Tom’s blog

There is a trend in the fitness industry around the world to exercise the abdominal muscles to death. There are literally hundreds of different products and equipment that purport to effectively condition the abdominal muscles. But why and how effective are all these different approaches.

The bandwagon has been jumped on simply because in the late 1990’s a whole raft of research came out into the importance of the abdominal muscles in human movement. New methods had been identified that helped to objectively assess the function of the differing layers of muscles and how faulty recruitment of these muscles could contribute to a multitude of pain syndromes and shearing and wear on the joints.

Human movement is initiated by recruiting the abdominal muscles in the right sequence.  The deep core muscles are the major stabilising force on the trunk followed by the lower abdominals then the oblique muscles at the side then the upper abdominals.

 Where alot of bandwagoners go wrong is the vast over conditioning of the upper abdominals-the six pack. If there is one exercise that is done to death and often totally incorrectly its the crunch.  If god had created a movement pattern that involves bobbing your head forward repeatedly for as many as 1000 times a day then there would be no problem.  However most (upper) abdominal exercises cause neck problems and negative postural changes. The muscles these movement patterns work are not good stabilisers in side to side movements.  It doesn’t matter how you wrap it up with abdominal cages, abdominal machine, rollers or whatever, it’s so easy to over use, misuse or abuse the upper abdominals.

 If a trunk curl is to be performed it should be performed on a swiss ball/exercise ball. This ensures full utilisation of the complete range of these muscles.  Lying on your back on the floor only works the muscles through a very short range.  Lying on the ball means you extend the spine taking these muscles to their absolute start range.

 Much of what I am talking about here come from the most inspirational of individuals in the fitness industry Paul Chek.  An absolute revolutionary he has single handedly turned traditional exercising on it’s head.

 Go to http://www.chekinstitute.com

 If you want more information how i use his training in my practice go to http://www.helfordclinic.com/contact_us.html