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Ab exercises for core stabilization ...first!
Of all the ab exercises available to choose from, the Ab Crunch or it's forefather the Sit-Up is still by far the most popular abdominal exercise around. Yet, in some fitness professional circles, the abdominal crunch is part of a series of ab exercises that apparently seem to have fallen out of favour in recent times. With a trend toward 'functional' exercise, they're often criticized for 'isolating' the work to the abdominal section. That's actually one of things I like about them. They're almost always haphazardly included as part of an ab workout for everyone-- from beginners to veterans alike. It's also the first exercise people think of when they want to lose their tummy or forge six pack abs. However, crunches and all of their different variations are hardly the type of abdominal exercises I recommend to my clients-- at least, not at first and certainly not for beginners or those just starting out. Here's why... All human movement initiates from the core region. This is also where the human body's centre of gravity (COG) is located when standing still. When we talk about the core, we are speaking about your spinal column, pelvic girdle, hip joint, and all of the 29 different muscles associated to that region. The musculature surrounding this region is often differentiated by their function. Some of the deeper muscles such as the 'pelvic floor' muscles, the diaphragm, the multifidus, the internal oblique, and the transversus abdominis (sometimes better known as the TVA), all belong to the 'stabilization system'. This simply means that these muscles are primarily responsible for the stability of the core. The 'movement system' on the other hand is responsible for movement of the core. It's responsible also for force production and force reduction. These are the muscles we are most familiar with. They include the hamstrings, the 'abs' (i.e., rectus abdominis), the hip adductors and hip abductors, the external oblique, the iliopsoas, a series of long, thin muscles that run down the length of the spinal column called the erector spinae, and-- believe it or not, the lats. Both of these systems must work in unison to render proper weight distribution, absorption, and transference of forces during human movement. Under healthy, normal conditions, your stabilizer muscles will fire some 30 to 110 milliseconds before your movement muscles. Some studies show that if the stabilization system is not well developed, the stabilizer muscles will fire at the same time-- or even after the movement system muscles. Not completely related but also of interest is that some studies also show people with low back pain often have reduced activation of these deeper stabilization muscles. Most people have well-developed movement muscles. They have developed the muscular strength and power necessary for all types of functional movement. However, many of these same people have not properly developed their stabilization muscles. If the core is unstable during movement, the body's ability to produce force, reduce force, and the transference of forces becomes less efficient-- or at the least, less than optimal. Training the deeper muscles develops support that comes from proper core stabilization. Having sufficient support relieves a bit of pressure on the discs and reduces compressive forces to the spinal column. It's important to train stabilization muscles first. A strong foundation is necessary before you progress to training movement muscles. Typical ab exercises such as the crunch, reverse crunch, oblique crunch, sit-ups, knee-ups, V-ups, leg raise, hanging leg raise, bicycle manoeuvre, scissors manoeuvre, roman chair side bends and so many other ab exercise variations... train movement muscles.
What type of ab exercises are best suited for this? First, it helps to know a little bit about the muscular system.
While sub-categories exist, there are basically two types of muscle fibres. Slow twitch Type I fibres and fast twitch Type II fibres. Both vary in their mechanical and chemical characteristics. Type I fibres are great at producing longer term muscular contractions and they're more resistant to fatigue in part because they have higher aerobic enzyme activity and house a greater number of 'mitochondria'. Mitochondria are those organelles involved in the transformation of energy from the foods we eat to adenosine triphosphate (ATP, the 'energy molecule'). Ultimately though, they are slower to produce tension and force. By comparison, Type II fibres are ideal for short term contractions that produce force and power. In fact, they're more capable of producing higher forces, especially at higher velocities. But because they contain fewer mitochondria and lower aerobic enzyme activity, they therefore have a decreased oxygen delivery capacity and fatigue more quickly. So we can say that our muscles contain endurance-oriented, fast recovering Type I fibres and strength or power-oriented, slower recovering Type II fibres. You should know that every muscle in the body contain both types of muscle fibres. However, some muscles are more dominant in Type I fibres and others are more dominant in Type II fibres. For example, some research shows that the 'ab' muscle-- the rectus abdominis is Type II dominant. The stabilizer muscles we've been talking about tend to be Type I dominant. In simplistic terms, whether Type I or Type II fibres are activated is determined by its physiological characteristics and the amount of force required.
The number of reps of an exercise we perform is inversely related to the intensity level. In other words, the heavier the load-- the less reps we can perform. Conversely, the lighter the load, the more reps we can pump out. The fewer the reps, the less time our muscles spend under tension. Thus, Type II dominant muscles tend to respond best to high tension (i.e., heavy loads) and by necessity, shorter time under tension (i.e., fewer reps). This suggests a classic problem with the way many people train their abs. Performing hundreds of crunches or other ab exercises tends to promote muscular endurance and will not optimally activate Type II fibres whose properties are more prone to be activated at higher forces. Of course, the opposite is true of Type I dominant muscles. Because the core musculature of the stabilization system are slow twitch Type I dominant muscles, they will respond best to time under tension. Indeed, the deeper muscles such as the pelvic floor muscles, the diaphragm, the multifidus, the internal oblique, and the transversus abdominis which are responsible for the stability of the core-- This means holding the contraction for 3 to 10 seconds to best train for stabilization strength. Stabilization strength refers to training stabilizing muscles to provide support to your joints. It increases endurance capacity and enhances the ability for balance and postural control during movement. Ultimately, you're looking to improve the efficiency of communication patterns that occur between your nervous system and your muscular system so that proper muscles are activated and fire optimally. Some sources refer to this as improving neuromuscular efficiency. This is best achieved through a different set of ab exercises altogether. Here then, is an example of ab exercises you can include in your ab workout. These ab exercises are intended to train the stabilization system before progressing to crunches and other variations of ab exercises. Simply follow the link to our next topic to see how you can train your core stabilization muscles using ab exercises that maximize time under tension and get you ready for the next phase of abdominal muscle development...
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Your muscles are made up of many individual muscle fibres. 
