How to Get Great Abs

Excerpted from
The Little ABS Workout Book
By Erika Dillman

Neutral Spine

The first step of spinal stabilization is developing an awareness of spinal alignment. The spine has a natural curve at the lumbar region. Physical therapists use the term "neutral spine" to describe optimal spinal alignment, or the position in which the spine is best able to carry load and move most safely and efficiently. It's also the position of the lower spine when the body is in correct posture. In contrast, remember Figure 3.4, whose spine is not optimally aligned or well-supported by core muscles, and who is, therefore, less able to move gracefully and more likely to become injured.

Preliminary Exercises

In Chapter 6, you'll begin your abs training with several simple preliminary exercises, such as the pelvic tilt, designed to help you find your ideal spinal alignment, or neutral spine. Next, you'll practice isolating and contracting the deepest layer of the abs, the transverse abdominis, while maintaining neutral spine. The goal of these exercises is to train the muscles that stabilize the spine so that supporting optimal alignment becomes automatic.

In the next group of preliminary exercises, you'll try to maintain neutral spine and contraction of the transverse abdominis while adding the challenge of moving the limbs. These initial exercises prepare abs and back muscles to maintain spinal alignment during daily activities, sports, and recreation, and lay the foundation for all of the other core exercises you'll practice in Chapters 7-11.

Strength, Endurance, Balance, and Control

Physical therapists and scientists have researched the efficacy of spinal stabilization training in the context of treating and preventing lower back pain, a common malady. Research has shown that muscle strength alone is not the most important factor in restoring optimal health to the lower back. Muscle endurance, balanced strength between muscle groups, and muscle coordination and efficiency are all essential in restoring spinal stabilization. For this reason, a variety of abs and back exercises are used to train the core while the body is in different positions.

Abs Exercises

There are primarily three types of exercises used in this book to help you successfully tone your middle: stabilization exercises, which retrain core muscles to support the spine; functional exercises, which duplicate everyday movements and activities while challenging the abs to maintain optimal spinal alignment (protecting the spine); and what I call "six-pack exercises," traditional or commonly known abs exercises that help build up the superficial layers of the abs to achieve the desired look. All of these exercises are important in building and maintaining balanced strength, endurance, and control in core muscles.

Retraining Muscles and Nerves

If you're like most people, despite your best intentions to lead a healthy lifestyle, you've probably at some time developed muscle imbalances and weaknesses that contribute to poor posture, prevent efficient movement, and even cause injuries such as lower back pain or neck pain. Stress, injuries, overtraining, illness, inactivity, and simply living in gravity take a great toll on our bodies and can cause physical limitations.

A big part of abs training is restoring strength, endurance, and control to weak, overworked, out-of-balance core muscles by retraining muscles and nerves. In a healthy, aligned body muscle-nerve connections, called neuromuscular pathways, are established between the brain and the muscles to recruit the designated muscles for a specific function, such as sitting up straight or throwing a ball. For example, in the split second before you move, your brain sends a message, via the nervous system, to your muscles, telling them how and when to function.

The Transverse Abdominis

Retraining the deepest layer of the abdominis muscles, the transverse abdominis, is the first step in achieving balanced core strength and the taut tummy you desire.

Ideally, the transverse abdominis, pelvic floor muscles, and the multifidus muscles in the back contract concurrently to support the spine during movement. When one or all of these muscles are weak, they don't function well alone or together, leaving the spine and other areas of the body vulnerable to injury. So, before you exercise the more superficial layers of the abs, which will help you get the look you want, you have to restore optimal functioning to these deep muscles.

Working from the deepest layer of the abs to the most superficial layers (or from the inside out) is the cornerstone of successful training. The best training programs will work both the muscles that stabilize the spine and those that move the torso. Isolating the transverse abdominis in the preliminary exercises will help retrain that muscle, and once you can locate, isolate, and control it, you can gradually begin to practice exercises that integrate other core muscles through more complex movements.

Putting Mind To Muscle

Finally, your mind will be your biggest training tool. Visualization and concentration will help you integrate and internalize the methods presented here so that you develop greater body awareness. In turn, as you become more familiar with your own anatomy and physiology, and the gradual progression of exercises, you'll gain a greater intuitive sense of how to move your body most efficiently.

In the next chapter, you'll learn some of the basic training techniques that will prepare you for the final step, beginning your abs training.