If you work out at the gym or at home in front of your own computer, you probably always hear your fitness trainer say: You have to work on your trunk to strengthen your back and stomach muscles. Or she says: Stand straight and suck your belly in to strengthen your trunk. Whatever words she uses, you surely learned something about your trunk area,In this article, we cover key info about its anatomy, how to strengthen it, and how to activate it in some detail.
Where is the trunk area on your body?
The trunk refers to the area that has a bunch of different stomach and back muscles. It’s under your chest and above your hips, where your four limbs connect to your body.
What does the trunk consist of?
You might connect the trunk anatomy with the six-pack muscles in your belly. But the trunk is more complex than just the six-pack muscles. It includes:
Rectus abdominis muscle:
This muscle is responsible for the six-pack abs and is the main mover for bending the spine. It's a long flat muscle that starts from the pubic bones up to the sixth and seventh ribs. It's the most central muscle on the front abdominal wall and is located inside the transverse muscle and the two front and internal oblique muscles.
Transverse abdominis:
It's a pair of side muscles in the front abdominal wall. It's the deepest muscle layer in the belly. Its fibers run across the body. It lies deep on both sides of the internal and external obliques and next to the rectus abdominis. It plays a key role in stabilizing the spine and compressing the stomach wall, which helps support and protect internal organs, but it doesn't move the spine.
External obliques:
It's a wide flat and slanted muscle on the sides of the trunk. It lets you twist your torso and bend sideways. It's also the main mover of your spine.
Internal obliques:
This muscle works with the external oblique for the same jobs except it's beneath it on the inner side of the body. The external oblique is named that way because there is a similar muscle, but the internal one is inside relative to the body.
Latissimus dorsi:
This muscle is on both sides of your spine, running from under your shoulder down to your pelvis bones. It helps keep your back steady, especially when moving your shoulder bones since it mainly works the shoulder joint. It also lets your sides twist right and left. This muscle is the biggest and widest in the upper part of your body by far.
Erector spinae muscle:
It's a group of inner muscles standing upright along each side of your spine, running down your back. They help your back stretch and rotate. Their name depends on their spot near your spine bones. For example, ones next to your lower back bones are called lumbar transverses, and the ones near your upper back bones are called thoracic transverses or upper ones.
Besides these trunk muscles that help stabilize it, other muscles also assist with stability but less so, like those in your thighs and butt.
Why is activating your trunk area important?
As we covered their anatomy and work, you can now easily see how important your trunk area is. It's the main engine of your body for both upper and lower parts. It's very clear how weak your trunk is when doing some exercises like:
- Your back arches when doing push-ups and planks.
- Your back slides when sitting.
- Losing balance when doing one-leg exercises
When you do different moves with your trunk, if you can't keep your back extended and straight, it shows weakness in your core area.
How can you activate your core muscles?
You might think it's just about pulling your belly in. but actually it's more than that. You need to do exercises that work your abs, back, thighs, and glutes. To start activating your core, breathe deeply like a weightlifter, so you press on your belt area and give extra support to your back.
Why should you activate your core muscles?
Activating your core muscles is important to do now and then for several main reasons:
- If you're new to working out, activating your core saves you from injuries during exercise. It keeps your spine in the right place and protects it from bending or stretching too far since it makes a stable muscle ring around it.
- If your core is inactive, your back might get too much pressure causing injury or pain when you do various exercises, especially strength training and weightlifting.
- If you suffer from chronic back pain, activating your core helps reduce and treat the pain, so you can carry out your daily activities normally.
When should you activate your core muscles?
You should generally activate your core when doing movements that involve stretching your back, twisting, or bending it. But there are some cases where you need to activate it especially to do things like:
- Weightlifting:
This exercise is one of the most demanding for your core before doing it. Besides bending your shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle joints to perform it, it can cause your back to bend or arch if your core is weak.
- Cardio exercises:
You might not be doing moves that directly affect your spine during cardio, but you still need to activate your core before these exercises. This helps improve your posture and avoid any pain during or after the workout.
- Abdominal exercises:
You might get confused for a moment. How do you activate your core to do exercises targeting your abs that are basically part of the core?!
But you'll definitely get it once you realize that activating your core before doing ab exercises is to stop your back from arching during them.
- Your daily activities:
Here, it means you activate your core not just for a workout but anytime during daily activities. For example, you need to engage your core to keep your back straight, avoid arching while sitting or moving, and to prevent bad pain from bad postures your body falls into.
How do you activate your core?
To activate your core area, here’s a simple exercise to help you:
- Lie down on your back with your face up, arms stretched along your sides, knees bent upward, pressing your feet into the floor.
- Press down on the floor with the lower part of your back, so your tailbone tilts slightly (lower back).
- Take a breath to fully fill your belly without sucking it in, while tightening your belly muscles.
- Pull your belly button inward and up, opposite to the breath coming into your body, using your belly muscles.
- Keep breathing and fill your chest with air so your stomach stays full the whole time.
- Repeat these steps 3 times, then relax to start the exercise again.
And you can here learn more about exercises that activate and strengthen the core muscles.
