One of the most common complaints about traditional abdominal exercises is neck or back pain. If you’re one of these people you may wonder whether you should you throw in the towel or push through despite the discomfort.
As a personal trainer and coach, I hear this complaint often and it tends to boil down to a handful of causes, all which are related to improper form. Here are the top three reasons why ab exercises may be aggravating your neck and your back — plus, a few fixes you can use in the moment to protect your neck and back, reduce pain and lower your risk of injury.
Even though ab exercises are supposed to be all about your core, many positions require your head and neck to lift up off of the ground. Jonathan Tylicki, director of education for AKT and certified personal trainer, says that the strain you may feel in your neck in this position is most likely related to your posture. “The continued neck flexion is associated with sitting, working at a computer, and texting. This reinforced improper alignment can creep up when you are doing ab work, making you pull your head forward and use your neck during exercises, ” he says. When you’re in a supine position on your back, typically you’ll rest your head in your hands and then curl up, lifting your head and neck off the mat. This can cause discomfort, particularly if your posture muscles are tight and you’re not used to engaging your core correctly.
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But what if you’re in a Pilates or core class and don’t want to be the odd one out doing your own routine?
What if your arms are doing too much work? Specifically, if you’re not using a towel and instead you’re placing your hands behind your head, it's important to remember that this should not be an arm workout. Your arms and hands are simply supporting your neck. But a major mistake people make is engaging the arms instead of the abs.
Trainer Kristina Alai, certified fitness trainer at The Bay Club Company, says that while doing exercises like crunches, you may be overcompensating by grabbing your neck with your hands instead of focusing on the ab engagement. Liana Hughes, certified personal trainer and coach for the fitness app Gixo, says, “It’s very common for people to want to pull their neck when they have their fingertips behind their head.” For many. it’s an automatic action that we do without even noticing, so even if you don't think this applies to you, it can be smart to keep these two tips in mind:
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As a Pilates instructor, I see so many people using their back instead of their abs to do abdominal exercises. This is concerning because when done incorrectly it can lead to a lower back injury. That’s why it’s important to laser focus in on the transverse abdominis, the deepest ab muscle, to ensure the low back is not overworking in core exercises. This is most common in exercises where your legs are extended or straight. When done correctly, it should feel challenging to keep your core engaged and you will feel this deep in your core muscles (and not so much in your back.) But how can you ensure you have the proper engagement?
Finally, check out these three suggested moves — they're a great way to reset mid-workout so that the pain doesn’t persist and cause a bigger issue. These basic Pilates exercises are meant for beginners, but are good modifications for all of us to to keep in mind when pain creeps up during exercise. They will also train you to do a proper abdominal crunch while lying down without straining your neck or back, so adding them into your workout routine consistently will help improve your form over time.
Lying down on the floor, bend your knees and keep your feet flat on the mat. Place your hands behind your head, and rest your head in your hands. Take a deep breath in, and then exhale as you pull your naval in towards your spine. Pull your lower ribs down towards your hips, and from this core engagement you can curl up so that your head and hands are off the ground. Exhale as you curl up, and inhale as you lower back down. Repeat this 10 times.
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On the mat with your feet flat on the ground, take a deep breath in. Then exhale as you draw your naval in towards your spine, slowly bring your right knee up to a table top position. Draw your lower ribs down towards your hips, and tighten your core as if you were wearing a corset. From here, lower the right leg down to tap the toe onto the ground while maintaining the engagement of the core. There should be no movement above the hips, and the back should stay gently pressing into the ground while the abs are pulling in tightly. Exhale as you lower the leg down, and inhale to bring it back up. Repeat 10 times and then switch to the left side.
Lying on the mat, bring your legs straight up towards the ceiling. Tilt your pelvis so that your lower abs pull in (as if you are zipping into a tight pair of jeans) and your back presses gently into the ground. Maintain this core engagement as you exhale and lower the legs down a few inches towards the ground. Inhale to bring them back up. Be sure to keep your back connected to the mat throughout the entire exercise by drawing your naval in towards your spine.
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Stephanie Mansour is a health and fitness expert and weight-loss coach for women. She is a certified personal trainer, yoga instructor and Pilates instructor, and host of “Step It Up with Steph” on American Public Television. Ever felt neck pain when you’re doing a set of stomach crunches? Here’s why that could be and how you can fix it, with a little help from Jessica Ennis-Hill
Have you ever experienced neck ache or neck twinges when knocking out a set of sit-ups or crunches? Then there are two important things you need to know:
The main reason that people suffer from neck ache when they’re performing ab exercises is poor form – and it comes down to the fact that you are probably not crunching from your abdominal muscles.
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“The most important thing you need to remember when you do a sit up or crunch is to initiate the movement from your core, so that your stomach muscles engage and start the movement, rather than your neck.
“If you don’t focus on your core, you will often make the first movement come from your head and neck, which is why you experience neck pain.”
Drilling down a bit deeper, leading the movement with your head, neck and shoulders rather than your core makes it much more difficult to keep your head moving in line with your spine, which in turn puts a lot of strain on your neck muscles.
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If you don’t focus on your core, you will often make the first movement come from your head and neck, which is why you experience neck painHow can you fix it?
“The key with any abdominal exercise is to focus first of all on drawing in your abdominals so that they are fully contracted, ” says Jess.
“Then, as you perform the exercise, you initiate the movement with your core, rather than leading with your head. It’s a subtle tweak to the technique, but it makes a huge difference.
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“Another good tip, ” says Jess, “is to slow down the exercise so that you are conscious of where the movement in your ab exercise is coming from and perhaps take a small break in between each movement.”
Failing that, you could film yourself doing your next crunch set and see where the start of your ab exercise movement is coming from. If it’s all neck and the ideas from Jess above aren’t working for you, it may be that the exercises you are doing are too challenging for you, so it could be worth modifying them temporarily until your core gets stronger.
If you’re keen to improve your ab definition or just fancy a new challenge, Jessica Ennis-Hill has created a 30-day ab challenge in the app, which includes 5-minute ab blasts, HIIT circuits, mini HIIT circuits, rep challenges, and ultra ab sessions.
Can Ab Workouts Make Your Neck Sore?
It’s designed for all fitness levels, there’s tons of variety to keep things interesting and it’s a day-by-day guided plan, so you don’t need to think about a thing – except that exceptional form, of course.
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