drfunction
04-28-2010, 08:38 PM
Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?-Reynolds G. New York Times 2009, June 17 (partial article here and link to full article below)
Some heads up from me--many of us are well trained and have our own opinions on abdominal training--so this article may be more helpful to our untrained friends with low back problems--or you may learn something for yourself.
Dr. Stuart McGill is one of the world's best when it comes to understanding the back and spine. Elite athletes, power lifters, etc… regularly seek Dr. McGill's advice.
I highly suggest searching his name in a search engine. He has been interviewed on another Fitness Forum. It’s worth the read. The interview is in 2 parts in that forum.
Stuart McGill, PhD, is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, an internationally recognized lecturer and expert in spine function and injury prevention and rehabilitation. Dr. McGill played football and lifted weights in his youth.
His rehab labs have produced more than 200 scientific publications that address lumbar function, low back injury mechanisms, mechanisms of injury prevention and rehabilitation and, most recently, issues related to high performance.
As a consultant, he has provided expertise on assessment and reduction of the risk of low back injury—along with rehab approaches—to government agencies, corporations, legal firms, professional athletes and teams.
McGill is also known for training and mentoring Dr. Cholewicki, (now a professor at Yale’s medical school, one of the top spine stability scientists in the world). Before Cholewicki became a doctor he was an Eastern European classically trained lifter who moved to Canada from Poland still holding some Canadian records in his weight class.
McGill gives credit to learning from Dr. Vladimir Janda, who taught him how to assess different kinds of movement disorders and syndromes.
Dr. McGill has authored books such as Low Back Disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation -2nd edition.
In his other book, “Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance”he has a new "squat clinic" that shows how to systematically go through the mechanics while looking for potential improvement opportunities.
In his books Dr. McGill credits many great academic personalities in the spine world such as: Harry Farfan, Bill Kirkaldy-Willis, Dan Chaffin, Bill Adams.
Dr. McGill also gives credit and learning (in his books and interviews) from academic clinicians such as: Craig Liebenson, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), Shirley Sahrmann, Dick Erhart, Rick Jemmett, Paul Hodges, Andry Vleeming, Peter O’Sullivan, Clayton Skaggs.
Okay--shortened version of the NY times article:
The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies in the work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid-1990s.
The older concepts were: In subjects with healthy backs, the transverse abdominis (TrA) contracts milliseconds before the deltoid when raising the arm into flexion. The nervous system activates the TrA to brace the spine in advance of movement. In Low Back Pain patients TrA firing was delayed. Low Back Pain patients were trained to isolate & strengthen the TrA by sucking in their abdomen & a booming industry of fitness classes was born. The idea leaked into gyms & Pilates classes that core health was “all about the TrA.”
More current concepts: A provocative article published in the The British Journal of Sports Medicine asserted that some of the key findings from the first Australian study of back pain might be wrong.
There’s growing dissent among sports scientists about whether all this attention to the TrA gives you a stronger core/ back & whether it’s even safe.
“There’s so much mythology about the core,” says Stuart McGill, PhD, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics.
“The idea has reached trainers & thru them, the public that the core means only the abs. There’s no science behind that idea.”
The muscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bear large loads.
If you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize the spine.
Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine – Abdominal Bracing - including the abs. Side bridge & “bird dog” exercise the important muscles embedded along the back & sides of the core.
As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks.
“Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor,” McGill says.
***Gently lift your head & shoulders, hold briefly & relax back down.***
These 3 exercises – “the Big Three” - Bird Dog, Side Bridge, & Curl-Up can provide well-rounded, thorough core stability & avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine.
“I see too many people,” McGill said “who have six-pack abs and a ruined back.”
Full article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/ (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/)
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“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”-Sir Isaac Newton and Bernard of Chartres. (Bernardus Carnotensis)
Some heads up from me--many of us are well trained and have our own opinions on abdominal training--so this article may be more helpful to our untrained friends with low back problems--or you may learn something for yourself.
Dr. Stuart McGill is one of the world's best when it comes to understanding the back and spine. Elite athletes, power lifters, etc… regularly seek Dr. McGill's advice.
I highly suggest searching his name in a search engine. He has been interviewed on another Fitness Forum. It’s worth the read. The interview is in 2 parts in that forum.
Stuart McGill, PhD, is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, an internationally recognized lecturer and expert in spine function and injury prevention and rehabilitation. Dr. McGill played football and lifted weights in his youth.
His rehab labs have produced more than 200 scientific publications that address lumbar function, low back injury mechanisms, mechanisms of injury prevention and rehabilitation and, most recently, issues related to high performance.
As a consultant, he has provided expertise on assessment and reduction of the risk of low back injury—along with rehab approaches—to government agencies, corporations, legal firms, professional athletes and teams.
McGill is also known for training and mentoring Dr. Cholewicki, (now a professor at Yale’s medical school, one of the top spine stability scientists in the world). Before Cholewicki became a doctor he was an Eastern European classically trained lifter who moved to Canada from Poland still holding some Canadian records in his weight class.
McGill gives credit to learning from Dr. Vladimir Janda, who taught him how to assess different kinds of movement disorders and syndromes.
Dr. McGill has authored books such as Low Back Disorders: evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation -2nd edition.
In his other book, “Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance”he has a new "squat clinic" that shows how to systematically go through the mechanics while looking for potential improvement opportunities.
In his books Dr. McGill credits many great academic personalities in the spine world such as: Harry Farfan, Bill Kirkaldy-Willis, Dan Chaffin, Bill Adams.
Dr. McGill also gives credit and learning (in his books and interviews) from academic clinicians such as: Craig Liebenson, D.C. (Doctor of Chiropractic), Shirley Sahrmann, Dick Erhart, Rick Jemmett, Paul Hodges, Andry Vleeming, Peter O’Sullivan, Clayton Skaggs.
Okay--shortened version of the NY times article:
The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies in the work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid-1990s.
The older concepts were: In subjects with healthy backs, the transverse abdominis (TrA) contracts milliseconds before the deltoid when raising the arm into flexion. The nervous system activates the TrA to brace the spine in advance of movement. In Low Back Pain patients TrA firing was delayed. Low Back Pain patients were trained to isolate & strengthen the TrA by sucking in their abdomen & a booming industry of fitness classes was born. The idea leaked into gyms & Pilates classes that core health was “all about the TrA.”
More current concepts: A provocative article published in the The British Journal of Sports Medicine asserted that some of the key findings from the first Australian study of back pain might be wrong.
There’s growing dissent among sports scientists about whether all this attention to the TrA gives you a stronger core/ back & whether it’s even safe.
“There’s so much mythology about the core,” says Stuart McGill, PhD, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics.
“The idea has reached trainers & thru them, the public that the core means only the abs. There’s no science behind that idea.”
The muscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bear large loads.
If you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize the spine.
Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine – Abdominal Bracing - including the abs. Side bridge & “bird dog” exercise the important muscles embedded along the back & sides of the core.
As for the abdominals, no sit-ups, McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks.
“Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor,” McGill says.
***Gently lift your head & shoulders, hold briefly & relax back down.***
These 3 exercises – “the Big Three” - Bird Dog, Side Bridge, & Curl-Up can provide well-rounded, thorough core stability & avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine.
“I see too many people,” McGill said “who have six-pack abs and a ruined back.”
Full article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/ (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”-Sir Isaac Newton and Bernard of Chartres. (Bernardus Carnotensis)