Becoming Unstable

Catching up on research here while I have a few minutes to dig into the latest Journal of Strength and Conditioning. Among those that caught my eye was a piece of research out of the Univeristy of Valencia, Spain.

The purpose of the study was to see if "core" muscles were better stimulated by placing someone on an unstable surface, or on the ground.

Before getting into this the disclaimers are that there are studies showing unstable training does show positive results, and studies showing it does not. Surprise.

Obviously there is a time and place for every tool, and the bosu etc... are good tools for the appropriate goal, but if we are talking increased activation of the core musculature then this study says sorry, standing on a bosu or T-Bow (sort of wobble board) while deadlifting will not.

A previous study by McBride (22) showed a 45% reduction in force when squatting on unstable surfaces compared to flat ground, so how about deadlifting.

The researchers attached electromyography electrodes to 31 subjects and had them perform a barbell deadlift on flat ground, on a T-Bow, and on a bosu.

The data shows a 8.8% decrease when standing on a T-Bow, and a whopping 34% decrease when standing on a bosu. Seeing as the bosu is more unstable than a T-Bow the lesson we can draw here is that the more unstable a surface the less force muscles will be able to produce.

Referencing work by Gray Cook, Dr. McGill, Eric Cressey, and others the reason is that when on an unstable surfaces the body's top priority is to remain upright. In order to do that muscles that might normally act as prime movers may be called upon to function as stabilizers.

Therefore those muscles will not be able to produce as much force - in other words if the goal is to get stronger and improve force production in core muscles, then unstable surface training may not be ideal.

So while a person may find it more "challenging" to perform an exercise on unstable surfaces the reason may not be because of weak stabilizers, but due to the joints and associated muscles having to prevent the person from losing balance.

To put another nail in the coffin Dr. Stuart McGill has noted that sitting on a swiss ball increases compression on the spine - not what the majority of people need that typically sit in a chair for many hours a day.

Core Training Article

An article I contributed was published this week on TMUSCLE.com.

There are some cool embedded videos of exercises you probably haven't tried so check those out.

In it is some advice on building a strong midsection from the perspective's of myself, a bodybuilding coach, and guys such as Mike Robertson that trains some athletes.

The real keys lie in the commonalities of our approaches: Nobody uses crunches, and we all understand the importance of train the anterior core to develop core stability, strength in torso extension, rotation, and anti-rotation functions.

Of course anything with firing neurons realizes that nutrition plays a huge part in being able to see the fruits of your labor, and so bodybuilding coach Scott Abel drops a good line:

Diet plays the biggest role here, and it's a deal-breaker. "No one can out-train an inconsistent or improper diet," Abel says. "And if your own metabolic set point is such that having quilted abs is not your genetically natural predisposition, then you'd better have expert help in achieving that look."

As for aerobic training,

Abel says to practice caution here. Hours a day of steady-state aerobics can lead to a suppressed metabolism, burned-out adrenals, and even an unexpected weight gain. "As I always say, force the body and it reacts. Coax the body and it responds."

To sum it up be on point with your nutrition, then skip the aerobics classes and crunches, and instead train your core in ways top trainers in various sub-fields of fitness know work.

Save Your Low Back

Back on the research tip here. Eric Cressey just did a fantastic article on low back health. In it he draws heavily on the research of Dr. Stuart McGill, someone who's advice I've used with dozens of clients.

If are a trainer or are someone interested in back health do yourself a favor and pick up one of Dr. McGill's books - follow the link above.

Back to the article there are a couple key points I'll quote.

Broadly speaking, you can classify the majority of back pain sufferers into extension-based or flexion-based back pain.

Extension-based back pain typically is worse with standing than with sitting. These folks will present with everything from spondylolysis (fractures), to spondylolisthesis (vertebral slippage), to diffuse lumbar erector "tightness." Typically, those who suffer from extension-based back pain will have short hip flexors, poor glute function, and a lack of anterior core stability.

Effectively, the hip flexor shortness and insufficient glute contribution leads athletes to substitute lumbar extension for hip extension in movements such as deadlifting, jumping, throwing, or any other task that requires hip extension. The end result is typically some very prominent anterior pelvic tilt, as seen in the photo at right.

Conversely, flexion-intolerant individuals have more pain in sitting, as they tend to have flatter backs and therefore increased stress on the posterior ligaments of the spine. This is your classic symptomatic disc pain patient — with or without radicular pain into the legs.

Flexion intolerance is very common in office workers and cyclists, and you'll typically see folks with poor psoas function. The psoas is the only hip flexor active above 90 degrees of hip flexion, and typically, these folks will substitute lumbar flexion for hip flexion in these positions.

Unfortunately, it's been my experience that correcting flexion-based back pain can be a long battle for the exact same reason it develops: it is difficult to get a person to stop sitting so much in today's world.

Most of my clients fall into the flexion-intolerant category because they are sitting so much, while those that have problems due to sports or yoga (I see more people messed up from yoga than you'd think) are extension-intolerant.

The next part addresses something I see all the time. When someone tends to use their low back to move, instead of their hips, chances are about 100% that they have back pain or will. You've got to learn how to use your hip muscles (including glutes) and not the low back. Period.

The premise is pretty simple: you want to move predominantly at your hips and thoracic spine, and while a small amount of movement at the lumbar segments is normal, you don't want to encourage extra motion there.

As I noted above, there are specific situations that call for individualized mobilization protocols at the lumbar spine, but in terms of what you can accomplish with your own training, the general principles of "mobilize thoracic spine and hips, stabilize lumbar spine" apply.

Here's where it gets interesting. The American Medical Association (AMA) still uses lumbar spine range of motion as the qualifying criterion for allowing lower back pain patients to return to work. In other words, you needed to attain a certain amount of gross lumbar spine rotational range-of-motion to be considered "safe" to return to work.

Surprisingly, as Parks, Crichton, Goldford, and McGill observed in the discussion of their 2003 study (5), there isn't a single study out there that shows the lumbar spine range of motion is correlated with having a healthy back; in fact, the opposite is true!

Those with high lumbar spine ROM and power are more likely to be injured, whereas those with better lumbar spine stabilizing endurance are the healthy ones. And, interestingly, there really isn't any way of knowing what an individual's original "normal" spine ROM was, so they have to assume that someone had "average" spine ROM.

Yes, that study from the world's premier spine researchers was published just over six years ago (meaning that the data was probably collected at least seven years ago). Meanwhile, the AMA hasn't caught on, and chances are many doctors haven't, either, as this has been the "standard" for decades (28 years, actually, to my knowledge).

Do your back a favor and read the article.

What's Good For The Pregger Population is Good For You

This past weekend I attended a workshop on training pre and post Natal women. An informative time, if you have a chance to see Annette Lang speak or teach go see her.

One of the topics was core training (yeah yeah I know alot of trainers are rebelling against the "core" label), and the importance of core stability for pregnant women. Naturally as a woman's stomach gets bigger doing movements such as crunches are not only uncomfortable, but may create problems (stomach herniation anyone?).

By the way this goes for any guy with a big stomach too. Carrying alot of internal fat and doing crunches can lead to your guts popping out. Not a good look.

During this I asked a knowledgeable colleague if he still had anyone do crunches anymore, to which he replied no.

I can't remember the last time I had a client do a crunch.

Annette referenced Dr. Stuart McGill, probably the foremost expert on back issues as related to exercise and injury. Dr. McGill doesn't like the crunch either, noting undue stress on the low back, neck, and basically how crunches neglect important anterior core muscles better addressed with other movements.

And I should probably bring up the fact here that doing a million crunches will not get you a six pack, or help anyone "tone" their midsection in any way whatsoever. I'm now confident that nobody will ever ask about crunches again. Right.

So now that we've dispensed with that let's move on to productive core movements.
Woodchop variations, planks, renegade rows, plankouts, Pallof press are all exercises that use not only the rectus abdominus (six pack muscles) but also deeper core muscles that are important in stabilizing the back.

Chances are anyone with low back pain is not as strong as they should be in this area. The function of core muscles such as the Transverse Abdominus is to protect the lumbar vertebrae by not letting them flex. Or to put it another way we need to stabilize the low back, not flex it as happens when you do a crunch.

My own low back situation has gotten alot better since I've focused on stabilization movement patterns, along with getting my hips more mobile.

I've seen Gray Cook, a noted physical therapist, speak a number of times now. He addresses this issue as well as anyone I've ever seen so check it out.