The Transversus Abdominis is one core muscle that is rarely spoken about or known about. But it is one of the most important out of all the six abdominal muscles that we have. In this blog I will tell you more about what the Transversus Abdominis muscle is and why it is super important to know about and train.
The Transversus Abdominis muscle is one of the six, and the deepest of the six, abdominal muscles found in the human body. The muscle is situated between your hips, attaches to your ribs, and wraps all the way around to attach to your spine as well. You can think of it as a wide belt that wraps around your trunk keeping all the organs within the stomach area safe and protected from the outside world. It runs from left to right in the transverse plane and it is known to be a stabilizing muscle which means it does not necessarily have a specific action that it does but rather stabilizes the joints before your body can perform a movement.
As we know, the core is very important because it helps in taking the load off the spine; and it assists transferring forces/energy from the upper body to the lower body and vice versa. Although this refers to all the core muscles and not just the Transversus Abdominis, what makes that muscle unique is that the other core muscles cannot function effectively unless the Transversus Abdominis is activated beforehand and stabilizing the joints of the hip and spine. This muscle is also important because it assists us when breathing out by helping us push all the air out of our lungs. It also helps to prevent any herniation or build-up of pressure in our stomach when we do activities like lifting a heavy weight and holding our breath. It also assists us when we need to cough or regurgitate.
Alright, let us locate the Transversus Abdominis muscle on ourselves. You will be using your middle finger and your index finger. What you are going to do is feel for this pointy part of your hip in the front of your body. Once you find that you are going to move your fingers towards your belly button (two fingers in), or the centre of your stomach, and then down towards your pelvic floor or bladder area (two fingers down). Now once you are there, I want you to push in quite deep because the muscle is a deep muscle. Then you are going to cough and you should feel a bulge. That is the muscle activating at an extremely high percentage, you can say a hundred percent, but this muscle is a stabilizer muscle which means it needs to be working all the time and like all of us we do get tired after a while. So, what you want is to have it activating at a much lower percentage for a longer period of time. So, once you have that bulge try and relax it to about 30 percent or 40 percent. Now stand up and walk around while keeping the muscle activated throughout.
That is everything I would like to tell you about this beautiful and amazing muscle known as the Transversus Abdominis. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can find my details below and on the website; as well as on Facebook and YouTube at Reignite Health. Remember… You need stability to optimize ability.
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Email: bmbio@reignitehealth.co.za