Maki Riddington

Do we really need to train our midsection?


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Exercise, my drug of choice

ALBOB

Absolutely YES!!! Weak abs are the main cause of lower back pain because you're asking the lower back muscles to stabilize the entire torso instead of working WITH the abs to do that function. Strength your abs and almost all your major lifts will go up; squats, dead lifts, etc. AB WORK=GOOD!!!!!

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Life is hard so quit whining and go out there and be alive.

Maki Riddington

[quote]Originally posted by ALBOB:
Absolutely YES!!! Weak abs are the main cause of lower back pain because you're asking the lower back muscles to stabilize the entire torso instead of working WITH the abs to do that function.

*** Weak abs are not the main cause for low back pain. When you talk about abs and stabilization can you be more specific about what part of your abdominals is working?

Strength your abs and almost all your major lifts will go up; squats, dead lifts, etc. AB WORK=GOOD!!!!!

*** Why not flip it.

Strengthen all your major lifts and your abs will be stronger?


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Exercise, my drug of choice

<FONT COLOR="#000002" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[Edited 1 time by Maki Riddington on 08-24-2001 at 02:27 PM]</font>

Scotty the Body

Yes I think we need to train our midsection but not as much as some people do.
2 sets of 2 different exercises once per week is all that you need.

I also believe that weak abs can result in lower back pain because of the back trying to compensate for weak abs.

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Just another day in the gutter

ALBOB

[quote]Originally posted by Maki Riddington:


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Life is hard so quit whining and go out there and be alive.

cytrix

i think we need to work all mayor muscles directly, in addition to the indirect work through other lifts. so yes ab exercises are a must, and they should be trained only as often/as much as other muscles - most people overdo it in this regards.

Maki Riddington

Albob said,
I'm pretty sure I'm right on this one, but am open to explanations to the contrary. As far as which part, I mean the entire region; upper abs, lower abs, obliques, etc. they all work to stabilize the torso thus taking stress off the lower back.

*** Abs are the most often targeted area when people work out. The old age adage that your abs must be strong is misleading. It is all about movement patterns and how the nervous system functions. Simply chalking it up to weak abdominals is misleading. The rectus abdominus is responsible for creating intra abdominal pressure and the tranverse is responsible for stabilzation through coordination in conjunction with the errectors and other muscles depending on the lift and how it is performed.


OK, I'll buy that. You could do the same with triceps and bench press. Strengthen your triceps and your bench press will go up. Strengthen your bench press and your triceps get stronger. Same with back and biceps. I'm not sure what you're getting at with that one, looks like we agree.


*** The whole point is that your abs are going to be adequately emphasized in any movement. Even more so if you are going to squat, dead, etc.... The body has built in self protective mechanisims that will let you know if you can lift heavy or not in a given lift. So many times you hea people talk about the importance of a strong midsection. I'm not saying they are wrong but the point they are driving home can lead people to the wrong conclusion. One doesn't need to spend copious amounts of time sweating out endless sets of abdominal exercises. I barely if ever train my abs and my lifts are doing quite fine.

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Exercise, my drug of choice

<FONT COLOR="#000002" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[Edited 1 time by Maki Riddington on 08-24-2001 at 03:08 PM]</font>

ALBOB

Again we agree, but I'm going to go a step further and say that by paying a little more attention to abs our lifts would be even better. I'm speaking from experience on this one, not scientific "data". I always considered myself very strong on squats and deads, but after some prodding by a more experienced lifter, I started strengthening my abs with low volume, high intensity work. My squats and deads went through the roof. I'm pretty sure we're both agreed on the answer to the original question, abdominal work IS necessary, we're just putting different "spins" on our answers.



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Life is hard so quit whining and go out there and be alive.