RE: Best and Worst ab exercises
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 4:33 PM
truly all abdominal workouts suck. Why do i say this? because the isolation of the abdominals is very hard to get because the contraction of the quads engages the hip flexors next door, thank to good ol' Law of Irradation. Sure there are some okay ones but the truly best one is the janda situp. Trust me i have strong abs......or at least i though untill i tried the janda. still dont think its tuff well when a group of scientist challenged the USA olympic gymnastics team to complete one janda situp only 2 could truly do it right and could complete it. The janda isolates your abs punding them into submission. Stick with me here
HOW TO TRULY ISOLATE YOUR ABS
before accepting the solution, you must understand the problem.
The abdominals (rectus abdominis) connect your pubic bone to your breast bone. When this muscle contracts, it pulls your pelvis and rib cage togeather, rounding your back in the process, as in the crunch. This is called 'forward spinal flexion'.
Psoas major originates on the vertibrae of the lower back. and inserts into the top of the thigh bone. When this muscle contracts, it pulls the body into a jacknife position. When you do a situp, you litarally pull yourself up by your lumbar spine, or the lower back whitch can lead to back problems or aggravate the existing ones.
A commom so called 'solution' is to avoid hip flexion, or situps, and do only spinal flexion, or crunches. A number of gizmos were designed to capitalize on teh publc obsession with crunches. All of them were suppose to make crunches stricter. The ab Isolator immobalized the hip joint; the Ab Flex increased the recuitment of the abdominals during the crunch by providing direct pressure on the muscles; the Ab Roller tracked teh crunch mechanically.
There are two problems with these products. First, they are gimmicks. According to John Jakicic, Ph.D.,an exercise physiologist and assistant professor at the university of pittsburgh school of medicine, these devices "offer no physiological advantage over doing crunches with good form."
The second problem is the crunch itself. Contary to teh popular opnion, the crunch does NOT isolate the abs. Ditto for any crunch based device. Because the crunch does not involve hip flexion, it supposedly does not involve the psaos group and stress teh lower back. Wrong.
Well known physical therapists Kendall, Kendall, and Wadsworth determined that it is impossible to completly eliminate the hip flexors recruitment during a crunch.One of the fundametal laws of physiology, the law of Irradiation, dictates taht the contraction of a muscle, the abdominals in this case, will set off a contraction of the adjacent muscles, or the hip flexors. Like a stone dropped in water sends ripples acrosse the surface, tension spreads--irradiates--from the muscle directly responsible for the job at hand wowards its neighbors. To test this phenomenon, make a white knuckle fist. Your biceps will tens up, Although there is no movement in teh elbow joint!
According to John Scaringe, D.C., the president of the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians, a person with weak abdominal relies on his or her stronger hip flexors even during crunches, The trainee cannot get his torso off the floor by rounding his back with his abs, so he yanks on his spine with his hip flexors to gain momentum! It does not take an Einsteinto figure out that such training is worhtless for the abs and dangerous to the spine.
The problem of the hip flexor involvment was radically solved by Vladimir Janda, M.D., from Czechoslovakia, the consultant on rehabilitation for the World of Health Organization and teh world's leading expert on bacl problems, muscle function analysis and evaluation.
Professor Janda relaxed the psoas group using another neurological phenomenon: the Law of Reciprocal Inhibition, When a muscle contracts, its antagonist, or the opposite number, relaxes. It is about efficiency. The alternative would be similar to stepping on the gas and brake simultaneosly.
Dr. Janda had his patient assume the standard bent knee situp/crunch position and placed his hands under the latter's calves. the patient attempted to sit up while steadily pushing against the doctor's hands, This activated the knee flexor abd hip extensor muscles (the hamstrings and glutes). Reciprocal inhibition took place and he hip flexors relaxed. THE RESULT: BACK STRESS WAS ELIMINATED AND THE ABDOMINALS WERE ISOLATED!
How to execute it: Lie on the floor, the way you used to for crunches, have your partner sit at your feet as if he was holding your feet down, but instead have him cup behind your calves about a couple of inches above your ankles. your knees should be at a 90 degree angle. next have your partner pull back on your calves relitavly hard but not hard enough so the person cant keep there feet on the ground. you should pull back and down against your partner and while doing this squeeze your buttocks togeather (flex them)as hard as you can and blow out all your air cross your arms ( like your a mummy) and burrow your chin against your chest adn slowly roll up like a crunch. while doing this think about really going slow and curling up lifting eatch vertibra up one at a time. go as hgh as you can. You should only go up so that your sholder blades are around 7 inches off the ground. slowly go back down and rest and take deep breaths and repeat. If it is to hard you can try declines whitch you start in the up position and slowly decend.
try to do 3 sets of 5 reps. you can stack this with static cores and all other kinds of ab exercises to maximize effects. try to do them everyday or every other day. try to work up to 5 sets of 5. once you reach that point try lifting up on leg about 5 inches and do a side crunch. to really hit the obliques do the janda situp with you arms up and infront of you like your pushing something.
hope this has helped....
peace adn hair grease