Unless you've been living a secluded life under a rock, you probably know by now that you need to train and strengthen your core. The question becomes, "what is the most effective way to train the core?" Recently, I was having a conversation with a guy who had injured his back. His doctor's told him he needed to strengthen his core to keep his back healthy, but did give him any specifics. So following his doctor's advise he went to his gym and began to do crunches and oblique twists on a machine, after a couple of workouts his back was killing him. What happened? After all he was strengthening his "core" muscles,at least according to conventional wisdom and the diagram on the machine.
Your core is designed to resist spinal extension and rotation.
This is a common scenario. While many of the traditional core or shall I say "ab exercises", like the sit-up and crunch, focus on flexing the spine this is not how the core muscles are designed to work. One of their functions is to resist extension of the spine, rather than flex it. When you flex the spine in a crunch or sit up the shear forces placed on the lower back are above a safe level of force and over time will result in injuring the back. The second function of the core is to resist rotation of the spine. The joints of the low back do not allow for much movement when rotation and/or twisting due to their structural design. In order, for us to rotate and twist we need to get this movement through the hips and t-spine (upper back), not the lower back which is what the oblique twist machine does. Additionally, research has shown that planks create higher muscular activation and recruitment that sit-ups and crunches.
Sit Up Straight!
Remember your mother and grade school teacher telling you that? Well, like it or not they were right. Most people have weak core muscles due to poor posture, primarily sitting all day. When we sit for extended periods of time we tend to slouch and our pelvis rolls under and our shoulders roll forward. As a result we create tight muscles on the front side of our body and weak muscles on the back side. When we do crunches all we are doing is reinforcing the position that we are in all day long and is part of the problem as to why our core is weak to begin with. We need to strengthen the muscles of the upper back and glutes and stretch the front side of the hips and shoulders (hip flexors and pectoralis muscles) that are tight. This will result in better posture and improved core strength.
Perform activities that resemble everyday activities.
How many times have you heard the story of someone who bent down to put on a sock and their back went out? I'm sure more than once. It wasn't the sock that caused them to throw out their back, it was all the things they do each day with bad form and poor or improper movement. The sock was just, "the straw that broke the camels back," as the saying goes.
When we say to perform activities that resemble everyday activities we are not talking about exercise machines that isolate muscle groups, this will actually lead to the same problems. Rather, we are talking about exercises that require multiple muscle groups to work in unison with each, such as picking things up from the ground, carrying weight, squatting, and lifting something overhead. These are movements that everyone does everyday in life.
So what exercises should you be doing?
The list could be endless with variations, but a good place to start with is: Planks, Side Planks, Push Ups, TRX Rows, Kettle Bell Deadlifts, Goblet Squats, and Farmers Walk. All of these exercises will improve your core strength.
Exercise won't give you a six pack, that's nutrition.
Oh and one more thing. If you think all you have to do is exercise to get a six-pack think again. All the exercise in the world will not give you abs if your nutrition in not spot on.
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