Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back? Comments about The New York Times Article

There has been alot of “talk” about an article written for The New York Times by Gretchen Reynolds entitled “Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?”

We thought others might want to join in on the conversation! We welcome your thoughts.

Here’s the original article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/core-myths/?emc=eta1

Comment #1:

That’s kind of confusing. What is he saying exactly? No transversus/no scoop? Yet, some of the exercises are like what we do. What’s your take?

My take on it is that having a stable trunk is far more complex and integrated then just asking someone merely to pull in their abs and do thousands of crunches a day.

He is not saying that we shouldn’t do them at all but says, “(i)nstead…a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs.” He points out doing exercises as plank and swimming prep (bird dog)- again exercises that require integrated stability in neutral positions. This supports everything that we already teach at our studio, and our mentors (Melanie, Greta and others) have been expounding for years. As we know, “the core” is comprised of not only the abs, but the deep psoas, multifidis and pelvic floor. The article does not go into these specifics, but instead, points out that “if you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize your spine by pulling it out of alignment.” This idea of balance in fitness is something that I think all of our teaching supports.

The only thing about this that could be bad is that it is not specific enough and some people will now believe that doing ALL pilates and personal training is bad for the them; those people that actually read it, with some knowledge base, that have done work with someone that doesn’t just give thousands of crunches, roll ups and imprinted back exercises sees that good exercise requires balance from all the muscles groups, will see the validity of the article. My take on the “pulling the belly button in” is the fact that most people can’t do this without flattening their back and putting undue stress on their discs.

That’s what I think anyway.

Comment #3

Thank you – this is very interesting. I hope we will have a “Share Pilates” about this and possibly other research and experiences that we are learning about that inform how we exercise.

Comment #4

Thanks, Leslie, for forwarding this article. It was interesting and, for me,affirming that the work we are doing with people is actually focusing on the whole of the body and the whole of the core muscles thruout. Pilates is helping their “abs”, their spines, their joints and their overall body alignment, symmetry, strength and flexibility.

On a positive note, I think there is always a place for modern movement applications and advancements in the understanding of functional anatomy to be incorporated and applied to health and fitness instruction. I would also agree with this author that the oversimplification of the Pilates Method (or others that attempt to address “core support” and functional movement) to simply telling people to do crunches and suck in their abs is one that has the potential to endanger people’s overall posture and make them injury-prone. I would also say too that it reduces and impoverishes the benefits/contributions that Pilates and others attempted to make to overall fitness and wellness.

However, I can’t help but respond to what seems to still be a good bit of nebulous understanding about “the core” that even the writers of this article seem to have….
Here’s a few i.e.’s from the article:

1. Transverse Abdominus is the only/primary core mucsle (leaving out the PF, rest of the deep abs and all the deep spinal muscles)

2. People who are working their core(per article TA) are getting 6-pack abs…that’s Rectus’ domain not the deep abs and, of course, they may hurt their backs that way.

3. Working the core in Pilates-type classes focuses only on the abs (I would agree this is probably the case in the gym format classes and people can get hurt). However, Joseph Pilates says several times that the uniform development of the muscles of the whole body and its balance is primary to his work and to moving well in the world.

There’s my off-the-cuff response to the article. Thanks for contributing to my brain working a bit today,

Comment #5

I had similar feelings…I thought the article was great in some respects, but the fact that some of it was vague would make a less-informed individual assume that all pilates could be bad. I think that the writer or person interviewed could have been more specific about what is considered “the core” too.

Comment #6

I agree with your take as well. Posting the conversations on the blog could be good. Makes me want to respond to the NY Times too.

What, exactly, is “the core?”

It’s surprising to me how common the term, “the core”, has become. I hear people talk about it all the time. “I’m going to pilates to work on my core,” or “I think my core is really weak.” But, what exactly is “the core?”

Specifically, “the core” is describing the joints (articulation of two bones), ligaments and muscles that stabilize the rib cage, middle and lower spine, sacrum and pelvic region. When we exercise, “the core” refers primarily to the muscles that control or stabilize this region.

Imagine your trunk, specifically the region from your ribcage to your pubic bone, as a three-dimensional cylinder. If you wrap a large sheet of paper around your trunk, you would have the sides of the cylinder. Then imagine, if you could put a top on the cylinder just under your rib cage and a bottom on the cylinder underneath your sit bones and pubic bone (as if you were sitting on it.) This is the area that is your core.

The core muscles around this region need to co-activiate in order to create and maintain intra-abdominal pressure. That’s seems technical, but mostly what it is saying is that all the muscles in this region that are close to the bones need to work together to create the right amount of pressure to create stability in the trunk. This stability is important because without it your joints and discs are allowed to move too much. Too much movement at any particular joint will create unwanted sheering and will not allow the loads of weight bearing and movement to be transferred between the trunk, pelvis and legs effectively.

Now, imagine you are a long distance runner and every time you move your legs to take a stride, one or two parts of your spine move more than the other parts. In essence, you “give” too much at one or two joints thus creating a lot of friction and sheering at these regions. Over time, these joints will begin to break down, and you may end up with spinal degeneration (i.e. facet syndrome, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease).

The primary muscles of your core (that make up the imaginary cylinder) are the pelvic floor (the bottom of the cylinder), the transversus abdominis (the front and sides of the cylinder), the diaphragm (the top of the cylinder), the multifidis (the back of the cylinder) and some of the deep fibers of the psoas muscle.

Learning how to use these muscles correctly during exercise will help develop your core strength and minimize injuries to your spine and pelvis. Cool, huh?

Stay tuned for more information about core stabilization and exercises that help you strengthen it most effectively!