Exercise Moderation

TOO MUCH OF A LOAD, TOO MUCH PARTYING, TOO MUCH WORK, TOO MUCH WATER.


All things in moderation. I was reminded of this by a recent article that was emailed to me by a friend/client debating the validity of the "drawing in" technique (which basically involves pulling your belly button towards your spine). Why would you ever want to do this? Because this popular maneuver is said to engage the transverse abdominus, stabilize the spinal column, and protect the lower back during exercise or work. According to the article some health and fitness service providers and experts have questioned whether the mentioned technique is applicable for "all" exercisers, and how well does the technique work?

Usually the sheer mention of the word "all" in a question is a sure sign that the answer to the inquiry is probably no. Secondly, how well something works is relative to the expectations of the user. For the record, I do use a variation of the draw in technique with some clients during specific exercises, but not because I am overly concerned about them hurting their lower back, or working their transverse abdominus. I simply want to keep my clients from slouching and rounding off their back during relatively stationary upper body strength training exercises that don't require a lot of dynamic movement. Pulling in the belly button while pushing out the chest induces upright posture of the torso. However, it's silly to use this technique during dynamic exercises such as squatting, running, jumping, basketball, tennis, soccer, etc. When you are involved in a multi-plane, multi-directional activity, who has time to think about what their belly button is doing on these occasions?

The health and fitness community sometimes turns bits of scientific information and gym folk lure into exaggerated exercise trends and overused or misused strategies. For example, I remember many trainers and group x instructors in the early 90's insisting that performing sit-ups caused lower back pain. Consequently, gym members developed a general belief that sit-ups were bad for you. In fact, this opinion was applied by some to include a ban on any exercise that seemingly caused stress to the lower back. But as I have said before, in actuality there are very few contraindicated exercises, but there are lots of contraindicated persons performing specific exercises. More times than not, the lower back pain that someone experiences while attempting to perform a sit-up is due to poor form and or an existing muscular/skeletal degenerative condition. Bluntly stated, the problem usually lies with the doer; not the exercise.

The point I am trying to get across is that effective health strategies and techniques are based on solid clinical research combined with trial and feedback by those who are directly affected by the information and suggested actions. Once the validity of an idea has been proven, it should be applied with common sense in a useful practical matter. Know that there are limitations to even the most legitimate practices; one size doesn't fit all. A good trainer or health practitioner does what is best for his/her client, and does not force or perpetrate what is not. They are cautiously skeptical of knowledge that seems fashionable and reckless. Yet they welcome new information that is useful and skillfully apply it. Finally, a good trainer or health practitioner is not fixated on a single way of doing things, but has a variety of innovative approaches to helping clients achieve long term success.

Copy of the article that was sent to me:

Everything You Knew About Good Abs May Be Wrong

By PAUL SCOTT
Published: February 22, 2007
IT used to be that the only time someone told you to
suck in your gut was when the family had lined up for
a photo at the Grand Canyon.


Leela Corman
Today, the advice to draw your navel to your spine is
ubiquitous and has little to do with vanity. Drawing
in (as the move is called) is supposed to engage a
deep abdominal muscle called the transverse abdominus.
(The technique involves inwardly pulling in,
distinguishing it from the more general advice to
contract the abdominals.)

Fire the transverse abdominus, the thinking goes, and
the torso temporarily acts like a muscular corset,
protecting the lower back. Practice firing that muscle
enough, and over time not only will you get a strong
midsection, but the transverse abdominus will
eventually fire on its own.

Physical therapists instruct back-pain patients to
draw in during sessions and as all-purpose advice
before lifting groceries. Personal trainers instruct
clients to perform the move during mat exercises and
on stability balls; some even say you should be drawn
in while running or cycling. And Pilates relies on
some form of drawing in, although it also addresses a
whole range of muscles related to core strength.

But new questions are being raised about whether
drawing in is an appropriate technique for all kinds
of exercisers. Critics, including personal trainers
and specialists in the spine and biomechanics, are now
saying that drawing in may not make sense while, say,
lifting weights or performing a crunch or running a
race. In fact, some say, drawing in may even be
counterproductive.

“If you hollow in, you bring the muscles closer to the
spine, and you reduce the stability of the spine,”
said Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics
in the department of kinesiology at the University of
Waterloo in Ontario. Try rising from a chair with a
hollowed out stomach; not only are you “weak,” he
said, but “it’s very difficult.”

Dr. McGill, who has treated patients with back
disorders for 25 years, has measured spinal loading
forces and their effects on spinal stability with
computer models and in test subjects wired to
computers.

His findings dispute not only the validity of drawing
in, but also the very notion that the transverse
abdominus plays a pivotal role in stability. All
abdominal and back muscles are important, not just
this one, Dr. McGill said.

Some trainers who once thought that drawing in was the
key to protecting their lower back and building a
strong midsection are now having second thoughts. Vern
Gambetta, the author of “Athletic Development: The Art
& Science of Functional Sports Conditioning,” now
thinks the move is difficult to teach and too
unnatural for athletes to maintain while being at
their competitive best.

“In most sporting activities, things happen too fast
to consciously think about contracting a specific
muscle,” Mr. Gambetta said.

He and others have also seen that no matter how many
times people hollow out their stomachs, firing the
transverse abdominus rarely becomes second nature.

“I don’t know of a study that shows that drawing in
becomes a subconscious reflex,” said Shirley Sahrmann,
a professor of physical therapy at the Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Some say the problem is the way people are taught to
fire their transverse abdominus. Most of the time,
exercisers are lying prone when they are told to
consciously fire the muscle. Less often they are
taught to perform an exercise that engages the
transverse abdominus.

“I would rather facilitate the motion that turns the
muscle on all by itself,” said Gary Gray, a physical
therapist in Michigan who has been trying to
re-educate other therapists to abandon the drawing-in
technique. “Motion is the thing that turns on muscles,
not the mind.”

Dr. McGill said there is a better way than drawing in
to protect the spine and build the core. For those
about to lift something heavy or, say, leap for a
rebound, he recommends bracing all the abdominal
muscles — something he said the body does more
naturally during exertion.

“Bracing is stiffening the abdominal wall,” he said,
explaining the difference. It’s a neutral position.
“It’s not sucking in and it’s not pushing your belly
out,” he said.

The easiest way to teach it: “Pretend you are going to
get whacked in the belly,” he said. The body’s natural
response is bracing.

It is unclear how drawing in became such a fitness
mantra. Originally, it was devised as a treatment for
sufferers of low back pain. Australian researchers
discovered in 1996 that the firing of the transverse
abdominus was slightly delayed during certain tasks in
patients they saw who complained that their lower back
hurt.

In subsequent studies the researchers determined that
patients could be taught to contract the transverse
abdominus by drawing their navel toward their spine,
especially with the help of real-time ultrasound
monitoring. They developed a treatment approach that
had patients contracting the transverse abdominus as
well as a low back muscle called the multifidus. It is
still widely used — and respected — by physical
therapists today.

But some are saying that this approach is perhaps too
widely respected and that some discretion should be
used about when to teach it. Sharon Henry, an
associate professor of physical therapy at the
University of Vermont, said it is being used
indiscriminately when it only benefits some patients.
But just who most benefits has never been determined
by scientific research, Dr. Henry said.

Even Carolyn Richardson, one of the original
Australian researchers, said that when she helped
write the 1998 manual that popularized the technique,
she never dreamed that personal trainers and coaches
across the globe would make it as much a part of their
regimen as stretching.

“We only wrote the book about treating back pain,” she
said, referring to her three co-authors. “I’ve found
that for the fitness industry, it’s quite a poor
instruction.”

Mostly, Dr. Richardson said, because it’s a crude
instruction that is easily done incorrectly. And, she
added, exercisers mistakenly hold their breath or suck
in so far as to round their back.

As an alternative way for healthy people to protect
their backs while exercising, she recommends
stretching tall through the back of the head and
relaxing the shoulders.

Not every advocate of drawing in uses it
indiscriminately.

“If it’s a healthy individual with no back pain we
actually don’t instruct them to do drawing in,” said
Micheal Clark, the chief executive of the National
Academy of Sports Medicine, a certification
organization for fitness professionals. But
considering that 80 percent of the adult population
has or has had back pain, he said, most people,
particularly those new to the gym, “would be
candidates for this kind of retraining.”

The popularity of Pilates may have played a role in
the fixation on sucking in the gut. But does this new
thinking discredit the very foundation of the exercise
program developed by Joseph Pilates?

Not necessarily. For one, it is unlikely he used the
term “drawing in” (though that hasn’t stopped teachers
from using those words). But even when that term is
used, most Pilates instructors mean something
different from just drawing in that deep abdominal
muscle, said Deborah Lessen, the president of the
Pilates Method Alliance, a professional organization
for Pilates teachers in Miami. “What we’re talking
about is an inch above your pubic bone,” she said.
“It’s way down.”

Jillian Hessel, the owner of the Well-Tempered
Workout, a Pilates studio in California, agreed that
Pilates addresses a range of muscles and joints.
“Physical therapy is a different world in that they
tend to isolate body parts,” she said, adding, “We’re
just trying to train you to walk around vertically
with good alignment.”

Where the drawing-in technique most gets in the way,
trainers said, is during lifting, running and other
exercise. As a top high school sprinter in Illinois in
the late 1990s, Jason Krantz found that drawing in
left him frustrated. “If I focused on drawing in while
sprinting I actually ran a lot slower,” he said. “My
energy was focused on drawing in.”