Crunch No More - Mom

The best way for mothers to train abdominals.

The abdominal crunch or sit up seems to be the most popular abdominal exercise out there. There is a whole industry built on fancy gadgets to "help" you perform this exercise, a bit of an oxymoron. The thing is the abdominal crunch is out dated. EMG muscle testing studies have proven that abdominal stability and dynamic abdominal stability exercises work much better to stimulate your abdominal muscles. Using planks and variations of planks far outweigh any benefit of an abdominal crunch.

People claim they are able to perform 100 sit up crunches. I just have a few questions. Why would you want to do any exercise 100 times and if you are able to perform something 100x are you doing it right? Chances are you could be performing the abdominal crunch correctly but because it is less effective than abdominal stabilization exercises you can perform many repetitions. Performing hundreds and thousands of repetitions of any movement leaves you open to repetitive strain injuries, overuse symptoms and can be counterproductive to your results. Around your spine you are prone to degeneration and without proper abdominal stabilization you are almost certain to suffer back pain at some point in your life. The abdominal crunch is not an abdominal stabilization exercise such as the front plank, and performing high repetitions may exacerbate degeneration.

A mother has to worry about abdominal separation (rectis diastasis) that happens during pregnancy. Performing a crunch exercise with rectis diastasis (abdominal separation) that is over 2 finger widths is detrimental to your abdominals. You may split your rectis abdominus muscle apart even further by performing a crunch exercise during pregnancy and post partum inhibiting your abdominal recovery and leaving a split in your abdominal wall. This is unsafe as your organs are less protected.

Performing plank variations and dynamic stabilization exercises are the ideal way to strengthen and train your abdominal muscles. They allow for proper pelvic stability, time efficiency and reduce the risk of injury. Performing a front and side plank during your workout routine warm up and finishing with an abdominal circuit, such as ball rollouts, mountain climbers knee drives, and rotational planks is most beneficial for abdominal strength.

Source by Jacqueline Gradish