Mike,

Love your products and newsletter. I just have a question on your recent ab newsletter.

I know the industry is shifting away from crunches and flexion and
incorporating more stability and anti-rotation. I’ve read Low Back Disorders and most of Ultimate Back and Fitness and Performance by Stuart McGill and it has definitely influenced how I train my clients.

My confusion is that McGill uses Curl Ups in his stabilization program to isolate the Rectus Abdominis which does promote some trunk flexion.

Your thoughts?

Charlie

Charlie –

This is a great question!  Here are my thoughts.

Let me begin by saying I have the utmost respect for Dr. McGill, and he’s heavily influenced me as well.  At IFAST, we typically use the pillar/front plank in our progression instead of curl-up variations.  I like this better not only for training purposes, but for diagnostic purposes as well.

When you use a front plank, you integrate the entire core into the workout.  Very rarely do I see an isolated rectus weakness in my clients, so it’s rare that we have to isolate it in training.  Instead, the weakness that we see most often lies within the external obliques.  Again, this is very evident when someone can’t maintain three points of contact, as represented in the above photo.  If you missed my previous newsletter on this topic, definitely check it out.

Beyond training the entire core, you can also determine side-to-side imbalances by watching your clients from behind.  Generally, as time goes on, they will start to “sag” more on one side versus the other.  Again, this is something that needs to be addressed via training.

So while I can understand why Dr. McGill uses the curl-up in his training, it’s not something we do very often at IFAST.  It’s not that it’s a bad exercise, I just feel like you get so much more for your training/diagnosing buck when you use a front plank instead.

Stay strong

MR