HEALTH
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The ABDOMINAL DILEMMA
Is your ab work-out helping or hurting your body?
// AMY JOHNSON
Photo illustration by Adam Buhler
You could be "crunching" more than just your abs. Doing traditional crunches and focusing only on the so-called "mirror muscles" can create an imbalance of core strength and negatively affect posture.
We all dream about having flat, rock-hard abs. It used to be that reaching this goal meant hitting the floor and counting off crunches. But while crunching our way to six-pack status, have we been self-inducing back pain and damaging our spines?
Amber Long, assistant director of KU Recreation Services, says when people tend to focus solely on their "mirror muscles" — the ones important in appearance — they develop an imbalance in strength throughout their core. This imbalance pulls our bodies out of alignment as our front half is overpowering the back half in strength and muscle mass. Long says she sees this problem in a lot of in older clients she trains, and people need to start correcting now in order to develop balanced training. The imbalance is also exaggerated due to typical posture, which favors the front of our core and strains the back, throughout day-to-day life.
"We spend the majority of our day in a slumped position," Long says. "We sit slumped. We slump when we're driving, studying, eating. We're in this flexed position all day."
Sara Wilson, associate professor in mechanical engineering, says there is a lot of debate in the scientific community right now as to what is the best way to train the stability of the core muscles. The concern with abdominal crunching, she says, is the jerky, fast and poorly controlled motions performed. Some researchers have suggested that because of this, crunching may not be an effective way to strengthen abdominal muscles without hurting the spine, though nothing has been proven yet. But scientists have identified potential issues causing lower back pain, one of which is excessive force on the tissues of the spine.
The purpose of abdominal and core muscle exercises is to improve stabilization of the spine as a structure, Wilson says. Though crunching strengthens a particular muscle set, Wilson says we need to be cautious that the exercises we don't excessively load or destabilize the spine in the process.
These possible negative effects stem from people confusing "core strengthening" with "ab strengthening." Long says that a lot of people think about their core as just their abs when really it includes their entire trunk. The back, side, and obliques of our trunks are equally as important muscle groups to train. "If you're doing said amount of core," Long says, "you need to make sure you're working the other areas equally. Have balance in core training is key."
To avoid damaging affects of poor crunches it's important to pay attention to how our bodies react to exercises. Patty Quinlan, registered nurse and supervisor of nursing at Student Health Services, says our bodies will warn us of poor exercises by giving us a sore, bruising feeling in our muscles. Quinlan says you never want to do an exercise program that leaves you stiffened up the next day because this is a warning sign you're overdoing it. The goal of exercise is to build stamina and strength gradually, slowly building to a goal.
Sandra Bowman, supervisor of the physical therapy department, says another way to avoid injury to the back or spine is to always practice correct form when performing an abdominal crunch. Bowman says a common mistake people make is allowing their belly to push out while crunching. Stomach muscles need to be sucked in, tucking the belly in and up under the ribs, throughout the entire exercise.
When placing your hands behind your head, Bowman says to be sure to only have them there to support the weight of your head. Often when hands are in this placement, people pull themselves forward from the neck, causing a large strain in the muscles. To avoid doing this, Long suggests staring at the ceiling throughout
the entire crunch, or making a fist with your hand and placing it in between your chin and chest. If you still feel yourself pulling, try having your arms outstretched so your hands cup over the knees at the peak of the crunch. Bowman says this technique also gives you an idea of how high your crush should go.
Although the crunching exercise has been questioned, it is still better than doing sit-ups to train the muscles. Long says. She says sit-ups put a large load on the spinal disks, and the hip flexors typically end up taking over. Also, most people can't do a full sit-up correctly, making them far less effective than a proper crunch.
Long says strengthening our abdominal muscles is important in our exercise routines so long as we don't neglect the other muscles in our core. Practicing exercise programs such as pilates can help us balance our core workouts because they focus on stabilizing the entire core. The Amber Student Recreation Center will also be offering a complete core training class in October to educate people on strengthening all of the abdominal muscle groups.
Amber Long of KU Recreation Services says that for good spine health, you should train your abs in these four ways every time you hit the gym:
FLEXATION
Spinal flexion training includes any sort of crunching exercises which work the rectus abdominus
EXTENSION
muscles in the front, giving us the six-pack stomach.
A good spinal extension exercise is to lie flat on your stomach and lift up into a superman position holding that position and then relaxing and repeating.
ROTATION
Seated medicine ball twists work well for spinal rotation exercises. Also effective is simply rotating with the medicine ball while standing up.
STABILIZATION
Spinal stabilization exercises include any sort of plank exercise to work the transverse abdominus muscles.
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