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03.11.2021

Laughing trains your core muscles (in particular your obliques)

Laughing is a surprisingly effective exercise for the muscles in your core section. Especially when it comes to your obliques, according to a German study published in the Journal of Motor Behavior.

Study
The researchers, who were affiliated with the Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, had 14 students train the muscles in their core with the crunch and the backlift. The researchers had placed electrodes on the students' skin so they could see how hard the muscles beneath them had to work.

The researchers also made the students laugh. Not by administering them an effective yet safe dose of humor, but by subjecting them to Yoga Laughter Exercises. If you don't know what that is, DuckDuck will tell you. [DuckDuck]

If you have a weird sense of humor, yoga laughter is kinda funny. Otherwise it's just weird.

Results
Laughing stimulated all muscles in the midsection, especially the obliques. Laughing stimulated the inner obliques even better than the crunch. The difference between the intensity with which the crunch and yoga laughing stimulated the outer obliques was not statistically significant.

Butacross the board, the traditional exercises you do in the gym stimulate the core muscles better than laughing. For example, for the rectus abdominis, the crunch was a better exercise than laughing.

The backlift - also called 'the superman' - stimulated the lower back muscles better than the laughing exercises.

Conclusion
"Laughter seems to be a good activator of trunk muscles," the researchers write.

Source:
J Mot Behav. 2014;46(1):33-7.

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