Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

From the New York Times, an article that references an Australian study during the 1990′s that may have spawned the fitness obsession with the core. Most people instantly think of abdominal weakness when back pain is prevalent. Many health professionals would suggest core exercises right away without question for someone with back pain. And in fact, the British Journal of Sports Medicine says the finding from the Australian study might have been wrong.

In addition to the core remaining a “nebulous concept” and poorly defined, an excessive amount of attention paid to it may not even be safe. The primary muscle of the core most fitness professionals are trying to exercise is the transversus abdominis. However, it is a little understood muscle. It is thought to be one of the major core muscles, but it actually has a small cross sectional area. It does not erect the spine or hold the trunk upright at all. It is labeled the transversus because of it’s laterally running fibers. When they contract, they compress the abdomen inward. That force is exactly perpendicular to the flexion and extension of spine in a sagittal (front to back) plane. It does not really produce movement and is, therefore, hard and unproductive to attempt to isolate and exercise. It is more involved in compressing the abdomen, aiding in forced expiration, birth, etc. It is impossible to isolate completely and usually involved involuntarily as a result of other movements.

Read Is your ab workout hurting your back?

In S.P.A.R.T.A. Training™, we exercise the mid section in a balaced approach. Almost the entire workout is performed in a push/pull fashion. If we do an exercise for the anterior (front) side of the body, we usually follow it with an exercise for the posterior (back) side. Your abdominals and lower back erectors are antagonistic or opposites. An over emphasis on repeated spinal flexion (sit ups or crunches) or engaging in hip flexion exercises (lying leg lifts) mistakenly thinking they are abdominal exercises can potentially be harmful to the discs of the spine. A reasonable amount of emphasis and a balanced approach to abdominal and midsection training in general will be safe and effective.