Guys have a love
affair with the six pack – even if they never get it. Ladies, too, seek the
sleek, magazine cover midsection. What should you be doing to get the abs of
your dreams?
As with any bodypart, there isn’t a single best exercise,
but you need to keep in mind the following. First, if you’re looking for a taut tummy or
rippling abs, recognize that sit-ups or any abdominal exercise is just a piece
to the puzzle. You can do sit-ups and crunches ab nauseum, but if you’re not lean enough you won’t see a trace of
your six pack. Gotta burn the flab before you see the ab! So a healthy diet (lean
meats and other protein-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, avoiding sugar and
processed carbs) with at least two hours of cardio a week – including high-intensity
intervals - are prerequisites.
Most people don’t seem to understand that. The other day I
watched a well-intended guy buzz around the gym. He hopped from kneeling cable rope
crunches to leg raises to an ab crunch machine. No rest. He grunted on the machine, curling his body in a herky-jerky motion with several plates on the
weight stack. Then he got up, grabbed his coat and left. Did he work his abs?
Sure he did. Was he "feeling the burn"? Probably.
But let’s look a little deeper than the superficial six pack
this guy was after. All three exercises were done in a linear or sagittal
plane. He shortened his abs and hip flexors on all three. His shoulders were
protracted with excessive cervical flexion on two of them. Now picture the
stereotypical old person. Shoulders are hunched with neck flexed. Their movements are one-dimensional, linear. Gait is shortened
(perhaps due to tight hip flexors). So why would you exercise in a way that
reinforces that posture and robs your overall efficiency of movement? There’s little carryover from a sit-up to
everyday movement or athletic performance – and even less on any ab machine,
most of which should be outlawed.
Please understand, I’m not saying don’t do sit-ups and crunches.
They are – in moderation - part of a solid ab routine. But they’re over-rated
and over-done. At the least, they’re done without the complementary exercises and
stretches to balance all of that contraction and movement in an undesirable
position. Like any other muscle, abs need to be lengthened and worked through
multiple planes of motion. With sit-ups or crunches, the abs concentrically contract
(shorten) to assist in spinal flexion. That is a function of the rectus
abdominus, but it’s not one that it does often.
The primary function of the abs is dynamic stabilization
of the trunk. Abs absorb and produce force, normally in a rotational pattern.
Think of throwing a baseball, swinging a tennis racquet, punching or even
transferring your groceries from the cart to the trunk. That’s how your abs
work. That’s how you should train them. Your regimen (unless you’re getting
ready for a bodybuilding competition) should consist of integrated movements,
mainly on your feet. Incorporate rotational movement with cables, kettlebells,
bands and medicine balls. The isolated movements should only supplement. That’s
the finishing touch. Once again, the six-pack is a superficial. Treat it as
such. You wouldn’t slap a new coat of paint on a dilapidated house, would you?
A sexy six pack means nothing if the deeper core muscles (the
transverse abdominus, internal obliques, multifidus) aren’t firing and able to
provide support in posture and movement.
So remember a couple of tenets of my training philosophy: 1) Integration
before isolation. 2) Train the body inside out. 3) Rotation, rotation,
rotation. I’m not going to get into my preferred abdominal exercises here. It’s tough sometimes
to get a clear picture in print when multiple movements are involved. So I’ll save
that for an upcoming video. Be on the lookout! And when it comes to your abs, look
deeper. And look at your diet.
Robert Haddocks
CPT, CES, CSCS
Spreading the Health!
Note: Let me know what
you want to read or see in future videos and I’ll do my best to put something
out there for you.
