Many people do traditional abdominal exercises for strength and toning, such as sit-ups, leg lifts and similar exercises. However, these are not the best ways to strengthen you abs or improve athletic performance. According to Ben Cormack, a fitness professional of Fellow of Applied Functional Science from London, your abdominals are constantly working whenever you walk, lift, climb stairs or play sports. Therefore, your abs are always engaged whenever you move everyday, and there is little need to do traditional ab exercises.
Functional Anatomy
Your abdominal muscles consist of several layers and are connected by connective tissues called myofasciae. The inner unit stabilizes your body, while your outer unit moves the body. Both always work together to protect your joints and muscles from injury and produce strength and balance.The inner abdominals include the transversus abdominus, diaphragm and internal obliques. The outer abdominals include the rectus abdominus and external obliques.
According to Thomas Myers, author of "Anatomy Trains," your abdominal muscles do not function in real-life activities and sports by themselves. Your abdmoninal muscles work with the hips, back, shoulders, neck and legs to move in different directions at different speeds.
Function
Your abdominal muscles serve as a conduit of force transfer from your lower body to your upper body, notes Gray Cook, founder of Functional Movement Systems in Danville, Virginia. An example would be a baseball pitcher using his legs and hips to generate the power through the abdominals and into the pitching shoulder and arm. When your abdominals are engaged, you are also protecting your organs and joints from injury during movement and sports.
Misconceptions
Exercising your abdominal muscles every day will not reduce the size of your stomach or burn fat. According to Cormack, doing so will only make the muscles bigger, increasing the size your girth. Doing total-body exercises at a higher intensity with short bouts of rest will help you burn more calories and build muscle to help burn fat.
Also, doing sit-ups, crunches and other ab exercises will not necessarily make you stronger. Instead, any pushing, pulling, jumping, squatting, rotating and lunging exercises where you do not sit will make your abdominals and your whole body stronger.
Expert Insight
According to Robert dos Remedios, author of "Cardio Strength Training," interval strength training using your entire body will help you strengthen your abs and entire body every day. Pick five to eight exercises that train different movement patterns, and do them for 30 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds between exercises. If you do five exercises for one interval, your workout time would be between five to six minutes, including transition time between exercises.
Sample Training
A sample workout that incorporates abdominal work includes a two-arm dumbbell squat and overhead press, jump rope with both feet together, medicine ball rotational throw, one-arm kettlebell swing and side lunges. Do each exercise for 30 seconds, and rest for 30 seconds. Doing all exercises completes one interval. Rest as much as needed, but no more than three minutes, and repeat another interval. You can adjust the amount of time needed adjust to your workout.
References
- "Athletic Body in Balance"; Gray Cook; 2003
- "PTontheNet"; Get Off The Floor and Start Using Your Core; Ben Cormack; May 2010
- "Anatomy Trains"; Thomas Myers; 2008
- "CardioStrength Training"; Robert dos Remedios; 2009
