What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
So, we've been talking a lot about mobility lately, and this being a Washboard Wednesday,
we're going to talk about it again.
But we're going to identify two common problems that a lot of people will get a lot of times
when doing ab exercises and that is
they'll feel either tight or sore in their hip flexors or they'll get low back pain.
And the common root cause of both of those things is actually possibly your abs.
You see, a lot of times people will look at where the symptom is and treat the symptom,
ie, they'll stretch their hip flexors out and say, 'God, I'm not getting any better.'
Or, they'll stretch their low back out and say, 'God, I'm not getting any better.'
But, if you want to train like an athlete, if you want to look below the surface, as
a Physical Therapist,
that's what I have to do in order to earn a living, we've got to look a little bit deeper.
We have to find what the root cause is, and the abs can absolutely be the cause of both
of those issues.
And a matter of fact, they could be playing a large part in creating a vicious cycle to
make that problem even worse.
So, how does this all happen?
Well, the first thing that we have to understand is that our body really wants to create stability
through our spine.
Our spine is the most important structure in our entire body.
We know that injury to the spine can be debilitating.
So, if our body is out to protect the spine at all cost, it's going to enlist stability
and the help of other muscles to do that.
So, our abs and our core are one of the biggest areas we have to be able to provide the stability
that we need against potential harm to our spine, but guess what?
A lot of us don't have really strong cores.
And if we don't, we'll start asking for help in other muscle groups, and that happens most
often in the hip flexors.
The hip flexors because of their attachment to the lumbar spine, they run all the way
up through our body and attach to the lower 5 vertebrae of our spine.
That will provide us with some stability from the bottom up, and again, through the low
back right to our lumbar spine.
So we will get stability of our spine, but not with the muscles that we're looking for
in the first place.
So, what's the solution here?
Again, stretching the hip flexors?
No.
Because the hip flexors need to be strong and on call all day long because your abs
aren't' doing their own job.
So, then people finally might get to the bottom of it and they're told to go train their abs.
What's the problem there?
You start doing ab exercises that contribute more to the problem because 90 percent of
ab exercises especially if done improperly are going to overwork the hip flexors.
So, I wanted to put together for you here some options that you might have especially
if you're dealing with low back pain or you've got those hip flexors on fire all day long.
Here's some ab exercises that you'll be able to do that will take the hip flexors right
out of it and allow you to actually strengthen your abs without further making this problem
worse.
Alright.
Take a look at these exercises.
Alright, first up is the Janda Sit Up.
Now this is one that we've used before in some of our other videos, and this is really
a classic example of how we can try to turn the hip flexors off.
We know that there's something called reciprocal inhibition that if you contract a muscle on
one side of a joint, we can actually try to turn off the muscle that's on the opposite
side of the joint.
And the easiest example and way to show this is through our bicep.
If we contract our bicep, our tricep has to relax in order to allow the movement of the
joint in this direction.
Same thing here.
If we contracted our tricep, we'd have to have our bicep relaxed to allow the movement
in the opposite direction.
Well, we know that the hip extensors, and the gluts and the hamstrings are going to
work together opposite what the hip flexors are trying to do.
So if you can position yourself like I'm doing here with a band anchored around a post, and
contract my hamstrings and gluts, right, a little bit,
now we've got active contraction of the muscles on the opposite side of the hip flexors.
That should turn the hip flexors off.
Now we can start doing our crunches so we actually target the abs without allowing the
hip flexors to dominate.
Next up, another one we've been covering a lot here lately we call it Gymnast Abs.
And you can see, you get yourself into a Roman Chair set up here or a Captain's Chair set
up,
and all you want to do is support the weight of your body by getting your arms outstretched
and locked out.
It's ok to lock out your elbows here.
We don't want to be working the triceps.
So get your arms locked out.
Use the stability of your shoulders and now all you're going to do is just simply lift
the pelvis back into a posterior tilt.
You're not lifting up with your hip flexors.
You can see it better when you come around the side here.
I'm not pulling my legs forward at all.
All I'm doing is trying to tilt my pelvis into a posterior tilt and lift the tailbone
up towards the ceiling.
Very, very easy to do and of course, it's going to work our abs tremendously without
having to incorporate our hip flexors.
We've got three options here that you could use with a band.
All you've got to do is anchor it to something sturdy and do the first exercise that I'm
showing you here which is a Pallof Press.
So now we're stabilizing on one leg.
Yes, we've got this other leg isometrically holding the hip flexor up, but we're not doing
any real dynamic work there.
We're just holding it in position and the real work is being done by the core to try
to keep your body upright and stable as I press the band up overhead.
Again, not actively involving the hip flexors in the movement just for the positioning here
of the exercise.
We can move and become a little bit more dynamic by doing the Sledge Hammer Swings.
Now we're trying to actively twist and turn our torso in the opposite direction of the
band.
Obviously, step out further and you get more resistance, we're going to work our abs here.
You guys know how much abs are in control of rotation, but our feet are planted firmly
on the ground.
There's no active contribution here of the hip flexors, at least dynamically.
Again, stabilizing from below but not dynamically working as they do in some other exercises.
Finally we move on here to the Jump Out variation of this which is just a little bit more dynamic
and explosive, and the same thing applies.
You're going to keep our hands out in front of your body.
You're working on the anti-rotation ability of our core,
You're going to jump out, try to stick that landing without allowing the band to pull
you back.
Yes, you're going to allow it to go back.
It's going to want to pull back because it's eccentrically working our abs, but again,
you're keeping the hip flexors out of it.
And next we have an exercise that a lot of people don't associate necessarily with a
core exercise, but it absolutely is.
Yeah, it's going to work your forearm and grip strength too, which is a bonus.
But the thing here that we're really trying to focus on is controlling the stability of
your core.
Remember, it's all about stabilizing your spine.
There's nothing better here than a Suitcase Carry.
Here I've got a hundred pound dumbbell on my hand and I'm trying to walk with as straight
of shoulders as I possibly can do.
So I'm trying to walk here towards the camera and then again away from you.
The goal here is to try to keep my shoulders level.
I've got a hundred pounds weighing me down on one side.
It becomes a bit of a challenge, but the only thing we've got that will help us will be
our spinal erectors and our core in front,
our abs in front, and trying to pull us upright and maintain that upright position.
Obviously, the heavier weight you use here, the more of a challenge.
And finally we have a Side Plank Leg Lift.
Once again, we're not involving the hip flexors here in the sagittal plane.
We're working a frontal plane motion here that allows us to get our stabilizers working
tremendously, hitting them from a different angle.
And now we get into a Side Plank.
That could be enough for most of you.
But if you want to really add a challenge, try to lift your leg up here as you're seeing
me do.
That will actually make it much harder for me because now I'm not getting the ability
to push through into the floor with two feet and two legs,
but really just with that bottom leg which makes it all that much more demanding for
that lateral pillar strength on that bottom side.
So there you have it guys.
There are some ways for you to start training your abs especially if you're somebody that's
suffering from some of this
low back pain when you're doing your ab workouts, or you're just feeling real tightness through
your low back every time you try to do more traditional ab exercises.
And again, I think it underscores a very important point when it comes to mobility.
Don't just listen to what people say, 'Oh my hip flexor's tight.'
'Stretch it.'
No.
That's not what you have to do.
You've got to look a little bit deeper.
Maybe you have to start looking at muscles that are weak and that those other muscles
are kicking in and doing their job for them.
So there's not just a one common answer for every single thing when it comes to mobility.
You've got to be a little bit more specific about that.
Hopefully through these videos, you're starting to see that.
If you guys want to start training with a system that uncovers and peels back some of
the layers,
we don't just go over the surface stuff to give you everything else that everybody else
has already given you.
We try to help you train a little bit more scientifically but at the same time, a lot
more productively.
That's what ATHLEANX is all about.
+ If you're looking for that training program
that will do that, head to ATHLEANX.COM right now and get our ATHLEANX Training System.
If you found this video helpful, if you like these Washboard Wednesday videos, make sure
you leave a comment and a thumb's up below
And let me know what type of video you want to see, and what other questions you might
have, and I'll make sure I cover it here in another
future Washboard Wednesday video.
See you guys back here soon.