Cannonball Abs
If you clicked on this link to learn about six pack abs, you came to the wrong site. Try Muscle and Fiction magazine. I don’t care how many crunches Britney Spears does each day, we all know washboard abs are 100% diet anyway. 
This article IS about core stability. Despite popular ab training regimens, your abdominals function to resist movement and stabilize the spine, more than aiding movement and mobilizing the spine. Your spine is very mobile and because of this mobility, its vulnerable to fractures and disc pathologies. Your core, which includes the muscles of your abdominals, obliques and lower back, are your body’s natural weight belt, for stabilizing the spine under various loads and stressors during movement. They serve to resist flexion and extension of the lumbar spine, front to back, side to side.
We all have experienced, or know someone, who has thrown their back out. Often it occurred doing something as innocent as bending over to pick up something light, tying a shoe lace, etc. Occasionally, it was something more aggressive like moving a heavy object, and not “using your legs.” In both situations, your spine was in a flexed position, a forward bend. The majority of disc herniations are posteriorly displaced, and occur in this hunched over position. Common ab exercises like sit ups and crunches reinforce this hunched position, often putting undue stress on the spine in this flexed position. Over time, repeated flexion of the spine may ultimately lead to a spinal injury. Watch someone’s ab routine next time you are at the gym and notice the excessive strain and force they seem to be putting on their spine from their neck down to their lower back. Are they working their spine or their abs?? With exception of sitting up out of bed in the morning, twice if you take a nap, sit ups provide no real world functional use. Training the muscles of the core to resist flexion, will stabilize the spine and protect your discs from injury. Exercises like planks, dead lifts, and over head pressing, load the spine, engaging your core to resist extension and flexion of the lumbar spine. Add some of the exercises I have in my Core Stabilization section for greater challenge, spine health, stronger abs, and with a proper diet, “six pack abs.” With smarter core training, you too can have cannonball strength abdominals! Don’t take my word for it, read famed spine specialist, Stuart McGill’s take on spinal health and core training.
Core Training: Evidence Translating to Better Performance and Injury Prevention
Dan Daly, CSCSTags: abdominals, abs, Britney Spears, core stability, core training, crunches, homer simpson, Muscle and Fitness, sit ups, spine, Stuart McGill
Posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2010
at 12:34 pm.
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8 comments already!
Hi Dan, thanks for the article! I’d agree with you that the average person/office worker type doesn’t have fundamental core stability and strength, and that even if they do exercise their core it’s focused on spinal flexion in the form of sit ups and crunch type movements.
Given a basic level of core strength and stability, what exercises would you recommend to increase range of motion? Not suggesting that the spine should be hyper-mobile, but in your previous article “5 Components of Health Related Physical Fitness” you mentioned that flexibility is one of those components. The exercises you mentioned are great for core strength and stability, but do not seem conducive to stretching/lengthening the muscles that surround the spine.
I do capoeira, and it requires a greater than average range of motion in the spine in both flexion and extension, as well as the stability/flexibility of the core muscles in those positions. I’m wondering how the exercises you mentioned in this article would play into that, if at all. If not, what types of exercises would you suggest?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,
Kevin
Kevin, thanks for responding. The majority of my current clients are average, non athlete exercisers. Many lack adequate core stability to prevent common lower back ailments, due to desk jockey lifestyles, and weak core musculature. Adding stability to their weakest and most mobile part of their body is very important. While many sports require extreme ranges of motion and mobility, growing bodies of research, including the work of Stuart McGill, who I sited in my blog, believe that excessive flexion and rotation of the lumbar spine are cause of many debilitating lower back ailments in both sedentary people and athletes. Flexibility is important, including the muscles of the core, however, the spine is already very mobile. Its the strength of the core muscles that stabilize the spine through movement. I have not seen much research on some of the less mainstreams sports such as martial arts and yoga, but studies done on athletes requiring extreme ranges of motion, such as tennis and golf, show signs of disc degeneration and other vertebral pathologies, that may serve a purpose in sport, but compromise the integrity of the body long term. Often, people compensate for lack of flexibility in other muscles by gaining a desired range of motion through spinal movement, which is not ideal. Perhaps the range of motion you require could be obtained by investigating the root of an inflexibility and not just the most obvious lack of extensibility. Theres a great article on core training in this months Journal of Strength and Conditioning. I welcome your rebuttal!
interesting perspective. this is likely the reason why I get most of my ab definition when doing a lot of heavy compound training.
kH
Exactly. That and good genes and diet! Thanks for commenting.
Well said. I know several people who have moved away from doing crunches and are having great results doing Pilates, and making changes in their food choices.
Thanks for commenting Glenn. Spinal flexion/extension is contraindicative for many of our PT clientele. Stuart McGill, as well as the yoga and Pilates practitioners are doing great things with core training that minimizes stress on the spine. I’ve had great results eliminating and avoiding lower back issues, implementing some of these strategies. Would love to discuss it further with you.
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