It's Ab Day!

A number of recent conversations have gotten me thinking (dangerous, I know) about the infatuation our culture has for visible abdominal muscles. Sandwiched somewhere between celebrity gossip and the iphone is a really profitable industry catering to the abdominally challenged. While I have no idea how much Suzanne Somers or any of her cronies make off of the abysmal waste of perfectly good plastic they hock on late night TV (that would require research), I bet it's a lot! Let's take a look at why we have abdominals and, if you are so inclined, how to get everyone else to see that you have abdominal muscles.

The main purpose of the abdominal musculature is to stabilize the spine, thus facilitating our ability to walk upright. With regard to functional exercise (the stuff we do), the abdominals act as stabilizers, many times under heavy loads or for longer periods of time under sub maximal loads. Understanding this is paramount. Once you understand what they do, it becomes obvious how to train them.

I am not a proponent of training muscle groups. I think that, and the fake tanning industry, are the two worst things to come out of the bodybuilding culture. When you train basic human movement patterns (squatting, picking stuff up, pushing stuff, pulling stuff, etc.) you train the abs because YOU CAN'T DO THESE THINGS WITHOUT THEM! When you perform the above movements under heavy loads, or fast, or a combination thereof, or hold the body in a mechanically "underprivileged" position, you're training the abs. Even better, you're training the abs in a functional way because they are working in tandem with the other parts of the body (as they are meant to).

This brings us to the erroneous assumption that the rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus and obliques, which makeup the abdominal musculature, are anomalies in the muscle world and are developed by doing 14,000 crunches while watching "Desperate Housewives." Negatory, good buddy. Work 'em like everything else, loaded, with a big range of motion and with mechanically difficult positions (i.e. static holds). Here's a list of some movements that do the trick--

deadlift
squat (all varieties)
big sit-ups (especially glute ham)
hanging leg raises
static holds
the wheel
presses while standing
cleans and snatches
running (not jogging)
jumping
throwing
push-ups/pull-ups/dips
playing

That's enough for now. In a future post, I'll delve into how to make certain that everyone knows you have abs. Until then, the next time someone asks you how much longer you'll be in the squat rack because they've got to use it to do the 27 sets of curls prescribed in the Scandinavian arm and hair volume training method, just tell him "Buzz off, I'm blasting my abs!"