abdominals Archives - Move Beautiful

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This episode focuses on abs! But not abs in the way you might think. We break down the barriers, stop repeating and rehashing the same old tips and tricks and truly, as I always aim to do, give you a thought provoking and inspiring conversation. We discuss the deep and superficial muscle system, discover for yourself which is better, strong, flat or efficient abs, as well as demystify the word ‘core’ once and for all. Of course there will be your favorite part some home play to enjoy in your own body and the bodies of the people you work with.

What You Will Learn In This Episode

Abdominal Muscles are located between the ribs and the pelvis on the front of the body. They allow movement, support the trunk and hold the organs in place through the regulation of intra abdominal pressure.

‘Core Muscles’ I would like to argue that we have ‘core muscles’ all over our body, this is called the deep system and its there to balance out the forces that act across our joints! This means that although you do have deep system muscles in your abdominal region, you also have them elsewhere in your spine, neck, hips, knees, shoulders …. You get my point! Anywhere there is a joint, there is a group of muscles which function to provide stability to ensure a different group of muscles can provide movement, strength, speed and power! You can think of them like team A and team B. Neither one is more important but without both teams working together the game of movement is no fun for anyone!

I think of these two systems as needing to work together like opposite sides of a seesaw. On one side of the seesaw you have your superficial system which is responsible for lifting loads, propelling your body through space and maintaining the endurance necessary for a variety of long hold positions. on the other side of the sea saw you have the deep system which is responsible for aligning and balancing the forces around a particular joint, enabling its movement to be both efficient and effective. Neither system in my eyes is more important than the other, your superficial system doesn’t work well without an equally effective deep system, but similarly having a well orchestrated deep system is not much use if your superficial system is not strong enough to do the tasks required of it .

Home Play

Superficial System Ab Exercise = Crunches (Watch how to here)

Deep System Ab Exercise = Pilates Bridging (Watch how to here)

Thank you for listening to episode 007 of the Move Beautiful Podcast, I loved bringing all these insights and valuable pieces of information to you and I hope you have found them as valuable as I have and are now breathing easy!

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I have had many interesting and valid questions of late from a variety of health professionals and patients, centred around the question of core stability and its role in Pilates and musculoskeletal rehabilitation. Many of them have been brought to light by Eyal Lederman’s recent article, ‘The Myth of Core Stability’ in The Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 2010.

I feel obliged to mention that my point of view is shaped by my various lenses; Physiotherapist, Pilates Instructor, ConnectTherapy Practitioner (formerly known as ISM Practitioner), dancer and human movement enthusiast! Given this blending of manual and movement therapy, as well as the intermingling of evidence based practice, it is little wonder at times that I feel stretched between different paradigms and constantly evolving evidence and beliefs.

I appreciate Dr Lederman’s work in shining the evidence-based torch on ‘Core Stability’. It helps to keep us as health professionals honest when making evidence based decisions for our patients and acts as a guide to highlight where the ‘Marketing Health Machine’ has extrapolated research findings for use in its own purpose. However catchy, his title, ‘The Myth of Core Stability’, does little to help clarify the inconsistencies of language and understanding which currently surround the manual and movement therapy worlds. I believe the only myth here, lies in our definition of the term “core stability”, rather than in the actual practice of it!

If you define core stability purely in terms of ‘strength’ and limit it to being region specific (ie trunk musculature only), then the myth of core stability is rampant. Any good movement therapist will tell you that the body works as an integrated whole and practising only chest lifts on the mat, or holding a plank for 5 minutes will not cure nor prevent back pain brought on by 1 hour of sitting!

If you however define core stability in terms of the whole organism (physical body, both peripheral and central as well as the mind) then there is no myth at all. Hundreds of manual and movement therapists understand that a well-constructed movement session helps a body recovering from injury to regain options for movement both from a peripheral and central point of view. In fact what is happening in these sessions is not ‘core stability’ training as defined above but rather ‘integration’, whereby bodies are reminded how to ‘problem solve’ movement deficits through various central and peripheral paths.

Thus I think it is about time that we throw away the tarnished phrase ‘core stability’ and define a new term, a term that helps to build bridges between manual and movement therapists, aid communication and get back to improving the lives of our patients! A term like ‘Movement Integration’.

Move Beautiful

Episode 007 – How To Get Abs