Today we worked on a bunch of crossfit exercises that involved abs.  As per usual, a personal workout with Zach includes a wealth of information about the muscles you are working out, so the clients can visualize and understand what they are trying to achieve with their workouts.

Abdominal strength is misunderstood.  Most people believe that that is a 6 pack, and the path to the famous 6 pack is via crunches.  That could not be further from the truth.  To start on a path to a 6 pack does not start or involve crunches – ever as far as Zach the crossfit trainer is concerned.

First of all, crunches are an isolation exercise, and abdominals themselves is a relatively small muscle group, so your time invested in your traditional ab crunching routines is very minimal for choleric output, and developing what most knowledgeable trainers would consider core strength.

Core strength starts with preventing a movement, that’s what rectus abdominius and transvers absominis are essentially there for.  Now to come back to crunches and – a small contraction typically done until failure – is lactic acid telling your body that that muscle group is failing.  That is not core strength.

Instead, a great foundation and step forward is developing your plank.  What is your plank?

“The plank, also called a prone hold, is an isometric exercise for the core. It is performed by lying on your stomach and lifting your body by keeping your toes or knees and forearms on the ground. The objective of the exercise is to hold this position without movement for as long as possible.” – wikipedia

The plank strengthens the abdominal, back and shoulders. It develops stabilizers that are crucial for many sports.

From developing core strength, you can learn and be more efficient in great foundation exercises like a pull up and squats.

How does a solid core help your pull up exercises?

Because you have to keep your body rigid, and all movement burns energy – so when you swing during pull ups, you are actually making it more difficult to do – not to be confused with a kick movement

Not only does proper strong core look good, but it can prevent one of the most common injuries, lower back injuries. Proper core exercises like plank integrate lower back workouts.

Like any dynamic movement, no one muscle group is isolated

Another little good piece of fitness knowledge from Zach – understand the difference between lower back pain, and lower back muscle soreness.  Often people are so paranoid of lower back pain that they totally ignore working out their lower back muscles – which makes it more prone to injury