There are 2 coaching cues that I’ve become more aware of lately that slipped under my radar for quite some time.  I didn’t realize the importance they had on efficient movement patterns and how they could impact they way the athlete moves.

1- Neck position.  By reading Weingroff’s stuff as well as watching his DVD set and seeing him speak, this is a big take home that I got from his message: you need to coach neck position.
It is part of the spine and has an important impact on inner core function.  This is something I feel like too many coaches would say “why the hell does it matter? It’s not a big deal”.  Well, in fact, IT IS a big deal!  When you deadlift, when you do chin ups, when you do lunges, and when you do any core exercises, the position of your neck affects how your whole body will react.  The goal is to get efficient at joint centration and therefore the body can maximize stability and power production.  The joint centration concept that Weingroff tallks about refers to your joints being in “optimal”, neutral and stable positions for the body to function and move as efficiently as possible.  The position of the neck is a big part of this joint centration concept.  Look carefully at your athletes and clients next time they lift; most of them naturally tend to compensate by reaching with their neck in many different positions.  Coaching athletes and clients to pack in their neck is of utmost importance and I’ve been guilty of overlooking this coaching cue for way too long.  I realize now it is as important as keeping a neutral spine, or keeping your shoulder blades back, etc.

2- Breathing.  We’ve all heard this before at some point in our lives: while lifting, you want to inhale on the eccentric phase and exhale on the concentric phase of any given movement.  Many of us have ditched this concept because we know that it is far from optimal when trying to move big weights and it is pretty inefficient strategy to create stability.  Although I still believe this last theory, I’ve been more aware of the importance of breathing and how it affects your body, just not in the old fashion exhale while you push way.  After taking the postural respiration home study course from the Postural Restoration Institute this past weekend, I realize how important breathing patterns really are.

It affects the position of your spine, your thorax and your ribs on both sides.  Most people have ribs flaring out on the left side and are not very efficient at using their right diaphragm (more on this in an upcoming blog post); because of that the whole orientation of the spine, the thorax and the ribs are affected; which in turn affect neck and shoulder muscle function.  Without going into too much details right now, breathing really does have a profound effect on how we move and position our body.  I’m still not going to tell my athletes to exhale on the way up on a heavy set of deadlift because they need stiffness, which they couldn’t get that way, but there are ways to incorporate breathing patterns into training.  Coaching effective breathing patterns is another often overlooked coaching cue that deserve more attention than it has had recently.

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Debatable, I know…Putting up a title like “the greatest exercise ever” or “the best exercise” label on something is hard and can brings you a lot critique because there is just so many factors to account for depending on who you train, the set up of your facility, clients’ injuries, etc.  And let’s face it we all have different opinions.  But before I start to elaborate on the hows and whys we may have different opinion, I’ll get back to the essential of today’s post! (and I assume you get the point!)

The Belly Press (also called the Pallof Press) is, in opinion, the most versatile core exercise out there because it has so many uses and so many variations.  The standard Standing Belly Press is typically an anti-rotation exercise for the core muscles.  The exercise is so simple and at the same time so effective, that it really is one of the best exercise out there.  Usually, the exercise needs very little coaching cues, and people feel very easily in the right place.  Mike Boyle has mentioned before that an exercise that requires little coaching and gives you the outcome you’re looking for is basically something that should be in your program.  And depending on what variation you use, you can use more component than just anti-rotation for the core.

If you’ve been using the Belly Press for a little while, use the following variations to add some variety in your programs.  And if you don’t use it, start using it today!

- Standing Belly Press (the basic exercise):

- 1/2 Kneeling Belly Press:

- Tall Kneeling Belly Press:

- Split Stance Belly Press:

- Belly-to-Overhead Press:

- Belly Press Iso-Hold Walk Out:

And if you want to add more challenge to any of these variations, try the perturbations, which creates an unpredictable environment and require more stabilization:

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I’ve written a lot about core training and different core exercises in the past.  But one thing that’s really important to consider with core exercises is that you just can’t use anyone randomly with any athlete or client.  It is fair to say that we should use progressions with our core exercises, at least with beginners; start them with more simple and basic exercises and progress them to more challenging variations.  You should do that with all your core exercises from the different groups: anti-flexion, anti-extension, anti-rotation, anti-lateral flexion and inner core exercises.  Today, I want to focus on anti-extension, or the anterior core group.

- The first most basic progression for most would be, with no big suprise, the front plank.

The front plank is a basic bodyweight exercise that requires to maintain a straight line throughout your body and keep a neutral spine position.  This is also the goal of most other progressions, but the front plank plank does that without additional challenges.

- The second progression would be the stability ball front plank.  Once someone has mastered the front plank and can hold it for over a minute, you can progress them to the stability ball version.  The biggest difference with the stability ball front plank is that the surface on which you place your elbows is unstable, which in turn will require a greater activation from your core muscles to maintain the proper position.

- The third one is a similar variation from the stability ball front plank.  Once that position is mastered, you can incorporate mini-rollouts with the same position on the ball to make it more challenging.  Once again the goal is to maintain a neutral spine and keeping the belly tight even if we added movement.

- The slideboard bodysaw would be the next progression following the stability ball minirollouts.

The effect is pretty much the same because your points of contact on the ground further away from each other (elbows and feet), but this time since your moving your whole body away it makes the slideboard bodysaw much more difficult.

- The last one, but not the least, is the ab wheel rollout.  This implement has been around forever, but I fell like it is not appreciated enough.  When done correctly the ab wheel rollout is one of the most difficult anterior core exercise of all.  You need to be really strong in order to maintain a neutral spine throughout a full range of motion.  And to push things a little further, when you’ve mastered the ab wheel rollout, you can do it band-resisted:

There are many other variations of anti-extension core exercises we use with our athletes at Endeavor, but hopefully this gave you an idea of how progress anterior core exercises.

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In last Thursday’s post about the neck, I mentioned some considerations we should have with the neck in strength and conditioning.  But where does that leave us in the way we write our program and how do we go about training the neck?

I think the answer really depends on what type athlete/client you’re dealing with and the sport he plays.  Some sports like wrestling and football will need some extra consideration for the neck because of the nature of the sport.  But that doesn’t mean, you should do some stupid stuff that have far more injury risk than benefits; things like neck harness extensions and neck bridges are, in my opinion, a perfect example of risk vs benefit ratio that’s way too high.

The first way to go about neck training with any type of athlete/client is definitely to teach proper neck position.  A drill that I like a lot and that’s also pretty simple is the chin tuck against the wall.  It’s really a good place to start to learn the right position and to know how it should feel.

When performing this drill, you want to tuck your chin while pushing the back of your head against the wall; you also want to keep your jaw closed and push your tongue against the roof of your mouth.  It will feel very awkward at first, but this is the packed neck position you want to have when lifting, especially when you’re handling heavy loads.  Another reason I really like this drill is because when you tell someone to tuck their chin this is usually what it’s going to look like:

This is obviously wrong because it brings the cervical spine into flexion, and this is exactly the type of position we want to avoid.  Your athletes and clients need to be able to make the difference between pulling your head back (packed neck) and tucking down (picture above) to get in the “double chin” position.  By using the wall and forcing the athlete or client to maintain contact with his head, it will force them to pack back instead of tucking down.

Once the right chin tucked position is mastered and the deep neck flexor muscles can be properly engaged, you can use chin tuck variations to reinforce the packed neck posture in different positions.  The quadruped chin tuck is a good example.  By taking the wall out of the equation, you can’t rely on anything to find to find the right position and it requires more proprioception.  Here’s a video from Eric Cressey that demonstrates the quadruped chin tuck:

But all these exercises are still just activation drills that reinforce the proper packed position.

When able to get the right packed neck position, you’ll want to integrate that into conventional lifts.  Being able to maintain the proper position under heavy loads is going to be pretty challengeable to most at first.

So the first thing with the neck is to able to get that packed neck position and then be able to integrate it with conventional lifts.  In some cases (wrestlers and football players, for example), you might need extra neck work because of the demands of the sports, but this would be the topic for a whole different blog post.

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The neck is a very particular area on the human body. In athletic development, we pay little to no attention to neck training. Some sports like football and wrestling will sometimes devote time to neck training, but that is pretty much it. And the way they do it is usually not only far from optimal, it’s just flat out dangerous. But I digress, as this could be an entirely different blog post. The truth is, even if we don’t train it specifically, the neck muscles still receive stimuli from conventional strength training.  At the same time, I feel strength coaches and trainers alike (me included) do not know nearly enough about how the neck works, how we should deal with it and when we should refer out.  Because let’s face it: the neck is a very sensitive area (with the numerous muscles and nerves that pass through it) that should be handled with care at all time.

I watched Charlie Weingroff‘s Training = Rehab DVD set over the last week, and I must say before anything else that it is an incredible resource for any physical therapist, strength coach or trainer out there.  Throughout his presentation, Charlie highlights the importance of taking the neck into consideration in training, as well as in rehab, no matter what you are addressing.

Here are a couple of things you should know when dealing with the neck.  But before I go any further, the most important thing to remember about the neck is that if you’re a coach or trainer and are dealing with a neck dysfunction or neck pain in a client, REFER OUT! We are not qualified for this type of work by any means, we shouldn’t deal with that.

1. The neck muscles, especially the deep neck flexors are a very important, yet totally forgotten, part of the core. The deep neck flexors are part of the inner core, with the diaphragm, the pelvic floor, the TVA and the multifidus.

Deep Neck Flexors

Inner Core

If you’re not familiar with the inner core, make sure you check out my blog post I wrote a while ago (The Inner Core).  The inner core muscles are very important spine stabilizers, and so are the deep neck flexors.  A tucked chin or neutral cervical position will always make your spine more stable because it prevents unwanted cervical movement during heavy lifting.  Also, the neutral cervical position that the deep neck flexors are able to maintain are going to have a big impact further down the spine; which leads me to my next point.

2. The position of the cervical spine can influence what happens at the lumbar spine. When you create extension at the cervical spine, you have more chances to create extension at the lumbar spine, which we try to avoid when we use heavy loads because of all the shear forces that are going to be applied to the spine.  When deadlifting for example, starting with the neck extended (when your eyes are looking straight ahead) will put a lot more stress on the cervical spine, and on top of that, it will increase the extension shear forces on the lumbar spine.

Cervical Hyperextension = Big No No

This happens for 2 reasons; for one, as I mentioned earlier, the deep neck flexors are part of the inner core, and the inner core needs to be activated to optimally stabilize the spine.  If you’re looking up, the deep flexors are not activated and the inner core will not stabilize as efficiently.  Second, the cervical and lumbar segments of the spine are both inwardly curved (“lordotic”), which causes them to react similarly; if one goes into extension, more often than not, the other one will try to get into extension as well.

3. Coaching and cueing neck position during training is very important.  If you’ve read the 2 last points, this might seem pretty obvious, but we want to keep a tucked and neutral chin during everything we do in training.

This might seem a little retarded, but it really is the optimal neck position to lift with!

When you start noticing the position of your neck and the ones of your athletes during a training session, you’ll realize that the neck tends to go in a less than desirable position (read: too much extension) with many, and I mean MANY exercises: lunges, squats, deadlifts, seated rowing, chin ups, push ups and almost every core exercise possible!  You will honestly be shocked at how much people go into an extended neck position on so many exercises, and most of the time they don’t even notice it.  Notice how much more difficult a simple plank is when you force your chin to stay tucked back.

4. The tucked chin position facilitates efficient breathing.  Being aware of the importance of efficient breathing has been a topic that has grown in importance among the strength and conditioning community lately.  Breathing through your belly instead of through your chest improves diaphragm function and puts less stress on the already overactive neck muscles scalenes and sternocleidomastoid.  Many coaches try to cue breathing through different techniques and exercises to reinforce good breathing patterns.  But the truth is that when you get in a tucked chin position, with your neck packed back, you don’t even need to cue anything; it just happens.  If you’re not convinced, try it yourself: stand up, get our head in a forward position (chin protruded), put one hand on your chest, one hand on your belly and try to take a deep breath.  Now do the exact same thing, but with your chin in a tucked back position (as in the picture above) and take a deep breath.  You’ll notice that, when in a tucked back position, without even thinking about it you’ll breathe through your belly much more easily.  So instead of cueing breathing techniques, why not just cue good neck position?

For more info, make sure to check out Charlie Weingroff’s Training = Rehab DVD set.

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2010 is coming to an end, and I must say it has been an incredible year for me! In the spirit of the holidays and as we’re wrapping up 2010 by the end of the week, I’ve decided to do the first ever DavidLasnier.com Best of 2010 Awards.  So without further ado, here it is:

Best Website: HockeyStrengthAndConditioning.com .  This website contains all the information you need from the top guys in the business.  If you train hockey players, or if you’re a hockey player yourself, the information on this website will be of great help.

Best New Exercise: Standing Belly-to-Overhead Press.  I got this one from my colleague Tony Gentilcore, and I simply love it.  The Standing Belly Press was already one of my favorite exercise, especially because it’s so functional and also because there are so many variations you can use.  Here’s the latest variation; it adds an overhead/anti-lateral flexion component to an already great core stabilization exercise.

Best Blog Post (from me): Keep Your Goal in Mind.  This was definitely one of my favorite blogpost, because I feel so many athletes are studying for the wrong test when it comes to training for sports peformance.

Honorable Mention:  The Glute Guy: An Interview With Bret Contreras

Core Training: The Good Stuff .  These were 2 of my blog posts that had the most visits, so it’s worth mentioning.

Best Blog Post (from someone else): The Case Against Conventional Dairy by Brian St. Pierre.  Technically, Brian wrote it in 2009 (December 21st, to be more specific), but it is by far the blog post that had the most impact on my life in 2010.  Brian raises many interesting facts on conventional dairy; the way it is produced, the way the cows are raised and how it affects the quality of dairy, and how low fat dairy products are linked to different types of cancer.  And don’t get me wrong, it’s not just Brian’s opinion; there are enough scientific proofs to support his point.  Simply put, if you are still consuming dairy products, you NEED to at least make the switch to the organic kind.

Best Quote: “We judge others by their behaviors. We judge ourselves by our intentions.” by Stephen Covey.  I read that quote for the first time on Kevin Neeld‘s website a couple of weeks ago.  Think about it for a second.  We all judge people around us by the way they act, even if their intentions might be different, but NEVER will we ever judge ourselves by our actions; only by our intentions.  This is a very powerful quote that impacts all of the relationships we have with other human beings.

Honorable Mention: On a funnier note, this is the most hysterical quote EVER: “Arguing over the internet is like the special Olympics; nobody wins and you’re still a retard” by Tony Gentilcore.  Hahaha…I have nothing else to say!

Best Sport Moment of the Year:

Enough Said.

Best Training Related Product: Show And Go by Eric Cressey.  If you have been reading my blog consistently this will come to no surprise for most of you.  The Show and Go program have been tested and approved by the whole Endeavor staff; and the results speak for themselves.  If you’re looking for a great training program that’s been proven effective without taking any guess on the results, Show and Go is what you need.

Best Song: Sitting on top of DavidLasnier.com’s Billboard for the past 3 months, none other than No Love, featuring Eminem and Lil’ Wayne:

Best Supplement: Vitamin D.  I have blogged many times in the past HERE and HERE about the positive effects of supplementing with vitamin D, so I won’t go over all the benefits in details again.  I will simply say this; with all the scientific proofs piling up, vitamin D is now considered an ESSENTIAL supplement.  It has been proven to increase levels of awesomeness and decrease the risks of everything that doesn’t make you awesome.

Best Picture:

Best Conditioning Modality: Split Squat Iso-Holds Into Slideboard.  I will admit that this is very hockey-specific type of conditioning, but 80% of our athletes at Endeavor are hockey players, so did you expect anything else?! My colleague Kevin Neeld came up with this idea this past summer, and I’m still amazed at how great that idea was!  Hockey is exactly that; iso-holds positions (when just gliding on the ice) alternated with short powerful bursts of acceleration (when skating).

Best TV Show: Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets.  That show featured on HBO was simply awesome!

Rex Ryan is the freakin’ man!

2010 was a great year, and honestly I’m sure 2011 will be just as exciting, if not more!  I wish to all of you nothing but the best for 2011; may this upcoming year bring you health, love and joy!  I will see all of you in 2011!

P.S. I have postponed my special announcement and my surprise to you, my readers, after New Year’s day, as I’m sure most of you will have something more interesting to do than read strength and conditioning blogs on December 30th and 31st.

Today’s post, which I’m pretty pumped up about, is an interview I did recently with fellow strength coach Bret Contreras.  For those of you who don’t already know Bret, he’s a very smart and well read coach who has been in the research field quite a while.  He is now a well established strength coach, training clients in his own gym. He’s also been under the bar for quite a while himself.  Bret is actually moving to New Zealand in the next couple of months to pursue his PhD, so that will make him even smarter! Bret was kind enough to let me pick his brain for a couple of questions on how he views strength and conditioning.  So without further ado, here it is:

DL: Bret, your name has been around for quite a while now in the strength and conditioning world. You have been writing for T-Nation and on your own blog, but most importantly you have actually been training clients and been under the bar yourself for quite a while now, which I think are two very important things to do in order to become a successful coach.  You have mentioned to me that you think coaches and trainers should possess a variety of skills to better serve clients and athletes alike.  Would you mind naming a few and telling us how they impact the way we deal with clients and athletes?

BC: First off David, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate the fact that you’re interviewing me. Here are some of the skills that will help coaches and trainers be more successful:

-Critical thinking: Strength training is an art and a science – an arta scienza.

Training really IS an art

Coaches should put a ton of thought into their athletes’ and clients’ programs, and each program should differ based on a myriad of factors:

-Knowledge of autoregulation: Coaches should never completely stick to a pre-set plan with their athletes and clients. Coaches should adapt their programming on the fly based on their verbal feedback as well as their biofeedback.

-Psychology: Coaches should try to be good motivators, to “believe” in their athletes and clients, to have high expectations, to figure out what makes their athletes tick and adapt their approach accordingly, and to push them hard while still having fun.

-Knowledge of the history of strength & conditioning: Coaches should try to develop an appreciation for the evolution of the iron game and should be able to rattle off the training philosophies of many different experts.

-Ability to discern the truth: Coaches should possess a sound understanding of the workings of the human body so they will intuitively know what works and what doesn’t.

DL: That is definitely why it’s so important to have a good educational background in this field.  I know you have been involved quite a bit in the research world and in particular with muscle EMG for a variety of muscles in different movements, especially with the glutes (and on a related note you’ve been named The Glute Guy, which is probably the coolest nickname ever for a strength coach!).  That being said, for the glutes, do you find any difference between open chain and closed chain glute exercises as they correlate to performance in different sports and activities?

BC: I won’t pretend to know the answer to this, but I will tell you that the more I research the more I realize that I don’t know everything I once thought I knew. There’s so much we don’t know about strength training, and our understanding about what transfers best to sport performance is seriously lacking.

I will tell you this – open chain glute exercises render surprisingly high EMG levels. When the thigh can move freely with no ground-communication the glutes seem to contract very hard. Some individuals have trouble activating their glutes in a closed chain environment, but if you put them in an open chain environment they do much better in terms of glute activation. I think it’s wise to make the focus of lower body training on closed-chain movements – squats, deads, lunges, Oly lifts, hip thrusts, ghr’s, back extensions, and hip rotational work. But I also think it’s wise to supplement with open chain hip isolation work – band or cable adduction, abduction, and flexion, reverse hypers, and quadruped hip extensions.

DL: What I really like about your blog and your articles is that you always bring up new ideas and you think outside the box, which I think many coaches and trainers (including myself!) are not very good at.  One of the new concepts you brought up that I really like are the ‘Load Vectors’.  I find it very interesting and I don’t think many people understand this concept yet.  Could you elaborate a little bit on what Load Vectors are and tell us what their practical applications are in strength and conditioning.

BC: The best coaches were already incorporating load vector training into their programming long before I came around. I just came up with a naming system. I’m absolutely amazed that no one came up with this model before I did. The model, which involves axial, anteroposterior, lateromedial, and torsional components, ensures:

-optimal multi-directional strength development

-optimal multi-directional power development, and

-optimal structural balance

This way, the client performs better and stays healthy. Coaches and trainers need to understand the various exercises that can be performed for each vector and which are best for various portions of the force-velocity curve.

DL: A topic that’s hot right now in the training world is core training. I think core training will probably always be a controversial topic as as we understand the core more and more from a functional standpoint, and (thank God) begin to move away from the “just do 100s of crunches mentality” that was so typical of the past.  What is your take on core training? And what are you doing differently in that regard?

BC: My take is that we still don’t have it all figured out. Here are some questions that coaches should be thinking about in regards to core training:

-what are the different categories of core exercises?

-is there an optimal amount of volume for the core?

-should the core be trained specifically or does it get worked just fine from compound movements?

-should the core be trained for strength, power, endurance, or all three?

-what rep ranges work best for the core, and are those rep ranges uniform for all types of movements?

-should we train the core for movement, stability, or both?

-are there any advantages and disadvantages to training with dynamic spinal movements?

-are there any advantages and disadvantages to training with static-based stability movements?

-should specific core training be placed before or after the strength component of the workout?

I won’t pretend to know all the answers to these questions either, but I will tell you that the research gives us incredible clues as to how we should train the core. To understand the answer to these questions, you really have to have a sound understanding of spinal biomechanics.

DL: I know you train a lot of female clients; the way we train females has been another hot topic lately.  What do you think we should do differently with females clients and athletes compared to males, and also, what should we NOT do differently?

BC: I love training women, and I believe that I’m one of the best in the biz at getting women to look good. Of course, getting clients to look good has more to do with coercing and motivating them to be strict on their diets than it does with sound training. However, in terms of training there are some important considerations. Women are weaker – especially in the upper body, less powerful, and have a tenth of the testosterone that a man has.

As to what we should do differently, women have a higher ratio of type I to type II hypertrophy than men. In fact, their type I fibers are often larger than their type II fibers. This means that higher rep training should be interwoven with lower rep and medium rep training. Furthermore, women recover in strength quicker than men. This means that increasing the frequency with your female clients is a wise strategy. Finally, women often have different goals than men. Listen to their goals and plan accordingly. Most really appreciate a routine that includes tons of targeted glute-work.

What doesn’t change, assuming that the woman has a goal to improve the shape over her entire body, is the emphasis on progressive overload for the big basic compound movements from the primary movement patterns – quad dominant, hip dominant, horizontal press, horizontal pull, vertical press, vertical pull.

DL: Good stuff! Bret, thanks a lot for your time!

This is it folks.  Make sure you check Bret’s blog, as he has some great content each and every week!  It is definitely one of my favorite websites to visit to get good information on strength and conditioning.

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.

At the risk of getting some hate mail for this blog post, I will call out one of the most popular exercise in athletes and fitness enthousiasts alike; the crunch.  Whether they are done on the ground, on a stability ball, on a Bosu ball, with your legs straight, with your legs bent or juggling with dumbbells I don’t care; crunches are probably the most useless exercise to train your core (or abs, or midsection, whatever you want to call it).

Why? I am going to answer that question with another question: why are we doing crunches anyway? It’s probably for one of two reasons.  The first one is because it is believed by many that the main function of your abs (read: rectus abdominis) is to flex your spine, so it would seem normal to train abs by doing flexions.  The other reason is because crunches have been around forever, everyone has been doing them, so we just don’t think about why we do it.

The truth is a that flexion at the spine is not the main function of your rectus abdominis.  Spinal flexion is actually one of the mechanisms that lead to low back injuries along with hyperextension and rotation.  And Dr.Stuart McGill who is one of the lead researcher in the world in low back pain and injuries has actually described that in great details in his books.  So why would you want to try to recreate an injury mechanism in your training? 

The true role of the rectus abdominis is to prevent extension at the lumbar spine; in other words, its primary function is stability at the lower back.  The rectus abdominis also works with the obliques (internal and external) as well as with the spinal erectors and inner core muscles to create a brace around the spine to prevent excessive movements. 

That’s right, all these muscles work together to STABILIZE around the lower back.  So why the hell would you want to find ways to create more motion at this joint that needs stability by using all sorts of flexion and rotation exercises? That just doesn’t make sense to me.

One more thing is that by training the rectus abdominis with repeated flexion doing crunches, you’re actually shortening that muscle.  Keeping in mind that the rectus abdominis attaches at the ribs, what’s going to happen if this muscle keeps shortening and pulls the ribs down?

You’re gonna end up with a pretty bad kyphosis (rounded over upper back) and that’s gonna lead you to a whole lot of other problems.

The true role of the core muscles is to stabilize; prevent flexion, prevent extension, prevent side bend and prevent rotation to avoid excessive motion.  So wouldn’t it make sense to train these muscles that exact same way? There are tons of excellent exercises that are gonna enhance stability of the trunk.  If you don’t know where to start, there is a revolutionary exercise that we just discovered and nobody ever heard of, that is gonna do wonders to improve stability….it’s called a plank!

But what about rotation? You need rotational power when you sports, right? I totally agree with that, but rotation should be trained through the hips while the trunk muscles remain stable.  Most of your rotational power is going to come from your hips anyway.

I think it’s about time we drop the crunches for good.  Just because they have been around forever and it seems like everyone does them means they are good for you, nor you should keep doing them.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the INNER CORE explaining the differences between traditional core exercises and inner core activation.  I also included a simple inner core activation exercise.  The truth is, there is a ton of variations and progressions you can use to progress your inner core activation drills to more challenging ones. 

Here is another variation of inner core activation drill that I stole from my friend Dr.Perry Nickelston, which I modified a little bit:

You want to make sure you’re squeezing the ball with your legs while pushing back with your butt against it.  Also, make sure your spine stays neutral and your belly firm at all time as you reach forward and up with your arm straight.

Remember to progress your inner core activation drills slowly as you don’t want you outer core muscles to take over if the challenge is too hard for your inner core. 

For a lot of valuable information on the inner core and lots of other cool stuff, make sure to check out Dr.Perry Nickelston’s facebook page Stop Chasing Pain.