligent strategies are crafted with your unique needs in mind. Through unwavering commitment and personalized care, we believe you can feel better and stronger than you did 20 years ago.
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Why do we do this exercise?
The Mcgill Curl Up is one of the "Big 3" exercises Dr. Stuart Mcgill found increased strength and endurance in your core without putting stress on your spine. Specifically, this exercise improves anti-flexion and extension in the sagittal plane (prevents movement forwards and backwards). Strengthening your core with a Mcgill curl up will help you prevent the harmful rounding of your back when you're sitting or picking something up.
How to do a McGill Curl Up
Lie on your back with both knees bent, clasping your hands together underneath your lower back. Preserve your lumbar curve not making it larger or smaller (you can increase the curve by bringing the knuckles together and decrease the curve by pulling the knuckles apart). Once you find your neutral curve then straighten one leg keeping the other bent, making sure your toe is pointed towards the ceiling. Firmly plant the foot of the bent leg into the floor and raise the elbows slightly off of the ground. As you stiffen the core, very slightly raise your head off of the floor with a neutral neck. Inhale wide through your nose into your lower lungs behind the stiffened core and then exhale. Contract the abdominal muscles as you force the air out of your lungs out of your mouth. Maintain the stiffness generated in these muscles as you continue to complete 3-5 breathing cycles. Then switch sides and repeat.
Cues
1) Firmly place heel into the ground, drive the heel away from your body
2) Brace your core, bring your ribs to your belly button, imagine like you are going to be punched in the stomach
3) Lift your elbows off the ground and anti-shrug. Get the shoulders away from the ears and try to put your elbows in your pockets.
4)Keep your neck neutral. Lift from your chest. Imagine there is a string attached to your chest form the ceiling and it is lifting your chest, shoulders and head as one unit.
5) Breathe wide, breathe behind the braced core, brace behind the wall.
Tips
If you have neck pain, grimace, push tongue to roof of mouth OR hand(s) cradling head with lumb-air.
If you are having trouble with core stability, “hold your pee.”
Regressions (easier to harder): Diaphragmatic breathing 🡪 Stiffen core and then relax 🡪 Braced breathing
Progressions (easier to harder): Plank series
The McGill Curl Up is a great exercise to groove the braced diaphragmatic breathing pattern work on anterior and deep core stability endurance, and activation. This exercise will help you get rid of that chronic back pain you've been experiencing for years. It has helped hundreds of our clients already get out of back pain. Now you can too.
