A fitness expert claims that a specific exercise is more effective than the dead bug for fostering functional abdominal muscle strength, and it's suitable for beginners.
Improving Functional Core Strength with Zercher Side Bends
The Zercher side bend is a versatile exercise that can help improve your overall core strength, posture, balance, and movement efficiency. This exercise is often recommended by physical therapist Sophie Coombes for developing functional core strength.
Functional core strength is crucial as it contributes to your overall strength, stability, and mobility, helping you move better in day-to-day life. The Zercher side bend achieves this by loading the obliques, quadratus lumborum (QL), and deep core muscles.
To perform the Zercher side bend, you'll need a long resistance band and a stable surface about knee height. Stand with the raised surface to your right, hold the resistance band in your left hand, loop the band around your left foot and left elbow, lift your right knee onto the surface, and bend slowly at the waist from left to right, keeping your lower body still.
This exercise helps the body learn to stabilize and maintain an upright posture while resisting force, making it more transferable to real-life movement, lifting, and sport compared to dead bugs. Functionally, Zercher side bends enhance posture by strengthening muscles that support the spine and improve lateral stability, which translates to better balance and reduced lower-back pain in daily activities like walking and bending.
Starting with 15 to 20 repetitions on each side using a light resistance band is recommended, allowing gradual progression while maintaining control and form. As you progress, you can increase the resistance or the number of repetitions to continue challenging your core muscles.
Improving functional core strength can lead to better posture, reducing lower-back pain, and making walking easier. For more tips on functional strength training, refer to our guide.
- Yoga workouts, which often focus on core strength and flexibility, can complement the Zercher side bends as part of a comprehensive health-and-wellness plan.
- Science suggests that regular strength training and fitness-and-exercise routines, including exercises like the Zercher side bends, can help improve functional core strength, contributing to overall health and wellness.
- To augment the benefits of functional core strength training exercises like the Zercher side bends, consider incorporating diverse activities such as swimming, hiking, or cycling into your fitness-and-exercise routine for a well-rounded approach to health-and-wellness.
