The transverse abdominis muscle runs horizontally across the front of the abdomen like a corset and provides stability through collaboration with pelvic floor, diaphragm, multifidus muscles.
Basic exercises to activate and strengthen the TVA are abdominal draw-in maneuvers, which involve drawing your lower abdominal muscles in towards your spine for several seconds before holding them in this contracted state for another few seconds. Hollow body holds are another effective core strength builder.
1. Straight Leg Crunch
The transverse abdominis may not be familiar, but its strength can help protect against back injuries and strengthen core strength in general. It lies deep beneath internal and external obliques as well as rectus abdominis to form a corset-like layer covering your entire abdominal region (1, 2, 3, 4).
As your TVA lies so deeply within the body, training it can be extremely helpful in terms of appearance and waist reduction (2-5). Strengthening it may make the area appear more toned while tightening around your stomach for a cinching effect (2, 5).
Training transverse abdominis muscles most effectively involves isometric contractions. This means you must contract them without moving your muscle at all, in order to build endurance – this type of movement occurs during plank exercises (5, 8, 11, 12).
Strengthen your TVA with other core exercises that involve spinal flexion – such as crunches and side planks – though without engaging your hips to counteract leg extension they only target the rectus abdominis and not TVA (6, 13).
Straight Leg Crunches are one of the best exercises you can do to develop and strengthen your core. They strengthen both rectus abdominis and TVA muscles as well as engaging hip flexors; when extending the right leg you must flex your hips so it does not fall backward while your torso moves to the right.
Begin lying on your back with arms at your sides and knees bent into tabletop position. Inhale and lower one leg so it is parallel with the floor while engaging your core – hold this position for 30-60 seconds, before exhaling to return it and both arms to starting positions; repeat eight reps per side.
2. Side Leg Crunch
Strengthening one’s core is essential to balance, posture and everyday movement. Unfortunately, most exercises touted as beneficial to abs focus solely on strengthening either the rectus abdominis (the muscle running vertically along your abdomen) or obliques (muscles located along either side of your belly). For an effective and balanced core workout, strengthening all three ab muscles are equally vital; side leg crunch exercises provide a simple yet effective means of targeting transverse abdominis muscles – an exercise designed specifically to target transverse abdominis muscles if your goal is achieving balance and stability – a side leg crunch can help target this muscle group effectively!
This muscle, located underneath the obliques, plays an important role in stabilizing both pelvis and lower back. Exercising this muscle specifically will increase core strength while helping prevent injury. Isolating this muscle may prove challenging; however, exercises which utilize neutral or upright spine positions, or require you to hold static positions (such as plank), such as target planking may help effectively target this particular one.
Begin by lying on the floor with arms at your sides, keeping a tall neutral spine, with both knees off of the ground, keeping left knee off of floor while engaging core muscles to tighten abdominals and hips, gradually lifting your right leg toward ceiling. Keep left knee off floor while tightening abdominals and hips utilizing core muscles as you lower leg back to floor repeat until desired repetitions completed before switching sides.
The side leg raise crunch exercises the obliques, transverse abdominis and quadratus lumborum muscles for maximum results. An easy home or gym-based exercise, this crunch can also be an excellent way to prevent back pain or recover from injuries such as herniated disks or lower-back strains.
If this exercise proves too challenging for you, try decreasing repetitions or lowering the height of your leg; over time you can increase both. When working your abs, be sure to do it on an empty stomach so your muscles are properly activated; additionally, practicing movements and poses that engage the transverse abdominis regularly will build endurance in this muscle group.
3. Front Leg Crunch
The transverse abdominis is an additional deep abdominal muscle that spans horizontally across your belly. Commonly known as the corset muscle, this key part of your core helps support and stabilize your spine. A strong transverse abdominis is especially vital as it prevents pelvis or lumbar spine movement that could result in back pain from weak core muscles (11-12).
The front leg crunch is an effective exercise for stimulating both transverse abdominis and other abdominal muscles in your lower body. Simply lay on your back with arms at your sides, extend right leg straight up in air while crunching, holding for one second then slowly returning it back down to starting position – repeat 10-20 times!
Add more difficulty to this exercise by holding a weight plate on either your chest or behind your head while performing it, but be mindful of maintaining solid form as you move through each movement. It is very important that proper form is kept while exercising with additional resistance.
An effective way to verify if you’re doing it right is to place your fingers right below your belly button and feel the texture of your core when contracting your abs. If there is any hardness when doing so, that means you are doing it correctly!
As an extra challenge when performing front leg crunches, try holding a plank in forearm position – this requires strength and stability in your core muscles, but is an invaluable way to strengthen them further.
Transverse abdominis fibers run horizontally, which makes strengthening all of the abdominal muscles essential to keeping your six-pack visible and can even help to alleviate back pain later in life. Strengthening all your abs – visible or not! – including those we can’t see is key for optimal health; building the deep ab muscles like transverse abdominis will prevent other core muscles from taking over during movements while decreasing back ache as we get older.
4. Russian Twist
The Russian twist is a core exercise designed to strengthen all of your abdominal and back muscles, increasing stability, rotational power and decreasing risk for activities requiring spinal rotation such as golfing, kayaking and football kicking. Golfing, kayaking and football kicking require strong cores in order to maintain balance and control with twisting motions of each movement – so this exercise may also benefit those suffering from lower back pain issues.
Russian twists are an effective core exercise, but can be challenging for beginner lifters. This is because this exercise relies heavily on core muscles being developed; without that foundation in place it may prove challenging to hold yourself up with only bodyweight as resistance. But don’t despair: they’re easy enough to modify; begin with bodyweight-only variations before progressing further by gradually adding weight.
Start with legs bent and feet flat on the floor, or sit on an exercise mat (we have carefully selected our favourite home workout options for you!). Engage your core and lean back to raise your upper body at 45-degree angle towards the ground in a V shape. Interlace hands in front of you while bracing your core and slowly rotate your torso right, holding for one second before repeating on other side – one rep is complete.
For an added challenge in Russian twist, try performing it while holding a medicine ball or dumbbell in each hand. This adds another level of difficulty and will work your fast-twitch muscle fibers more. Just remember to keep the weight light so as not to over-rotate your spine!
Russian twists may help develop six pack abs, but results won’t appear without proper diet and supplementation. Therefore, be sure to incorporate both factors before becoming too excited about your progress.
