3 exercises to add to your daily routine.
I really can’t emphasize enough how important it is to train the core the right way when it comes to dealing with back pain. I have covered a bunch of different angles when it comes to training the core but what I want to show you is what’s called the “McGill’s Big 3”. These three exercise scream core stability and have both a cumulative effect as well as a short-term effect on core stiffness. The goal of these exercises is to harness proper core stiffness. That’s what keeps your spine in place throughout your daily requirements. Whether you are training for a world record lift or you are at home in the yard getting it ready for summer. This stiffness is your ticket to living pain-free. These three exercises should be done every day. Add them into your exercise program or do them before bed. It doesn’t matter just do them daily!
Before we get too far into this I have a couple questions that will help me understand where you are with your current core training. It would mean the world to me if you through out some answer to the questions below. This is all to make your experience here more valuable! Thanks for your input!
4 Most important things to do if you want to stay alive.
1) Eat
2) Sleep
3) Breathe
4) Big 3: That’s how important these things are! haha
Dr. Stuart McGill is a world renown expert when it comes to low back disorders. He isn’t aware of this (I don’t think) but I am one of his biggest fans and consider him a mentor. Early on in my journey to beating my own back pain, I needed something to cling to as a starting point and after a few months of consistently doing these exercises, I was seeing great improvement in my over back health.
I wanted to show you step by step how to do the exact exercises I still use to this day. I don’t want to flood you with too much info today so let’s keep this short and to the point!
The first video covers what is known as the BIRD DOG: With this exercise, the key points are to maintain a stiff torso while hinging at both the hips and shoulder joint. Maintain your core contraction throughout the entire movement and be sure to hold the up position for 8-10 seconds for the desired amount of sets. Be sure to breathe clearly and deep throughout the entire range of motion and switch arms and legs after each 8-10 second set.
The second video is what Brian calls the McGill Crunch. Dr. McGill is big on taking out spinal flexion when training the core and only focusing on stability and training the spine in a neutral position. This does exactly that. The key points to this exercises is to keep your chin tucked, breathe and focus your energy on the stiffness in your core. Hold for 8-10 seconds, rest then repeat.
The third video demonstrates what is known as the Rolling Plank. It’s taking the regular plank and side bridge and combining them together into one fluent exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to hit the torso at 360 degrees. It forces the core to fire and work together instead of breaking it into segmented parts.
These three exercises have been the biggest factor in strengthening and gaining stiffness in my torso. Be sure to add these to your DAILY routine!
Before you head out don’t forget to leave me your answers in the boxes above! It really means a lot! I want to create content that I know will help you accurately!
Which of the exercises do you notice the most relief doing? leave a comment below!
Oh and be sure to share this with someone you love! You never know how much it may help.
Thanks for reading guys,
William
I just left a note on searches. Failed to mention that I do see there is a search icon at the top of the page. But the point is that with no headings, I can’t necessarily know what to search for. Like “exercises”, which wouldn’t have come up as a category in my search for “big 3”
Hope this isn’t being too picky. I just want to let you know that this would make all your information more accessible.
I found your page on Dr. Stuart McGill’s big 3 exercises in a search for “big 3”. I find it very good as an explanation, and want to direct a friend to it (no email). I find there is a problem with your site. Literally, the only way I can find this page on your site is to type in https://www.fitness4backpain.com/exercise/dr-stewart-mcgills-big-3-best-warm-up-and-core-stability. There is no tab for “home”, “exercise”, or anything else. You can’t do a search on your site. So I can wander through it, but all my wanderings didn’t get me to this page. I looked at the path at the bottom of the page I had found in my “big 3 search”, and that’s how I figured out what to type in on your site to duplicate it, If I hadn’t known it was there, I would never have found it. Likely there are other good pages I will never fine. Good information–worth fixing the search process. If there is a way to search, it is not apparent.