Ab Training: Balance is the Key

When you hear or use the word "abs," a lot of people visualize the muscles (or lack of them) below the rib cage in front of the torso. The most famous, sought-after, and elusive set of ab muscles, the 6-pack, are rectus abdominis and begin at the pubic bone (pubis), and runs up the front of the body and is inserted across the 5th, 6th, and 7th ribs.

Along with rectus abdominis, there are also the internal and external obliques, and the deepest, transverse abdominus, to name a few. They all have different functions but as a group, they're postural muscles that basically protect our spine and keep us up upright.

Think of your spine as a mast on a ship, except this mast is like a flexible fishing pole. The ship's mast is supported by cables (stays) that run from different areas of the ship and are attached to the mast adding support in all directions. Our abdominal muscles are just like the stays that support the ship's mast including, surprise, surprise, those muscles on the backside of our body. They work in concert to keep the spine balanced and protected...or they don't. Take for instance rectus abdominus Lets just say rectus abdominus is represented by the blue line in the illustration. Everybody loves (?) to train rectus by doing hundreds and hundreds of crunches, sometimes aided by machines with heavy weights. Now, imagine that rectus gets stronger, and tighter (everybody wants tight abs)...and shorter. That mast is no longer upright and the mast, which supports the sails (your upper torso), is weakened. That is, unless the stay's on the other side of the mast are just as strong and can balance and strengthen the mast. Good luck. Most people think no further than their 6-packs and the ab machines in most gyms are designed to train them to the point of imbalance. I've seen men and women sporting beautiful 6-packs that are postural train wrecks with bowed backs, sagging shoulders, and chins that jut-out over their chests.

Abdominal muscles mostly need to be trained the position in which they're used: Upright. You don't need your abs while laying in bed. You need them when that little kid at the grocery store, going 100 mph down the aisles, rams you with his shopping cart to keep you from flying into the display of tomato soup. Don't overlook or over-train abdominal muscles. Remember: They're for balance and they need to be treated in a balanced manner. Laying on your back and doing hundreds of crunches on an ab bench is not creating balance.