How To Train Your “Abz”
When most people think of training their abs (or abdominals), they’re thinking about achieving that Hollywood/Super Model/Abercrombie/Young Brad Pitt look where you can visibly see the outline of their muscles. The “six pack” so to speak. There is nothing inherently wrong with training for this sort of look however I would argue that actually achieving this outcome has much more to do with diet and genetics than training methods.
Technically, everyone has a six pack. I mean, the muscles exist for everyone and for many athletes those muscles might even be developed enough to show through. That said, for them to be visible, one has to have very little fat on top of that musculature. This is why achieving that particular aesthetic has more to do with diet and genetics than it does with building strength in the abdominals.
But since the readership of this newsletter is more concerned with weightlifting and sports performance rather than posing on a beach with no shirt on in a pair of tastefully ripped blue jeans, let’s talk about how to train your trunk for optimal athleticism. At STS, we call it “trunk” training because we aren’t just trying to train the abs (or the front of the torso). When we train the trunk, we are trying to train 360 degrees of the torso to make it sturdy like a tree trunk.
If you think of a cardboard box supporting a weight on top of it, if any one side of that box is weak, the box will crumple under the weight. This analogy represents our philosophy of trunk training. We want all sides of that box to be as sturdy as possible so that the trunk is strong in the front, sides, and back, up high, and down low.
Now that we understand the “what”, it’s time to discuss the “how”. We are a big believer in isometric trunk training. In laymen’s terms, isometric basically means training the muscles of the trunk to be strong by resisting movement rather than having them shorten and lengthen. We definitely utilize trunk exercises that involve movement as well however the bulk of our exercise selection for the trunk revolves around forcing our trunk to stay rigid, tense, and still while being pushed, pulled, or rotated in a particular direction.
Why train the trunk this way? The trunk musculature’s primary function is to keep us from falling over. Going back to that cardboard box, its job is to stay upright and support that weight, not to bend back and forth. In a sports context, our trunk is meant to transfer force throughout different parts of our body. The more tension we can create in our trunk, the more efficiently that force gets transferred. Additionally, the stronger our trunk is, other muscles further away from the core tend to act stronger too. This is a concept called “irradiation” where tension created from muscles spreads to other nearby muscles. So, if we can create a ton of tension in our trunk, that tension spills over to other body parts. Lastly, having a trunk that can create more isometric tension allows us to be in better condition and less injury prone because the middle of our body can handle absorbing more force leaving less work for the rest of the body in addition to allowing weaker joints like the elbows, shoulders, and knees to be more supported by a more sturdy base.
What does this mean for you? Stop flailing up and down on the ground chasing the burn and trying to look like Brad Pitt. Learn proper trunk bracing mechanics and challenge those trunk muscles to stay braced while an opposing force tries to pull them out of position. Planks, offset carries, GHD holds, hollow body rocks, rigid bear crawls, and palov presses are some of our favorites at STS.
Best of luck with your training today!
With Thanks,