Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?:
Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs. Side plank (lie on your side and raise your upper body) and the "bird dog" (in which, from all fours, you raise an alternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded along the back and sides of the core. As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks. An approved crunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands positioned beneath your lower back for support. "Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor," McGill says. Gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down. These three exercises, done regularly, McGill said, can provide well-rounded, thorough core stability. And they avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine. "I see too many people," McGill told me with a sigh, "who have six-pack abs and a ruined back."
I know some readers are fitness buffs. Thoughts?
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Sounds right to me. On the advice of a physical therapist I invested in a low-back extender platform that I use to strengthen back and sides. Makes all the difference in the world.
I don't think there is great deal of evidence supporting the idea crunches and sit ups are dangerous. There is good logic behind it though flexion of the lumbar spine puts sheering forces on the disc which the back is very sensitive to. Even if the risks are minor there is no value in traditional core excercises anyways. The primary role of the core is not lumbar flexion it is to stablize force transfer form the hips and to resist flexion, extension or rotation. Excessive training of the flexion function of the "core" often results in terrible posture as well, the anterior core becomes tight while the posterior core remains week and often hyper flexible. I see this often in gymnasts. I know the world record holder for sit ups and his posture incredibly bad.
If your going to train the core it should be anti Flexion, rotation and extension exercises, like planks, side plancks, l-hold, tuck planche, flags. I don't think there is great value in core training anyways. I do very little specific core training my training is primarily parkour plus major compound lifts, Squat, deadlift, handstand push up and muscle ups between those exercises every muscle in my body is activated in universal motor patterns applicable to life and sport.
"'Most medical research is rubbish' is a better approximation to the truth than almost all medical research." So saith a sage.
I've seen a trainer of TV advise one to do crunches and not sit-ups. I think this is a universal opinion. But this trainer advises pressing one's back flat against the floor, in direct opposition to what this guy says.
I agree with his advice that you want to strengthen all the core muscles, and not just the abs. Reasonable people definitely do disagree, however, on what the best exercises are.
I've been concerned about this since I saw a story in Newsweek about a month ago. I emailed it to a few doctor bloggers but they never took it up.
It's totally changed my exercise routine. Instead of the million crunches I used to do, I now do planks, side planks, bird dogs, and those virtually stationary crunch things that McGill recommends.
I can't speak of the science of it, but I can tell you from experience that side planks and bird dogs do seem to help your back.
But I've always been fine with doing sit ups and crunches too.
Regarding that "approved crunch", I have no experience with it, and can't really comment on it.
I wonder if doing crunches on an exercise ball is bad for your back. The exercise ball is flexible and "gives", so how would it compress your disks?
Thoughts?
Also, it seems that being too skinny is not a good idea:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c7aaeb7940626693fa418a1eab2…
(But I wonder what passes for chubby in Japan.)
The potential problem with ab exercises is that unless done correctly you just end up strengthening the psoas muscles instead of your abdominals. Psoas are big muscles that go from your spine to the front of your thighs and can thus pull your spine out of alignment resulting in pinched nerves. A lot of the ab exercises are designed so that you are less likely to cheat by using your psoas to do the movement but you still have to be of conscious using your abs.
Personally, I do hanging knee raises and trunk raises. The last strengthen your back and glutes and hence tend to compensate for any unintended strengthening of the psoas. These require some special equipment, tho.
Are you getting the information you're looking for?
Core strengthening exercises are worthless for low back pain. Dr. Sarno's explanation of it is the best.