Why don't we (over)work abs?

First we have to take a step back and examine why we have this obsession with dedicated ab exercises such as sit-ups and crunches. Of course everyone wants a flat stomach, and some of you would REALLY like to have a "six-pack" as well. The problem is, sit-ups have little to do with a flat stomach. In fact, we all have a six-pack. It's just that most of us have buried it under a layer of fat. Remove the fat, and we've all got beautiful abs.

Most of you should know by now that there’s no such thing as "spot reduction". Your body takes fat from all areas of your body. It doesn't care what area you're working. Working the abs will in no way make the fat disappear from around your midsection. In fact, if fat loss is your goal, then spending endless hours doing crunches is a terrible way to go. Your abs are very small in comparison to your legs and all the other muscles in your body. Why not work the muscles that really burn calories?

In fact, in my own opinion, too much direct ab work will in fact give you a thick mid-section. This isn’t a big factor for guys or for anyone that still has some body fat to lose, but if you’re a trim female looking for that hourglass figure, too much core work is counterproductive (ie. Pilates). As an example of this go back and checkout a photo of Britney Spears when she first came onto the pop scene. Then compare it to a photo of the pop diva sometime around 2003-2004 after she dedicated herself to being as fit as possible (not the current Britney). You’ll notice that although she definitely looks super fit, she’s lost much of her trim waistline. I can’t tell you a thing about Britney’s workout, but I’m going to guess it includes several hundred crunches everyday.

Of course there's another reason to work our abs, and that's for the current trend towards "core stability". Whether you want to be a Strongman, or just want to be functional and free of back-pain, having a strong mid-section is essential. Having a strong mid-section also helps for posture (looking good). But what do crunches and sit-ups have to do with core stability. Well, not as much as you might think. They do work the rectus abdominis, but in a way that's not particularly functional. Where in everyday life do you force your upper body towards your lower body? Almost never. At least not in a way that really strains them.

In fact the current line of thinking is that our core is not built so much for moving our upper body in relation to our lower body, but to stabilize it. That’s right, flexing through the spine is probably a bad idea regardless of how strong your core is. Take female gymnasts for example. Watch how far they can contort their bodies, arching their backs so far they can touch their feet to the backs of their heads. Unfortunately, competitive gymnasts also have incredibly high incidences of lower back disorders later in life. These repeated contortions destroy their spines.

Also, the Rectus Abdominis rarely acts alone in contraction. In fact it almost always acts in conjunction with many other muscles including the external and internal obliques, transversus abdominis, latimus dorsi, erector spinae, psoas minor and major, Iliacus, and more. These muscles act as a natural weight belt to stabilize the spine and hold or move the midsection. Paying too much attention to the Rectus Abdominis isn't going to strengthen your midsection unless you're also strengthening all those other muscles. Not only that, but much of the strength benefits we get from lifting weights comes from training the nervous system to fire our muscles with maximum efficiency. Training one muscle alone will never teach the nervous system to fire all those muscles properly together (you can throw one ball into the air as much as you'd like, but you'll never learn how to juggle until you try it with three balls).

So how should we be training our abs? Yes, we may do some swiss ball crunches, just as we may do some curls for the biceps, but mainly we’re training the core with planks, squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, pulldowns, full body twists, etc! We're doing full body movements that use our abs as they were meant to be used: to stabilize the upper and lower halves of the body.

One caveat here!!!! Since most of you have never really trained the core in a functional way, most of you will start out very imbalanced. Combine that with a typical beginners bad form, and it becomes easy to injure your back. Of course that's where we come in. If we’re doing our job right, we’ll be telling you when your form is bad, and we'll make sure we never go too until your form is flawless. Not that the muscles in your back won't occasionally be sore (just like the other muscles you worked). You've been ignoring those muscles for years, and they have a lot of catching up to do.

This isn't to say we're never going to work the Rectus Abdominis with a set of stability ball crunches every now and then, but not to the extent most people do. Also, don’t shy away from any ab work just because you don’t want “blocky” abs like Britney got. She probably dedicated most of her day to her workouts.

As far as that six-pack is concerned, just keep up those workouts, keep the diet clean, and you too can have a beautiful midsection without hours of crunches. For those of you that hate crunches, don't get too happy....we'll find many more exercises you'll hate even more :)