Abdominal Oblique Retraining Exercise
- The patient is lying on their back with the knees and hips flexed and feet flat on the floor.
- They are instructed to slowly drop their knees to the right approximately half way to the floor.
- Ask the patient to slowly bring the knees back to the midline by flattening their back working from above down segmentally without engaging their hips, ie., T12, L1 then L2, etc. (Tell the patient to think about moving the pelvis towards 1 and 2 o’clock).
- Once they’ve returned to the midline have the patient drop their knees slowly to the left, about half way to the floor.
- Ask the patient to slowly bring the knees back to the midline by flattening their back working from above down segmentally without engaging their hips (Tell the patient to think about moving the pelvis towards 10 and 11 o’clock).
- The patient repeats these movements alternating back and forth 3-5 times initially, gradually working up to 10 reps as their control/strength improves.
- Make sure that the patient does not initiate the return to midline movement through the hips, but rather through the spine.
