The harder a man's part is, the longer he will live.

Perhaps we know more about the various important functions of the abdominal muscles, but we must not ignore that the most basic and important function of the abdominal muscles is to better protect our lumbar spine and maintain the health of the spinal system.

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In previous articles and daily clinical diagnosis and treatment, more emphasis has been placed on strengthening the training of the waist and back muscles for patients with low back pain. In fact, most patients with low back pain have achieved remarkable results by strengthening the training of the waist and back muscles, and the symptoms of low back pain have been rapidly improved or even disappeared. However, there are still a small number of patients whose low back pain always recurs and it is difficult to get a complete cure. The reasons for this are not only not thorough enough, the training is not persistent enough, and the daily protection is not meticulous enough, but another very important reason is that they have no abdominal muscles and a soft abdomen. Such patients are more likely to have low back pain symptoms in normal times, and once low back pain occurs, it is difficult to recover.

In the past, great emphasis was placed on training the waist and back muscles. This is because for the vast majority of patients with low back pain, the decline and insufficiency of the waist and back muscles is always the first thing that occurs and is most obviously perceived by most patients. For example, many patients often feel that they cannot support their waist, cannot exert strength, have back pain and fatigue, and so on. Therefore, it is always easy for them to accept the importance of the waist and back muscles. My explanation of the importance of the back muscles to lumbar diseases is very vivid. The human spinal system is like an ancient sailing ship, the spine is like the mast, and the back muscles attached to the spine are like the sails tied to the mast. Only by hoisting the sails can the supporting function of the mast be fully utilized to ensure that the sailboat can sail far. Once the sail is broken or the tension loses balance, the mast loses its due balancing function, and the ship may not be able to move forward steadily or sail at all, and there is even the danger of the ship sinking into the sea.

To ensure the safety of our spinal system, it is very important to maintain the normal tension of the waist and back muscles and the normal alignment of the spine. Of course, doctors can treat spinal misalignment and waist and back muscle strain injuries through various means, but to ensure the long-term stability of the spinal system, it is also necessary to strengthen waist and back muscle training to maintain the normal alignment of the spine and ultimately maintain the normal physiological function of the spinal system.

In the past, when we emphasized the waist and back muscles, one part was deliberately ignored, that is, the abdominal muscles. It is not to say that the abdominal muscles are not important. On the contrary, in certain specific circumstances, their importance is no less than that of the waist and back muscles. It is just not easy for most of our patients to perceive it, so it is not easy to accept the importance of the abdominal muscles to protecting the spinal system. Modern research has found that the abdominal muscles can reduce the load on the spine and strengthen the protection of the lumbar spine. In the middle and late stages of lumbar disc herniation, due to less waist movement and wearing a waist belt, the waist, back and abdominal muscles will become weak, especially the abdominal muscles. Research by some scholars shows that the abdominal muscle strength of patients with low back pain is about 67% of that of normal people, while the back muscle strength is about 83% of that of normal people. This indicates that low back pain is the result of weak abdominal muscles and insufficient protection of the spine. This shows the importance of weakened or insufficient abdominal muscle strength in patients with low back pain.