calabrisella67

hi everyone,

i am looking to simply tone up my present physique.

i am interested to know if performing side or bend crunches for the obliques can eventually make one's midsection thick.

your input to this is greatly appreciated. please feel free to e mail me directly with you input..

- thanks !

Robert D.

If done with weight, yes you will build your obliques which can make your waist bigger, however if you are also losing fat ultimately the obliques will compliment your mid section.

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calabrisella67

thanks for your reply. i was under the same impression. but, now what about twist curls? if i am hitting the obliques at an angled approach, would i still bulk up?

P-funk

When people talk about taining their abs and obliques they often get things a little mixed up and end up working completly different musculatures. So to effectivly train the obliques we must first look at their muscle fibers and the way in which the run becuase this will dictate how to effectivly train them since a muscles muscle fibers pull that point of insertion closer to the point of origin.

The external obliques run from top down. They originate at the rib cage and run down to the illium. The internal bliques run underneath the exteranl obliques, making a criss cross patter, and are less superficial. They run from bottom to top starting the crest of the ilium and extending to the rectus abdominus. The fibers of these muscle run in a somewhat diagonal fashion. So with the fibers in mind lets look at what it is these muscle actually can do.

The external and internal obliques function bilaterally to do spinal flexion, like when you are doing crunches. They also work to do right and left rotation of the trunk by way of a force couple, meaning that two muscle groups on opposing sides of the body are working together to achieve the same movement goal. For example when you turn you upperbody to the left your left internal oblique shortens and your right external oblique shortens. So right and left twist are a great way to train the obliques. Now to side bending. The onbliques will unilaterally contribute to side bending but because off the diagonal fibers their contribution is much less than you think. Had the fibers of the obliques been straight up and down then tey would contribute much more to side bending but this is no the case. When you are doing side bending the main musculature is the psoas major unlaterally, the quadratus laborum unilaterally and the obliques unilaterally in a minimal fashion. So the best way to tain the obliques is by doing crunches and torso twists, provided you keep your pelvis under control and don't let it twist with you. If using load during twists use extreme cataution becuase loading the spine and twisting can put lots of compression on the lumbar spine and may result in injury.

peace,
Patrick

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