Roman chair exercises: what are they?

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A Roman chair is exercise equipment used to strengthen the back, legs, and core. It holds the lower body in place during movements and exercises can focus on different muscles. The most popular exercise is the lower back extension, but there are variations for those with spinal injuries. Other exercises target the obliques and quadratus lumborum.

A roman chair is exercise equipment used to strengthen the muscles of the back, legs, and core. An apparatus for performing bodyweight exercises, the Roman chair holds the lower body in place during movements that involve hinges or bending at the waist or hips. Roman chair exercises generally focus on the muscles of the lower back. However, with small variations in form, that focus can shift to the muscles of the posterior thigh and hips, such as the hamstrings and glutes. Other popular Roman chair exercises work the internal and external obliques in the abdomen and the quadratus lumborum, a muscle that runs along the sides of the waist.

Roman chair exercises are intended to be performed in the prone position, face down, or on your side. This apparatus is designed so that the body is immobilized at a 45 degree angle with the hips and upper thighs resting on an angled pad on top of the chair and the legs under a roller pad near the bottom of the chair. . In the prone position, therefore, the front of the hips and upper thighs would be pressed against the upper pads and the lower calves would be pressed against the roller pads with the feet resting on a metal platform. in angle. The top pads can be adjusted to the user’s height by raising or lowering the pads so that the top of the pads aligns with the top of the hips.

Of the possible Roman chair exercises, the lower back extension is perhaps the most popular. Performed in the prone position, it involves lowering your upper body toward the floor by bending forward from the waist, then contracting your lower back muscles to lift your torso up until your body is in a straight line and your spine is straight. extended. Hyperextension of the spine, or arching the back at the top of the movement, is generally not recommended, particularly for those with a spinal joint injury.

A variation of the lower back extension, one considered safer for people with a disc or other spinal injury, involves performing the same movement but lifting and lowering from the hips instead of the hips. waist. This version requires contracting the glutes and hamstrings at the back of the hips and thighs to extend or straighten the hips rather than overloading the lower back muscles. To do this, the athlete maintains a straight or extended spine through the full range of motion with the abdominals drawn and curled from the hips to lower the upper body toward the floor. He then actively squeezes his gluteal muscles to lift his torso until his body is in line with his legs.

Other Roman chair exercises train the muscles along the sides of the abdomen and lower back, the obliques, and the quadratus lumborum. A basic version is the side crunch, which involves lateral trunk flexion, or bending to the sides at the waist. To perform this exercise, the user sits in the chair facing to the sides with their weight on the lower leg and the upper leg resting lightly on the lower leg. The hip side rests against the chair’s top pads, and the hips should be stacked, not leaning forward or back. Without moving the hips against the pads, the user bends to the side from the waist so that their lower shoulder moves toward the floor and, contracting the muscles in the upper abdomen, straightens the torso up until the body is straight. again aligned with the legs.




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