How To Contract Your Deep Abdominal Muscle

The transverse abdominis (TA) is one of the major muscles of our “core”. Yes, there is more to your core than just the abs, which you can learn more about here: What Are The Core Muscles Of The Body?

Due to the TA’s location, it’s a stabilizing muscle making it very important when it comes to maintaining stability of the spine and pelvis. Weakness in the TA can increase the risk of injury particularly of your lower back and hips. This core muscle is also closely related to another core muscle, the pelvic floor. Because of this relationship, weakness in the TA can also end up having an impact on the pelvic floor muscles. 

This information is not here to frighten you, it’s intended to help you understand the importance of this muscle. I know for many,  when you go to do a workout, you’re thinking of how this will impact your ‘physique,’ so it’s not as motivating to work a deep muscle group. But our deeper muscles are the stabilizing muscles of the body and they should not be ignored! It’s super important to be able to activate the TA properly not only for things like the health of your lower back, but you need adequate strength in your deep abdominal muscle for other ab exercises that work the superficial abs! Adequate strength in the transverse abdominis makes other ab exercises more effective and decreases risk of injury.

It’s entirely possible that someone with a six pack could have weakness in their deep abdominal muscle. This happens when someone only focuses on ab exercises such as sit ups, crunches, and twisting type exercises and never takes the time to work on abdominal stability.

The easiest way to work on activating the TA is by lying on your back and working with your breath. (Lying on your back makes contracting the TA easier, so I suggest starting here.) I also suggest bending your knees and placing your feet on the ground while lying down for this exercise.

First, place your hands on your lower abdomen.

 As you inhale, let your stomach expand and fill with air, as you exhale and the stomach comes back in, try to pull your navel (belly button) in towards your spine. This engages the transverse abdominis. NEVER hold your breath when performing this exercise. A common mistake that people make is that they hold their breath at the end of the exhale when contracting this muscle, don’t do this! After your exhale is complete, you’ll allow the deep abdominal muscle to relax as you inhale and fill the belly with air again. 

This contraction should not be forceful. You can use your hands to help feel this contraction. You’re looking for a tightening of the muscle under your hands. A great place to feel this is at the lower abdomen, a few inches inward from the top of your pelvic bones. 

Make sure that you DON’T tilt your pelvis. You want to keep your spine in neutral, meaning there’s a slight space between the lower back and the ground. This space should not change throughout the exercise. DON’T let the spine squish into the floor. 

The goal is to be able to contract this muscle and breathe comfortably at the same time. Now I know this sounds super simple, but this can be difficult for many people.

If you’re having trouble performing the deep abdominal contraction and breathing at the same time, then continue to work on coordinating the breath with the contraction as described above. (Reminder: exhaling on the contraction and inhaling on the relaxation.)

As you get stronger, it will become easier to keep this muscle activated while breathing in and out at a comfortable pace. 

For people new to this exercise or who are finding weakness here, I recommend starting with connecting the breath with the contraction. Perform a 5 second hold and repeat for 10 reps. If 5 seconds feels too challenging or makes it difficult to keep the breath flowing on the exhale, you can always drop the contraction down to a 2-3 second hold. 

As you get stronger and are able to breathe comfortably with the transverse abdominis engaged, you can progress to a 10 second hold and repeat for 10 reps. Remember with a 10 second hold, you are pulling the navel inward to contract the TA WHILE AT THE SAME TIME breathing comfortably. Once this feels easy, you can practice this activation in seated instead of lying down.