You want me to do WHAT?

Brace.

How many of you have heard this word, either from me or elsewhere, related to an exercise? Hopefully all of you! Who could use a little refresher on how to do it correctly?

Throughout my years as a trainer, I’ve seen people brace incorrectly time and time again. Enough to make me feel that it’s necessary to touch on this in a newsletter.

A strong core is essential to performing daily tasks and activities. Bracing correctly is absolutely necessary to move safely and efficiently. The extent of bracing required is directly related to the demand of the movement you’re performing. For example, the amount of bracing needed to bend down and pick up your laundry basket is different than the bracing required to bend down and deadlift 300 pounds. Either way, knowing how to brace is crucial, so let us recap.

Breaking it down.

Bracing is a 360 degree movement that fully engages your core “canister”. You may have heard me reference my soda can analogy. Imagine an unopened can of soda as a properly braced core. You can load that unopened can with plenty of weight: think stacks of books. Now picture that same can of soda with half the soda poured out (as you should, soda’s gross.) If you tried to stack weight on top of the half empty can (improperly braced core) the can would crumble from the pressure.

How do you do it?

Inhale. Push your core out in all directions, as if you’re wearing a corset or a belt and you want to touch all sides of your torso into the corset. Perform whatever exercise you’re doing. Exhale to release the brace. Repeat.

Take the squat, for example:

• Inhale (while standing) to prepare
• Brace
• Squat (keeping the brace)
• Exhale when you return to standing and release
• Repeat for each rep

Bracing is NOT sucking your stomach in. It’s not meant to look “cute”, it’s meant to protect your spine from injury.

If you need a refresher on bracing correctly, ask me!