My body gets tremors when I do abdominal strengthening exercises for a bad back

by Dan
(Sydney, Australia)

I've been doing exercises from Back Sufferers' Bible and another S.K. book for a while. They seem to be helping with my back and neck issues. I also have a kind of core disturbance where I get tremors through my body when doing any core strenghthening or for example just lifting up my head an upper body from lying down. So I figure that I need a lot of core stabilization work. How many reverse curl ups do you think would be a good maximum amount to do per day as not to put my body out of balance?

Regards,
Dan.

Comments for My body gets tremors when I do abdominal strengthening exercises for a bad back

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Jun 12, 2013
 weak abdominals gives the tremors
by: Sarah says

Hi Dan,
It is quite common for the body to rattle and shake when you lift your head and upper body up from the floor when lying on your back. It illustrates, in general, how weak the muscles at the front of the body are, compared to the back. This applies just as much to the front of the neck (the deep neck flexors) as the abdominal muscles - with adequate strength of both groups supporting the spine in both areas from developing a sagging forward arch. Adequate 'in front of spine' muscle strength also prevents it sinking - the neck into the shoulders, like a tortoise disappearing its head into its shell and the low lumbar segments telescoping down into the pelvis and compressing the lumbar segments. You might have gathered, anterior spine strength is important for off-setting spinal compression for neck as well as lumbar spine.
You will read in exercises for a bad back
all about the do's and dont of exercises. But Dan, you really can't overdo reverse sit-ups. You can do 200 in a session of you want because this will have a good way of also strengthening the pelvic floor. On the other hand, you can overdo 'crunches' and 'leg lifts' and ordinary 'sit-ups' and one commonly hears of 400 in a session. Not surprising that many gym junkies have a gorilla stoop which detracts form the six pack.
The ultimate message: keep going!
Sarah

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