Over the last ten years there has been a monumental shift in the way we train our abs or core (or whatever people are calling the area that contains your belly button).
The motivations remain the same: we want a flat and smooth stomach or six small packs of bulging muscle minus the fat that usually lays over them. But as with most things fitness, the industry has come to understand the global impact of exercise and how working out one muscle affects another.
Thus, you can’t properly train your rectus abdominis (Six Pack) without training your transverse abdominis (Stomach Girdle), obliques (Love Handles), lower back, and pelvis attachments (Glutes and Hip Flexors). For future reference when we talk about the core on this site we will be referring to all of these muscles. So if you want those great looking abs without throwing your body out of balance you are going to have to train your entire core.
Why Train the Entire Core:
– Improved muscle tone
– Improved balance, stability, and posture
– Reduced risk of injury
– Increase of functional strength
– Increased activation of stabilizing muscles
Dangers of Only Training Abs:
– Tight hip flexors
– Back pain
– Lack of results
Here is a great beginner core workout that will challenge you if you are just starting out:
Beginner’s Guide to Toned, Sculpted and Stacked
For functionality core training is best. Would you say ‘ab’ training is still more effective for muscles building though?
Ab training is a part of the holistic approach to developing the core muscles. More than anything we want individuals to understand that all the muscles need to be developed uni-formally. If I was focusing on muscle building I would make the mistake of only focusing on the concentric contraction of the rectus abdominis.
Oh, Planks!!!
So simple, yet so tough!
I hear you! I love planks. I do them on an incline box – is that cheating? 🙂
I try to do “core” not just “abs” but it is amazing how many magazine articles/internet stuff is just focused on ABS.