I am sure you see it all the time.
People in the gym doing 100′s of situps, crunches, cable pull down, inverted situps and of course the crunch twist.
Matter of fact I see alot of trainers doing it in their group workouts.
Did you every consider what that is doing to the spine??
Watch someone do a crunch or situp.
All they are doing is flexing their spine.
Here is what that does functionally and physiologically.
1. Increases disc pressure by 10x
2. Causes anterior hip structures to get tight which in turn inhibits posterior chain function
3. Cause upper spine to flex which shortens anterior shoulder structures and now we get the forward head – rounded shoulder syndrome and inhibiting of scapular stabilizers.
What is the role of the abs as part of the kinetic chain??
Protect the low back from moving to far when the arms and legs start flying around.
Decelerate the lumbar spine momentum and absorb ground reaction forces when they occur.
So lets start training them to do that instead of continuing to make them so something they don’t need to do.
First comes isometric strength… But only doing it in on the ground will not get it done.
You have to bring that up to standing unless you plan on laying down the rest of your life.
Here is a good start…
Training “Abs” to React not Just Contract
Dave Schnmitz
