Last week, I wrote a post about how useless crunches are from a functional standpoint.  I received a lot of questions about it from readers.  The 2 most common ones were: how can you can get a six pack without doing crunches? And, what are good options to use instead of crunches?

For the first one, the answer is pretty simple: crunches won’t give you the six pack look, not eating like a fat ass will! Everybody needs to get out of the mindset that doing more crunches will make the fat around your mid-section magically disappear.  That is a myth if you don’t already know; what you see on TV is not always true.

Crunches don’t make your abs “grow” more than any other exercise; the rectus abdominis (the six pack muscle) actually have a pretty limited growth potential compared to other muscles because of its different composition.  Making healthier food choices and actually doing some conditioning (read: cardio) work once in a while will help shed the fat off your mid-section, and that way you might actually get to see your abs someday.

For the second question, you do have a lot of different options to work your core muscles.  As I mentioned in my post last week, the main function of the core is one of stabilization to prevent extension, lateral flexion and rotation at the lumbar spine.  Here is an example for each one of these categories.

This is a slideboard bodysaw, that I stole from Tony Gentilcore; it is an anti-extension progression.  The back should stay neutral with a slight natural arch and you need to brace your belly to prevent your lower back from arching during the whole movement.

This one is called a half-kneeling belly press (or Pallof press); this is an anti-rotation exercise as your core must stabilize and prevent your upper body from rotating toward the cable column.  The half-kneeling position gives you a bigger stability challenge from doing it from a standing position.  On the video, it is done for time, but it can also be done for repetitions.

This is a bunkie side plank; it is in the category of the anti-lateral-flexion.  Unlike a traditional side plank, you are only supported by your top leg; it adds a component of stability from the core all the way into your adductor (groin) muscles.  It is a great progression, especially for hockey players to help prevent groin injuries, as the “traditional core” muscles like the rectus abdominis and the obliques are closely related to the adductor muscles.  And don’t the let the simplicity of the exercise fool you, it is way harder than it looks; make sure you give it a try!

Another very important function of the core muscles is to be able to transfer forces from the lower body to the upper body which is a very important one when it comes to training for sports.  Like I said previously, the first goal is to be able to stabilize the core through a variety of exercises to keep the spine as neutral as possible during training and sporting activities.  When you have achieved a good level of stability, you can include rotational exercises that will help improve the force transfer between the lower body and the upper body.

Pay special attention to the way the exercise is performed; the rotation is generated by the hips and the trunk and the spine stay as neutral as possible.  That is exactly how rotational power should be trained for injury prevention for the lower back as well as for optimal performance (as you will be able to generate A LOT more power from your hips than from your trunk alone).

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to core training, as there are lots of different aspects to take care of in your training.  There are also a lot of different exercises and progressions you can use.  Hopefully, it gave you a couple of ideas on where to start to train your mid-section in a more functional and optimal way.

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