Re: Why Crunches Don't Work?

[Guest guest]

When I read McGills book he was quite explicit in his statements about the

use of crunches sit ups etc. and his main arguments are risk versus rewards.

His arguments seemed to be that there may be better exercises for achieving

the same goal that are less damaging to spine than others, but that if

evaluated carefully then the use of sit ups and crunches may be useful for

achieving the goals that athletes may have.

He also talked about teaching the abdomen both front and back to stiffen

the spine so that it transfers force from the legs to the rest of the upper

body or the force form the upper body to the legs. Teaching the body to

stiffen in the lumbar spine bend at the hips and flex in the thoracic spine

where the torso has added stability from the ribs etc. So doing the

crunches may help strengthen the abdominal muscles that stiffen the lumbar

spine, but in sporting movement and heavy lifting the muscles act as

stabilising devices, but he suggest trying to strengthen the abdominal

muscles in a way that helps to teach the body to develop the super

stiffening.

Are crunches the best way to train the abdominal muscles for this super

stiffening? Are there exercises that provide better bang for your buck in

achieving the purpose for which you are training? From my reading of

McGill's book Ultimate back fitness he does not say don't crunch, or sit up,

but evaluate risk reward and work out that for which you train. The

original article in this thread seems to be a summary and " sound bite " quote

article of the topic.

Regards

Nick Tatalias

Johannesburg

South Africa

2010/1/10 <KennyCrox@...>

>

>

>

> I understand Stuart McGill is a back expert...not the BUT. But this doesn't

> make a lot of sense.

>

> It remind me of what my garage door guy told me. The more you open and

> close your garage door, the more you wear the springs out.

>

> So, the take home message is to extent the life of the garage door

> springs...LIMIT the number of times you open and close your garage door.

> Even better, NEVER close or open your garage door.

>

> The same would apply to you back.

>

> The blog goes on to mention " in the quest for flat abs " people crank 'em

> out.

>

> So, we're back to " STUPID PEOPLE " . The problem isn't the crunch, etc as

> much as it is people who do stupid things.

>

> All this back information has cause me to have neck problems. Because

> everytime I hear this crap, my head spins around...just like in the movie

> " The Exercist " and I begin speaking in tongues.

>

> Kenny Croxdale

> Rio Rancho, NM

>

> Why Crunches Don't Work?

> Supertraining <Supertraining%40>

> Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 12:54 PM

>

> Members may enjoy reading:

>

> http://blog. newsweek. com/blogs/ thehumanconditio n/archive/ 2009/06/03/

> stop-doing- sit-ups-why- crunches- don-t-work. aspx

>

> Stop Doing Sit-Ups: Why Crunches Don't Work

> Kate Dailey

> Everyone knows that the road to flat, tight abs is paved with crunches.

> Lots and lots and lots of excruciating crunches. Or is it?

>

> As it turns out, the exercises synonymous with strong, attractive abs may

> not be the best way to train your core—and may be doing damage to your back.

>

>

> " We stopped teaching people to do crunches a long, long time ago, " says Dr.

> Guyer, president of the Texas Back Institute. That's because the

> " full flex " movement—the actual " crunch " part of crunches – puts an

> unhealthy strain on your back at its weakest point. The section with the

> most nerves (and most potential for nerve damage) is in the back of the

> spine, which is the very part that bends and strains during a sit-up.

>

> " There are only so many bends or a `fatigue life', " in your spinal disks, "

> says Stuart M. McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics at the University

> of Waterloo. Inside each disk is a mucus-like nucleus, he says, and " if you

> keep flexing your spine and bending the disk over and over again, that

> nucleus slowly breaches the layers and causes a disk bulge, or a disk

> herniation. " A herniated disk won't show through your swimsuit, but it's no

> fun, and can cause persistent back and leg pain, weakness, and tingling.

>

> Think of the oft-repeated advice for movers: bend at the hips and lift with

> your legs, not your back. And what is a sit-up but a back bend done in a

> lying position? " When people are doing curl up over gym balls and sit-ups,

> and this kind of thing, they are replicating a very potent injury mechanism

> on their back, " says McGill. " Every time they bend it they are one

> repetition closer to damaging the disk. "

>

> And of course, when people do crunches, they rarely stop at one or two: in

> the quest for flat abs, they'll churn out dozens at a time, bringing them

> ever closer to " flex intolerance " — so much pain and stiffness that it's

> difficult to tie one's shoes or bend down to pick a penny off the ground.

>

> But who cares about back health as bathing suit season approaches? Turns

> out, crunches might not be the best solution for a flat stomach, either.

> That's because doing too many sit-ups at the expense of other, more

> comprehensive movements can lead to the dreaded " aerobic abs. " That's the

> term celebrity trainer Steve Maresca coined to describe the distended

> stomachs of those who focus only on the rectus abdominus muscles targeted by

> sit-ups and crunches. " They look great from the front, but when they turn to

> the side, their stomachs are extended, " he says. To get the long, lean look,

> one needs to work transverse abdominius, a large muscle that holds in those

> rectus abs, and is mainly unchallenged by traditional ab work (aka, the

> sit-up and crunches).

>

> Doing a sit-up doesn't train your ab muscles to do the job for which they

> were designed – keeping your spine straight and secure and providing power

> for your movements. In everyday life, " the abdominals are braces, " says

> McGill, author of " Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance " (Stuart McGill,

> 2004). When doing any athletic movement—even opening a door— " the spine is in

> a neutral posture, not flexed, and the abdominal muscles are contracted to

> brace the spine. "

>

> The best way—for both your back and your beach body—to work your midsection

> is to do movements that challenge the muscles to perform the way they're

> designed and expected to work in real life, and not to train muscles in

> isolation. " It's important to have strong abs, but strong abdominals are not

> the only thing, " says Dr. Guyer. " You have your back extenders, your

> flexors, which are belly muscles, you have your oblique muscles. " Working

> all of these muscle groups—the anatomical association known as " the core " —is

> essential to both back health and general athleticism.

>

> As a result, only training for good-looking abs won't add to your

> athleticism or overall strength. On the other hand, moves not traditionally

> designed for good-looking abs can in fact help strengthen and tone those

> muscles.

>

> Consider the pushup. Not usually thought of as a great ab move, the pushup

> forces you to work several muscles at once: it forces your core muscles to

> stabilize your trunk as your arms and back work to move the body up and

> down. " Do you see how a pushup is a full body challenge? " says McGill. " It

> challenges abdominals, front of your legs, your arms and your back. That is

> how you use those muscles in real life. "

>

> Like the pushup, the best exercises for back health and a firmer stomach

> are ones that work your abs while holding your spine straight, like planks

> or leg drops (done when you lie flat on your back, with your hands at the

> base of your spine for added support. Raise your legs up at a 90 degree

> angle, then slowly lower until they're only inches from the ground. Repeat

> until your stomach burns and you want to throw up). And because your core is

> the center of power for most other exercises, a long workout full of dynamic

> movements targeting legs, arms and back also translates to a good core

> workout.

>

> Of course, it won't matter how muscular your torso is if your body fat is

> too high. The best way to build strong, visible abs isn't through repeated

> sit-ups, but by engaging in circuit training that has you working your

> entire core while you're burning calories – and to keep yourself disciplined

> during meals. " If you want to burn your fat mass, make sure you have a

> combination of weight training and cardiovascular, but 90 percent of good

> abs is your nutrition, " says Maresca. However, he does offer a quick tip for

> those of us with a weakness for caloric food: standing up straight and

> pulling back your shoulders will instantly tighten your transverse abdominal

> muscle, making you look a little leaner. It's not quite as impressive as

> showcasing a well-developed core via 10 percent body fat, but it does leave

> a lot more time and flexibility for hitting up happy hour.

>

> ============ ========= =

> Sit-ups & Crunches to protect

> the Back? Dr. Siff Says

> " Not Really "

> Even many physical therapists believe this advice, because it is maintained

> that abdominal strength necessarily enhances trunk stability. While the

> abdominals (recti abdominis) do contribute statically to trunk and pelvis

> stabilization during many activities, it is contraction of the major back

> muscles (erector spinae) which plays the dominant role in controlling

> erectness of the trunk.

>

> The abdominal muscles statically resist the tendency of the abdomen to

> bulge excessively when the Valsalva (breath-holding) manoeuvre is used

> during heavy lifting, powerful stabilizing or pushing, and this is how they

> play a major role in contributing to trunk stability and so-called " core

> strength. " They assist in maintaining the pressure in the abdominal cavity

> to serve as a type of pneumatic cushion or corset for the spine during

> lifting or heavy resistance work. However, the strongest abdominals in the

> universe will not keep your back 'straight' during a heavy lift.

>

> In fact, the more strongly your abdominals are pulled in, the less stable

> your trunk can be during lifting, so, if you are lifting any serious loads,

> you would be well advised to allow your body to do what it does naturally

> when it has to stabilize itself under any large or sudden loading - and that

> is to hold breath briefly and allow the abs to tense or distend slightly

> without any deliberate attempt to change anything during any dynamic

> movement. This is what the world's strongest weightlifters have been doing

> safely and powerfully for many decades, so why not take a page out of the

> books of the world's finest practical experts?

>

> The most important fact of all is that the abdominal and oblique muscles

> play no dynamically active role in protecting the back, especially if one's

> breath is not held. It is the deeper lying transversus muscle (which is not

> exercised by sit-ups or crunches!) which contracts first in response to

> breath-holding and straining during lifting and spinal extension. All of the

> other abdominal muscles serve to flex the trunk forwards, not keep the trunk

> erect, so it is illogical to believe that free-breathing abdominal exercise

> without adequate back (and side) strengthening exercises enhances trunk

> stability and prevents back pain or disability.

>

> In other words, much of the advice that you hear on protecting your back by

> executing more sit-ups or " pulling in " your abs, is often the opposite of

> what you should be doing. To protect your back, you strengthen the muscles

> of the back, not the front alone! Moreover, doing thousands of sit-ups or

> crunches will do little to strengthen your abdominals after the first few

> weeks of novice training. High repetition training with no progressive

> increase in load develops muscle endurance and some muscle bulk, but not

> great amounts of strength.

>

> Far greater abdominal strength is developed statically and quite

> incidentally by automatic stabilizing actions taking place during many

> resistance training exercises such as squats, cable press-downs, power

> cleans, bench press, all forms of pressing and lat pull-downs. So, why on

> earth does everyone from aerobics fans to footballers believe that high

> repetition unloaded sit-ups really strengthen the abdominals? It is

> extremely rare to find anyone doing several sets of sit-ups or crunches

> using heavy loads for a few repetitions, yet this is precisely the type of

> training that one needs for developing abdominal strength, as opposed to

> abdominal endurance under light loading.

>

> Most of us have already learned one of the basic principles of all

> training, namely that of Gradual Progressive Overload, which tells us if you

> wish to increase strength, then you gradually need to increase the load that

> you are training with. On the other hand, if you wish to increase muscle

> endurance, then you will try to increase the number of reps that you are

> doing.

> This criticism of sit-ups and crunches is not meant to imply that abdominal

> strengthening is redundant. On the contrary, it is important to strengthen

> all of the front, back and side trunk muscles so that none of them exhibits

> a strength deficit during 'functional' or daily activities. More important

> than that is learning the correct techniques of lifting or overcoming heavy

> loads, since efficiency of movement and prevention of injury depends more on

> correctness of technique than on strength of individual muscle groups alone.

> If certain muscles of the trunk, such as transversus abdominis and erector

> spinae, come into action in incorrect patterns or with inappropriate timing,

> then even enormous strength of these muscles will not insure you against

> injury.

> It is just that conventional high repetition sit-ups and crunches generally

> are not very effective for developing strength of the abdominal musculature.

> Not only are there superior ways of performing trunk flexion which really

> strengthen 'the abs', but in any extensive resistance training workout

> involving squats, tricep pushdowns, bent-arm pullovers, standing presses,

> cable crunches and bench press, the abdominal muscles receive highly very

> adequate strengthening, anyway.

>

> Oh - and if you are doing sit-ups " to trim your waist " , you probably have

> learned by now that spot reduction like that simply does not happen and

> that, if anything, strenuous AB work tends to increase the size and

> muscularity of your waist line. If you are doing crunches for definition " ,

> then you have to realize that " cutting up " any muscles of your body is far

> more a matter of eating wisely and doing sufficiently demanding exercise of

> many muscle groups beside the abs. (Article based upon a chapter in the

> book: Siff M C " Facts and Fallacies of Fitness " 2000)

>

> ============ ========= =

> Carruthers

> Wakefield, UK

>

>