The Hollow Hold Exercise
A poor tone in your core muscles can greatly affect your lower back health and general well-being. Without a stable core supporting your back, lifting and other athletic movements may easily lead to an uncontrolled wobble in the spine and lead to joint trauma. Similarly standing for prolonged periods with an un-activated core can lead to a “Sway-back” posture and repetitive overburdening of the facet joints in the Lumbar Spine and Lumbar-Sacral junction. The core muscles are supposed to create a stabilizing intraabdominal pressure that supports the spine from the front and prevents excessive arching in the lower back.
The “Hollow Hold” exercise is a great safe way to begin to activate the core while practicing holding the positioning your lumbar spine in a good stable posture.
Lie flat on your back and bend your hips and knees each to 90 degrees.
From there, push the small of your lower back into the ground and tuck your tailbone under so that there is no gap between your lower back and the floor.
Then tuck your chin down to your chest then curl upwards with your upper torso so that your shoulder blades start to lift off the ground and your lower ribcage moves towards the pelvis.
Hold this position for 30 sec to 90 sec depending on your level of strength.