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Find the Elusive Six Pack and Prevent Back Pain

By Jon Ingram

Go to any commercial gym and you will find endless numbers of people doing sit-up and crunch variations. On benches, swiss balls, machines or on the floor with funny machines, there is an endless amount of options for those looking for a flat stomach or six pack.

But does it really work? Will performing 100s of crunches give you a six pack? The simple answer to that question is no, it won’t.

For a start, the only way to reveal a six pack is to lose belly fat and as much as we would love to believe that it is real, spot reduction does not exist. Those gym goers who believe it is possible to lose fat in the midsection by doing crunches are tragically misguided. Many studies have been performed on spot reduction, none of which have proved that it is possible in any meaningful way.

So if the key to a six pack is fat loss, what is the key to fat loss? The simple answer here is diet. A six pack is created in the kitchen, not the gym.

But even if you manage to lose the belly what will be underneath? If the abdominal section is well developed it will be a nice six pack, if not, there won’t be much of anything. So if sit-ups and crunches won’t help to lose fat, will they at least help to develop the abdominal musculature? They might, but there are far more effective and healthy ways to train the midsection for strength and appearance.

One of the key tenets at CrossFit GVA is that movement of the lumbar spine (or lower back), especially when loaded, can lead to injury and back pain. Back pain is one of the scourges of modern society. Think about how many people you know who have complained of pack pain at one time or another. Most of us spend our days sat on chairs and hunched over computers. That leads to poor mobility in the hips and weak muscles around the midsection, all primary ingredients for back pain.

Use of compound movements such as squats, deadlifts and presses are highly effective at developing a strong midsection. In fact, these exercises allow the midsection to work in a biomechanically efficient manner, as a transmitter of force. It is impossible to safely squat or lift heavy weights without contracting the muscles of the lower back and pelvis and maintaining a perfectly stiff spine. This is the opposite of a sit-up or crunch, where the lumbar spine is moving from a neutral to bent (or flexed) position.

Research shows that herniating a disk in the spine can result from repeated flexion of the lower back, so repeatedly picking an object as light as a pencil from the floor with a bent lower back is likely to result in injury. Once again, when we perform crunches, all we are doing is flexing the lower back continuously, precisely the kind of movement that can result in injury.

So rather than training the midsection to move, as with the crunch or sit up, it is safer and more efficient to train the midsection for stabilisation. If you want a six pack, lift heavy weights using compound exercises, do some form of high intensity cardiovascular exercise (more on this later) and sort out your diet!

About the Author:

Jon Ingram is a certified Personal Trainer and CrossFit Coach in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the owner of CrossFit GVA (www.crossfitgva.com) and you can find his musings on all things strength and conditioning at www.joningram.ch.