After a few weeks physio, my doctors have but my lose gut and hip/back pains down to weak transversus abdominus muscles. I'm looking to fix this and strengthen them (along with fix my posture, an animation desk job that called for me leaning a lot has made the back of my neck very weak as well). Does anyone have any exercises they'd recommend me do?
Any pilates workout. They focus on sucking the belly button to the spine, and if I remember what I learned on Wikipedia 30 seconds ago, that's what the TVA is for.
Dead bugs are a good place to start: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...formance_repair/core_training_for_smart_folks
Core strength. Active and passive. Start with planking (front and sides and back). You can do yoga core strengthening as well. Search for core strengthening.
"Farmer Burns's" style Breathing. And 'vacuum breathing' style breathing will strengthen your transversus abdominus bigtime. You can either google these and see how the olde timey strongmen used them. Or you can goto a Pilates class (mostly really useful). You'll also encounter this type of deep breathing-strengthening in some schools of Yoga (including the vacuum stuff). Them Dead Bugs and Dragon Flags are also something to aim for Good Luck
If you have poor posture dead-bugs can help, but ab rollouts will really help. Full-body lifts with a proper weight belt should correct this as well. Straight back always. Keep progressing and look for ways to make it harder. In addition weighted foam rolling (with the 45lb weight) will help your posture out A LOT. Target the thoracic spine and stretch globally. Walking spiderman can help for mobility. For the neck chin tucks help. Think about pulling your spine apart and a hook pulling your chin up. Do this lateral as well. In addition, face a wall, have your head straight forward and squat down as low as you can without moving away from the wall. This will work your spinal erectors. Do these exercises everyday. For the foam rolling you don't need to stretch like in the video. That's isometric stretching and it helps, but everyday you should shouldn't use paused stretches. Keep moving. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02odMwmlro"]CFJ KStarr 2Min Shoulder mobility drills Part4.mov - Manchester Personal Trainer - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm9vJRm2Tn8"]ShoulderPerformance.com: Standing Chin Tucks - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ar0g-ztdVg"]Walking Spiderman w/Overhead Reach - YouTube[/ame] hope this helps.
I only skim read but I'm not sure why increasing his internal rotation is going to help strengthen his abs? OP, plank should be ideal really, it's not going to eat into your recovery from other thing but helps to teach proper spine stability. A problem of weakness like this often stems from a mobility issue preventing recruitment, do you have a desk job? It may be worth exploring and seeing if you can find where you are tight/out of line. (Clue, check your hip flexors, calves and hamstrings first ) There is a wealth of information out there, a lot of unnessisarily long winded and complex, there's a great piece by jim wendler on mobility for meatheads I've bookmarked on my other computer, I'll try find it after my lunch for you
Dead bugs and pilates are an excellent place to start, I got a massive improvment after doing an exercise called rollups, but often different people take to different approaches. For neck posture look into the alexander technique.
