Gravity Fx Fitness

There’s been a lot of discussion lately on whether or not you should be doing crunches or situps if you want a healthy spine.  Spine researcher Stuart McGill has been at the forefront of much of this debate and if you haven’t heard, he doesn’t believe that most people need to include these exercises, especially if you have a past history of low back pain.

I don’t have my clients do them for two reasons :

first, most people over 40 already have some slight posture issues going on and don’t need to spend any more time in a flexed position and second, they are just too inefficient – they take too much time for what you get.

I recently attended the Midwest Performance Enhancement seminar and the strength coaches and physical therapists who were the speakers, were all against doing repeated spinal flexion in an exercise or rehab program.  Abdominal “bracing” is their preference (like bracing for a punch to the stomach).

The article 3 Surprisingly Strong Ab Exercises talks about doing an estimated 250,000 crunches to burn a pound of bodyfat, bringing up the point that its a waste of time to try and trim your waistline this way.  Last week I had a man who looked to be in his mid to late 40’s stop in while I was training some clients.

I didn’t have time to talk to him for very long but gave him a brochure and he gave me a business card.  I called him to see what he was looking for in an exercise program and he stated that he had been doing 1000 situps a day and not gotten rid of his belly. I told him that this was not the best way to solve this problem and that he might have been putting his back at risk of injury.

He didn’t seem to get my point but this man DID NOT have a flat stomach despite his routine.  In fact, he looked like he hadn’t been doing any work for his belly at all.

Strength coach Mike Robertson addressed this issue recently in his article Should You Crunch? part 2.  One of the points that he brings up is the effect on the upper body and shoulder function.  While standing, lean your upper body forward in the position that you end up in while doing crunches.  Now, raise your arm overhead and see how far it goes.  Then, stand completely upright and see how much higher you can reach.

A long-time massage client of mine passed away two months ago at the age of 79.  She routinely did about 700 situps daily when I first met her in a chiropractic clinic.  She had painful neck spasms then and dealt with chronic neck issues thereafter.  I tried to get her to break this habit but the last 3-4 years she also had a lot of shoulder issues which I believe was related to all that spinal flexion exercise.

If you would like to listen to an interview with Dr. Stuart McGill click on this link McGill Takes on Crunches…Again and here is a review of a one day seminar with McGill that I attended at Palmer Chiropractic College about four years ago Are Situps Causing Your Back Pain?

Also, if you have had some back or posture issues one of the first places to start is with diaphragmatic breathing.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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You can have great abs without doing hundreds and hundreds of crunches!  I’m not big on marathon sessions of crunches and situps - partly, because it just takes too much time and I’m too busy to do something inefficient.

They take so much time because there isn’t much tension on your stomach and tension is key to training  your muscles, including your midsection.

So how do you get six pack abs without doing crunches?  Simple, you first burn off the fat covering your stomach with multi-joint exercises that use the large muscles in your body and get rid of the “junk” in your diet, otherwise noone can see your flat stomach, anyway!

When doing specific ab exercises, train them with tension – increase the intensity, not the amount of time you train them.  Start off with exercises like planks and bridges to strengthen your stomach and low back.

Then progress to exercises like “rollouts” on an ab wheel or do various pushups and pikes on a suspension trainer like the Bandit’s Loops or TRX.  This trains your stomach and low back to provide stability and coordination while your upper or lower body is moving.

Besides adding to your total body coordination and athletic ability, this also is more time-efficient than spending 15-30 minutes on the floor doing a separate ab workout and I’m all about doing efficient workouts.

I also like using sandbags and kettlebells to hit this area with some intensity.  Sandbags in particular are great for hitting your obliques – adding in a measure of back prevention while giving you a more athletic body.

Many of the “gimmicks” you see on TV use professional fitness models to promote their product.  Most of the time, they have never used that product before and got in great shape with other methods – then they might have even had some liposuction done just before shooting the commercial, to look even better.

Besides getting a flatter stomach, you will probably have better posture and possibly prevent back injury at the same time.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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….that is the question.  Are spinal flexion movements like crunches and situps damaging to the spine, or nothing to worry about?

If you’re familiar with top spine researcher Dr. Stuart McGill, you should know that his research shows that repeated flexion, such as doing 15 minutes of crunch and situp variations, can be damaging to the discs.

I attended one of his seminars on core stability a while back at Palmer Chiropractic College.  Having read some of his articles, I was fairly familiar with his concepts for core training.

Recently, I listened to a podcast with Dr. McGill and he stated his belief that we have a limited number of forward flexion (bending) cycles in each one of us and that doing lots of these type of ab exercises just wastes that number.

He thinks that those who have tempted fate in this manner, may have genetics that allow them to get away with it, up to a point.  He advocates “bracing” the abs isometrically to support the spine and strengthen the abdominal wall……

a wall with different layers of muscles running in different directions, kind of like plywood, where the different layers are stronger together than any of them on their own.

Plank exercises are the starting point for these different “bracing” strategies of core stability.  These can be done in the front and side positions, and bridges can address the glute and back muscles.

McGill recently has done studies with competitive strongmen, like the ones you see on ESPN, lifting massive amounts of weight.

This confirmed the role of the quadratus lumborum as an important spine stabilizer.  These muscles run from the bottom of your ribcage to the pelvis and also attach to the spine.

When you carry a heavy suitcase in one hand, it places a lot of demand on this muscle to keep your back straight – or when you carry a heavy suitcase in both hands, these muscles are working hard to support your spine.

So training your abs and low back to stay tight when lifting heavy objects is one of the benefits to this method of training.  Improved posture is another.

If you are someone who has had disc problems or sciatica, then situps and crunches are the last thing you want to do, as this puts unnecessary stress on your back.

One of the few exceptions to doing flexion might be those with too much curve in their low back.  A few sets of reverse crunches might help keep everything in a more neutral position.

After basic stability is gained, I like to use sandbag exercises and suspension training for increased intensity to your midsection – teaching your upper and lower body to work with your “core” for increased coordination – the way it works in real life situations.

Get Moving!

Brian Morgan

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I had a great ab workout yesterday without doing any crunches or situps, which are mostly a waste of time.  So what exercises did I do for my abs?

Simple, I did complex movements like front/Zercher grip sandbag squats and handstand pushups with my feet against the wall.  These exercises require intense stability work for your abs, and are pretty good for your back too.

When you do squats with a fairly heavy sandbag in front of you, it requires your abs and low back to work hard to stabilize your spine and maintain good posture.  It also works your mid back muscles along your thoracic spine, again, great for your posture.

For the handstand pushups I place my back to a wall and put my hands on the floor about two feet or so, in front of me on the ground.  Then I walk my feet up the wall until my body is fairly straight and then do some pushups.

Not just a great upper body exercise (if strong enough), I also really feel it in my lower abs and internal obliques.  Those muscles are working hard to provide stability.  This is how these muscles work in real life settings.

These exercises provide a lot more intensity than lying on the ground and doing crunches, which are pretty much a waist of time in my opinion – because they lack proper intensity and require too much time (inefficient).

Doing squats or stepups with a sandbag on one shoulder is also a great ab workout.  They force your obliques (sides) to provide plenty of stability for your spine since all the weight is positioned on one side.

Do you see a theme happening here?  Training your abs with exercises that involve other muscles not only saves you time but gives your abs a more intense workout.  It also builds total body coordination which is important for playing sports but also for avoiding injury in everyday life.

Think of a fireman carrying someone from a burning building.  He either carries that person in front of him or on his shoulder.  Doing crunches won’t help him accomplish this…..

but training with sandbags will!

If short on time, work your entire body in one session – building strength and cardio at the same time.

Get moving!

Brian

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Not long ago, I attended a seminar with a top spine researcher. This doctor of spine biomechanics, Dr. Stuart McGill, has a lab where he does research on what causes low back pain.

He has people coming from all over the world to see if he can help them with their pain. Often, these people have been to several doctors prior to this, with few results.

In this lecture on spine stability, he brought up some interesting facts on exercise and back pain.

Have you been told that you should do your situps with your knees bent to take pressure off your back? Doesn’t make much difference. In fact, most people shouldn’t be doing situps at all!

Seems that several soldiers are coming back from Iraq with back problems. What is one of their physical training tests? Timed situps – how many can you do in a minute or two.

What is the problem? Simple, this is not what your abs (stomach) were meant to do. It creates an imbalance between the muscles on the front and back of the body.

Your abs are meant to help stabilize your spine and you need to train them to do that. Herniated discs can be a result of this repeated flexion (bending). So obviously, if you have had problems with your low back, you would want to avoid doing situps and crunches.

Another point was having adequate mobility. Some times your back hurts because certain areas such as your hips and pelvis lack proper flexibility.  Your hips need to be both flexible and strong at the same time.  A lack of flexibility in the hips can cause your lumbar spine to rotate too much.

And oh yes, posture! Poor posture places unnecessary stress on the joints, as your muscles are fighting against gravity, working harder than they need to. Good posture places you in a more mechanically efficient position.

While he didn’t go into too much detail on flexibility and mobility, you should already know my philosophy – we each need a proper blend of mobility and stability – the ability to be flexible and strong at the same time. The researcher believes that your lumbar spine (low back) isn’t meant to be flexible, but stable.

One other interesting note, he said that back strength doesn’t necessarily prevent you from having back issues. The endurance of the muscles surrounding and stabilizing the spine is more important.

A good exercise to strengthen your abdominal wall is the front plank.  “Brace” your abs as you hold this position for 10-30 seconds without letting your stomach sag towards the floor.  You can do the modified version from your knees to make this exercise easier.

Get moving!

Brian

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