Dave Turpin
I
got recently got invited to participate in a fitness challenge as a member
of a five member team at the YMCA. The challenge spoofs the television show Amazing Race. Since I never saw the show I
can't accurately compare the Y challenge with the TV version. I can
say, the Y contest is a bunch of cardio... and that's about it. It's just a matter
of logging lots of hours on various cardio equipment.
In order to squeeze more hours out of my day I've found myself walking over
to the Y at 05:00AM (it's literally right across the street from my
development). At that hour it's still dark out making it easy to look inside
the facility and see people working out that I might not have noticed once I
got inside.
On several occasions I've noticed someone doing straight leg raises on the
"Vertical Knee Raise" machine. Bear in mind that this is a very difficult
exercise to perform correctly with bent knees, never mind straight legs.
The next question that comes to mind is if this person is doing this
exercise at 5AM, what will they be doing at 05:30?
Why does it matter? Assuming correct form, this exercise totally trashes the
lower abdominals. Once the abdominals are trashed what is left to stabilize
the spine during squats, good mornings, standing shoulder presses, or bent
knee dead lifts? The answer... Nothing! If these folks are working
their other exercises as much as their abdominals are they prone to back
injury? Absolutely!
Later on in my own workout I noticed a Y-trainer doing leg throw-downs with a
client. You know... the exercise where the client lies on their back on
the floor and the trainer throws their feet to the floor and the client
raises their feet back up in the air. Great exercise for the lower
abdominals. Right? Again, only when performed correctly. Unfortunately for
this person they were unable to stabilize the spine with their apparently
weak lower abdominals. I could see their spine lifting off the floor
from 20 feet away. Apparently this trainer never assessed the strength
or coordination of the client's abdominal wall.
The fact is most people don't really like training their abdominals. I most cases they just do it in an attempt to achieve a smaller waistline. Unfortunately, the best way to achieve a smaller waistline is through proper nutrition and portion control. The real reason to train the abdominals is to stabilize the spine. In other words, to protect the low back. Improper training of the abdominal wall, which happens more often than not, only leads to faulty motor programming and sets up the exerciser for low back pain as a result from compensatory muscle recruitment, inflammation of connective tissues, and adjacent nerve irritation.
Here are some tips that will make your abdominal workouts more effective:
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Train your abdominals AFTER all of your compound exercises (squats, dead lifts, etc). If you exhaust your abdominals before you perform your squats you won't have any stability in your low back. This could result in low back pain and injury.
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Break down your abdominals into three sections: lower (below the umbilicus), obliques (sides) and upper (between the umbilicus and ribs). This is also the order of ascending strength. Exercise the weakest section first (the lowers), followed by the obliques, followed by the uppers.
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The abdominals CAN be exercised every day. If you're going to do this, exercise the lowers on the first day, the obliques on the second day and the uppers on the third.
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All exercises should STOP when your form and/or speed is reduced. Forget about doing 50 crunches... See if you can do 12-15 correctly. You'll get a lot more out of the 15 correct ones than 50 sloppy ones. Additionally, if you're training in bad form you are training poor motor engrams into your brain. This is sort of like learning to swing a golf club on your own instead of with a qualified instructor. Once you learn the swing incorrectly it's even more difficult to change and relearn it correctly.
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Only select exercises that you can perform with perfect form. In order to really do this step objectively you'll need to have a qualified exercise coach, preferably a C.H.E.K practitioner, assess your abdominal wall. To find a qualified visit the C.H.E.K Institute website.
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Perform your exercises in the correct progression. Many people start out trying to do the most challenging exercises, such as the Y member trying to do straight leg raises and 5AM.
For example, a CHEK practitioner would have sequence your lower abdominal exercises in the following order: lower abdominal #1 (LA#1), LA #2a, LA #2b, LA #3, and LA #4. Once these exercises can be performed with perfect form should you be doing straight leg raises or throw downs.
A similar progression for the obliques would be Hanna's 3-part, Russian twist lower with ball, Russian twist lower straight leg, Russian twist upper, etc. It takes time and effort to develop the strength and coordination to correctly perform twisted knee raises (hangers) and massively loaded dumbbell side bends.
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Don't overtrain your upper abdominals. Many people immediately think of CRUNCHes when they think of abdominal training. Crunches target the upper abdominals. Most clients I've assessed have normal strength in their upper abdominals. Similarly, most have very dysfunctional lower abdominals. Spend most of your effort training your lower abdominals, not your uppers.
Overly tight upper abdominals can lead to postural and respiratory problems by interfering with the diaphragm and pulling the front of the pelvis up which can easily and often does lead to low back pain. What does that tell you? Highly conditioned group fitness instructors that spend many sessions performing crunches on the floor are good candidates for supporting their orthopedic surgeon's BMW fund!
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