For the past couple of decades, bodybuilders have been cautioning fellow bodybuilders, advising them to avoid squatting and deadlifting on the premise that they add mass to the midsection and create a blocky appearance. This advice is especially doled out to female competitors, since it is of even greater importance for them to maintain their curvy, feminine appearance.

But is there any truth to this claim? Let’s delve deeper into this matter to see if it holds up under scrutiny. The first problem with the claim that squats and deadlifts make your waist blocky is the subjective nature of what entails “blocky.” From the side view, larger erector spinae and rectus abdominis muscles could cause an individual to appear blockier, but it is unlikely that this is what people making the claim are referring to. It is more likely that these people are referring to the front view, which would be most impacted by the size of an individual’s internal and external oblique muscles.

Squats and deadlifts didn’t give Katie Coles a blocky midsection

The second problem with the claim is the complete lack of longitudinal training studies investigating the effects of squats and deadlifts on abdominal wall hypertrophy or comparing the core muscle growth associated with squats and deadlifts to that achieved via single joint exercises such as supermans, crunches, and side crunches. Since there are no training studies to go by, all we can do is speculate based on acute mechanistic studies.

This leads us right into the third problem with the claim – squat and deadlift naysayers never seem to pinpoint a mechanism as to how squats and deadlifts lead to excessive growth in the midsection. Since they haven’t narrowed down a mechanism, one can only guess as to how they believe this happens. I imagine that they believe that squats and deadlifts create excessive core muscle hypertrophy due to very high activation in the abdominal and oblique musculature.

Squats and deadlifts didn’t give Erin McComb a blocky midsection

It is indeed true that squats and deadlifts highly activate the erector spinae muscles. Interestingly, squats activate the lumbar erectors to a greater degree than deadlifts, whereas deadlifts activate the thoracic erectors to a greater degree than squats.[i] However, several studies to date show that abdominal and oblique activity during the squat and deadlift are not substantially high, and that basic ab/core isolation exercises outperform squats and deadlifts in abdominal and oblique activity.2-5

Through EMG experimentation in my own lab, I’ve found that many common exercises match or exceed squats and deadlifts in rectus abdominis and oblique activation, including chin ups, military press, hip thrusts, reverse hypers, push ups, pullovers, tricep extensions, and curls. In addition, I’ve found that most targeted abdominal/core exercises exceed (sometimes far exceed) squats and deadlifts in abdominal and oblique activation, including RKC planks, side planks, bodysaws, hollow body holds, ab wheel rollouts, weighted crunches, straight leg sit ups, hanging leg raises, dragon flags, lying leg raises, suitcase carries, side bends, cable chops, and landmines.

Squats and deadlifts didn’t give Sammie Cohn a blocky midsection

I propose a multifaceted alternative reason for why bodybuilders believe that squats and deadlifts create a blocky appearance. First, due to increased knowledge pertaining to training, nutrition, and supplementation, bodybuilders have gotten exceedingly larger over the past couple of decades. Bigger bodies require larger organs in order to carry out their necessary processes. Therefore, bodybuilders’ entire midsections are growing larger, but this doesn’t apply to women that strength train, since women generally avoid intentionally growing their bodies 25-50% larger.

Second, many bodybuilders regularly take a variety of performance enhancing substances including human growth hormone, which is believed to lead to increased organ growth and a distended appearance in the belly region in bodybuilding communities. Obviously, this factor also doesn’t warrant consideration from women because they generally avoid taking human growth hormone in concordance with other anabolic drugs. Heavily drugged bodybuilders experience a wide range of side effects that natural lifters don’t need to concern themselves with, including acne, expedited hair-loss, and distended bellies.

It’s gotta be the squats and deads…it can’t be the drugs, right?

And third, bracing the core during squats and deadlifts requires considerable intraabdominal pressure (IAP) to properly stabilize the spine. Though the diaphragm muscle is largely responsible for this increase in IAP, humans are by nature quite poor at relating sensation to proper physiological actions. Therefore, bodybuilders confuse high diaphragm activity and subsequent outward pressure in the midsection with high levels of abdominal and oblique activity.

Old school bodybuilders believed that “drawing in” the abdominal wall through vacuum poses helped keep the midsection tight through transversus abdominus (TVA) strengthening. One could plausibly make the argument that frequent bracing of the core leads to growth in the midsection due to pushing outward on the abdominal wall via IAP production. Even though abdominal and oblique activation is low during squats and deadlifts, the midsection could grow due to increased connective tissue extensibility due to persistent stretching. However, bracing the core doesn’t involve maximal expansion and stretching of the abdominal wall, so this is doubtful.

Squats and deadlifts didn’t give Chelsey Mcallister a blocky midsection

Having trained numerous bikini competitors, I can tell you that midsection appearance is largely related to genetics. Although my clients train in the same fashion and perform the same exercises, some of them step on stage with narrow, tapered waists while others aren’t quite as lucky. However, not a single bikini competitor ever showed up on stage appearing blocky, despite including squat and deadlift variations in their prep. If a woman is concerned with obtaining a blocky appearance, I would recommend ditching targeted abdominal and oblique exercises rather than avoiding squats and deadlifts.

Conclusion

Squats and deadlifts highly activate the erector spinae to prevent flexion of the spinal column. The abdominals and obliques cocontract along with the erectors in order to enhance core stability, but the levels of activation reached in these muscles is on par with many common strength training exercises. Furthermore, most popular isolated core exercises, both static and dynamic, activate the abdominals and obliques to a much greater degree than squats and deadlifts. Therefore, on the basis of abdominal and oblique activation, if lifters should avoid squats and deadlifts to prevent becoming blocky, then they should also avoid most other popular exercises, which is ludicrous.

Women do not need to fear that squats and deadlifts will cause them to develop a blocky midsection. This phobia has been generated by well-intentioned but misguided bodybuilders who use squats and deadlifts as a scapegoat to explain the excessive midsection growth that they experienced when they packed on dozens of pounds of muscle mass in concert with human growth hormone, insulin, and anabolic steroids. What these bodybuilders experience doesn’t apply to the masses. This conclusion is anecdotally supported by the fact that most top-level bikini competitors regularly include squat and deadlift variations in their training.

References

1. Hamlyn et al. 2007 | Trunk muscle activation during dynamic weight-training exercises and isometric instability activities
2. Bressel et al. 2009 | Effect of instruction, surface stability, and load intensity on trunk muscle activity
3. Aspe & Swinton 2014 | Electromyographic and kinetic comparison of the back squat and overhead squat
4. Willardson et al. 2009 | Effect of surface stability on core muscle activity for dynamic resistance exercises
5. Escamilla et al. 2002 | An electromyographic analysis of sumo and conventional style deadlifts

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Brad Schoenfeld and I just got a paper published in Sports Biomechanics titled:

An electromyographic comparison of a modified version of the plank with a long lever and posterior tilt versus the traditional plank exercise

We wanted to see how increasing the lever length and posteriorly tilting the pelvis affected core muscle activity in a plank, so we compared four plank variations:

traditional plank
long lever plank
posterior pelvic tilt plank
long lever posterior tilt plank (LLPTP)

By the way, here’s how you perform an LLPTP (and HERE is an article detailing the form):

Results

Discussion

As you can see, the traditional plank doesn’t activate the core very well. This doesn’t imply that it’s a useless exercise; quite the contrary. It’s a beginning level plank that every lifter should master prior to progressing to more challenging variations.

Lengthening the lever actually had a greater affect on core muscle activity than posteriorly tilting the pelvis. This surprised both Brad and I, who hypothesized that the PTP would have a greater affect than the LL.

Combining the PTP and LL was, to no surprise, the most effective strategy for maximizing core muscle activation in a plank. With the LLPTP, you get over 100% of MVC out of the upper rectus abdominis, lower rectus abdominis/internal obliques, and external obliques. This is a big bang movement for the anterior core (not the erectors though – they barely get worked in any of the tested plank variations).

Take home message: planks can be highly effective when you know how to modify them and increase the challenge. This is something that I learned from Pavel Tsatsouline, who thought up the RKC plank years ago. Give the RKC plank or the LLPTP a try and see for yourself how demanding they can be!

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In this article, I’ll go over some of the most effective core exercises that more advanced lifters can add to their libraries and discuss ways to make some of the classics a little more challenging.

The Core

Before I delve into exercises, let’s first discuss the core. The core refers to more than just the abs. It encompasses the entire musculature of the torso, including the abdominals, obliques, erectors, glutes, hip flexors, lats, adductors, and more. The core acts on the shoulders, scapulae, spine, pelvis, and hips. At the spine, it can produce, reduce, and resist spinal flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and rotation. It is responsible for transmitting forces from the upper body to lower body. Please read Strategies for Optimal Core Training Program Design for a comprehensive article on core training which I wrote with Brad Schoenfeld. As you can see, proper core training will require more than just a couple of sets of crunches or hanging leg raises!

Unfortunately, many lifters don’t train the core in its entirety, which leads to sub-optimal results. While the core doesn’t require a ton of extra attention, assuming a lifter is already performing squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, chin ups, presses, and rows, additional exercises are indeed needed to fill gaps. To train the core completely, one must consider the joints in play, the possible actions at each joint, and the common force vectors the lifter is seeking to strengthen. When training core stability, you’re enhancing the body’s ability to resist movement, hence the exercises can be considered “anti-movement exercises.”

Exercises

Sumo stance band anti-rotation holds

The sumo stance band rotational hold trains the ability to resist rotation. Since the sumo stance is wider and has a bigger base of support, more weight can be used than in a traditional stance band rotational hold. You want to find the sweet spot where you’re going as heavy as possible without leaning or twisting during the set’s duration.

First, attach a band to an immovable object. Power racks are preferred, but machines work well too. We typically use a pro-mini or light long band (see Elitefts, Sorinex, or Rogue for bands), but the band you use will be dependent on your strength levels. You can use a lighter band and just walk out further for more resistance.

Take the free end of the band and grip it in both hands, double overhand.

Walk the band out until the desired amount of tension is reached, take a sumo stance, with knees slightly bent, in an athletic stance with good posture. Keep a fairly upright torso with the hands near the chest.

Keeping the spine in neutral, extend the arms straight out in front of you so that the elbows are fully extended and the hands are chest level. You should be out far enough that when you extend your arms, they make a 90 degree angle with the band.

This exercise may be done for time or reps. We typically do 2-3 sets of 10-20-second holds on each side 1-2x per week. Cable columns can also be used for this exercise. HERE is a video.

Loaded RKC planks

The RKC plank looks very similar to a normal plank, with a few subtle differences. In the RKC plank, the elbows can be further out in front, which lengthens the lever. The feet and arms can be closer together, which narrows the base of support. Finally, the pelvis is posteriorly tilted with a giant glute squeeze, which causes the anterior core, along with the glutes, to fire much harder.

We will place between one and four 45 lb plates on the low back of the lifter. Rather than attempt to hold for longer time, we attempt to use more load or alter technique so that the static hold is more challenging. Even with advanced lifters, 20 seconds is about the max time we’ll go for with this movement. We typically do 2-3 sets of 10-20-second holds 1-2x per week. HERE‘s a video (without the weight).

Hollow body holds

The best core exercises often seem overly simple, but when performed correctly, they are very challenging. This is definitely the case with the hollow body hold.

The hollow body hold trains anti-extension, and will be performed for time rather than reps. Again, 15-30 seconds for 2-3 sets 1-2x per week is sufficient to get an ideal training effect from these. HERE is a video you can watch (I miss my beard and mohawk!).

First, lie on your back with the legs straightened out and the arms extended overhead. From this supine position, you’ll elevate the legs and arms off the floor and press your low back into the ground, flattening out the lumbar spine and holding tension in the core. Make sure you elevate just enough so that your anterior core is really fighting the extension moment being created, if you go too high, you’ll make the exercise easier and cheat yourself on the benefits it provides. Dumbbells and ankle weights can be used to increase the difficulty of the exercise. HERE is a video you can watch (I miss my beard and mohawk!).

Loaded dead bugs

Another classic anti-extension core stability exercise is the dead bug. However, this drill is not challenging enough for the typical advanced lifter, so modifications are in order. Slowing the movement down and holding the bottom position while exhaling fully on each rep will increase the difficulty, but many lifters will move past this point quickly as well. When body weight is too easy, we load the movement up to achieve progressive overload.

Ankle weights may also be added to the lower extremities if they are available, but it’s typically the arms that get ‘too light’ first. Just 5-10 lbs will add enough difficulty for most lifters, but you can go heavier than this so long as you control the movement. You’ll set up for a regular dead bug holding a weight in each hand (dumbbells or plates may be used). Lower opposite arm and opposite leg to just above the ground, exhale and return to the start position before lowering the next pair of limbs.

The dead bug is one of those movements where it’s up to the lifter to make difficult. You can go through the motion without engaging the core very much, or it can be one of the most challenging anti-extension drills in your library. So make sure you’re staying tight throughout the movement, and do not let the spine hyperextend or the pelvis anteriorly rotate. We prefer to keep our lumbar spines flattened out on these, but a neutral spine and pelvis is preferred by many trainers. 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps on each side performed 1-2X/wk is recommended. HERE‘s a video.

Landmines

The landmine trains the torso’s ability to resist motion – the bar actually induces lateral flexion torque, rotation torque, and flexion torque on the spine, so the core has to work hard to remain stable. Not only is it a fantastic core exercise, it’s fun and jacks the heart rate up pretty high as well.

You’ll need to set up in front of a landmine or grappler unit, but if one is not available, a barbell stuck into a corner will suffice as well.

Pick up one end of the landmine either fist over fist or with an interlocked grip. How far away you stand will depend on your arm length and height. Once your grip is set, the forearms should make a 90 degree angle with the bar.

In an athletic stance, keeping the core engaged, extend the arms out in front but don’t lock them out completely. Drop the landmine down towards one hip without bending the elbows. While maintaining some distance from the landmine, return to the start position and drop to the other side.

The majority of the motion should take place at the shoulders. Remember, you’re trying to resist spinal motion, so keep the core braced and don’t let the weight control you. For variety, you can pivot and rotate around the bar (see HERE), and if you have a grappler, you may do them like THIS. If performing these, 2-3 sets of 10 reps on each side 1-2X/wk will suffice.

Ab wheel rollouts

The ab wheel rollout is a great progression once you’ve mastered planks and stability ball rollouts. The rollout trains anti-extension and may be progressed further by adding a band to the ab wheel.

First, kneel down on some type of padding (the Airex Balance pad works great for this). Take the ab wheel in both hands and center your body over it. Before descending, extend the hips, squeeze the glutes, and engage the core. This alignment should be kept throughout the movement.

To descend, think about sinking your hips to the ground as your arms extend forward – don’t envision reaching with the arms. Once you’ve hit the lowest point, pause for a second then, pull the arms back underneath the body until the start position is reached.

Make sure to not allow the low back to arch or the pelvis to anteriorly tilt during the movement. Another common mistake is allowing the hips to flex too much on the way up. This motor strategy utilizes the hip flexors to pull the body backward, but it’s not ideal.  Think of this exercise as a moving RKC plank. We do 2-3 sets of 6-15 reps 1-2X/wk. HERE is a video for you to check out. If the kneeling version is too easy, try negatives from the standing position, as shown HERE. If this is too easy, be like Ross Enamait and do them one arm with a weighted vest HERE, or utilizing a ramp HERE, or pausing isometrically HERE.

Too much hip flexion – see pic above for proper form

Off bench oblique hold

The off bench oblique hold trains the body’s ability to resist lateral flexion. You can think of it as a loaded progression for the side plank.

Set up in a GHR laterally, with the bottom foot out in front and the top foot behind you. The GHR pad should be positioned at the side of the hip. Your hips and knees should be fully extended, the glutes should be tensed, and the torso should be completely straight. Grab a dumbbell with the bottom arm and return to neutral. Hold this position for the prescribed duration. 2-3 sets of 20-30 second holds once or twice a week is sufficient. You can also do these off of a standard bench. HERE is a video.

Suitcase hold

The suitcase hold is another anti-lateral flexion drill, and is very easy to set up. Simply place a dumbbell or kettlebell on a bench or step. Stand next to the weight so that it is at your side. Pick it up with the hand and stand tall. You want to keep the shoulder girdle engaged, spine neutral, and glutes squeezed throughout the duration. Make sure you don’t go so heavy that you have to lean or rest the weight on your side to get through it. Go heavy enough for a good challenge, but be able to maintain good alignment the entire time. A barbell can be used in a power rack to enable even heavier loading. 2-3 sets of 20-30 second holds once or twice a week is sufficient. HERE‘s a video.

Conclusion

I’ve provided you with some very challenging core stability exercises. The RKC plank, hollow body hold, dead bug, and ab wheel rollout will strengthen your anti-extension spinal stability strength. The off bench oblique hold and suitcase carry will strengthen your anti-lateral flexion spinal stability strength. And the sumo band anti-rotation hold and landmine will strengthen your anti-rotation spinal stability strength. Many of these exercises will strengthen the pelvic and hip musculature as they strengthen the spinal musculature since the movements require stability at all three body regions.

If you’re astute, you might be wondering about anti-flexion spinal stability strength. If you read this blog, then I’m assuming you already perform squats and deadlifts, in which case you’re very effectively strengthening spinal anti-flexion stability. A stronger core can improve performance and prevent injuries. If you’re an advanced lifter seeking challenging core stability drills, give the exercises mentioned in this article a try.

The post Core Stability Training for the Advanced Lifter appeared first on Bret Contreras.

The Hollow Body Position

The hollow body position has been used in gymnastics for decades and is an excellent core exercise. Unfortunately, most strength coaches have yet to embrace it. This is a shame as the exercise develops lumbopelvic stability and improves the body’s ability to resist excessive anterior pelvic tilt and lumbar hyperextension. For maximal pelvic stability, you want the glutes and abs to be strong and coordinated in order to hold down posterior tilt.  The hollow rock focuses on abdominal strength.

It is significantly more challenging than a standard plank exercise and is harder to screw up. Initially you may find that a 20-second hold is highly challenging, but you’ll quickly gain endurance. Over time you want to be able to hold this position for 2 minutes. Once you master this, you can begin rocking up and down or finding other ways to make the exercise more difficult.

Just lay on the ground, flatten out the lumbar spine so it’s flush with the floor and posteriorly tilt the pelvis, then raise your legs approximately 6-12 inches off the ground. Here’s’ how it’s done:

The Posterior Pelvic Tilt Straight Leg Bridge

The Posterior Pelvic Tilt Straight Leg Bridge can be performed to develop glute endurance which goes hand in hand with the abdominal endurance gained from the Hollow Body Position. Simply lay supine, squeeze the abs and glutes into a posterior pelvic tilt, then dig through the heels and slightly raise the body off the ground.

The Long Lever Posterior Tilt Plank

Here’s a video I made a while back that shoes you how to perform a challenging plank variation that also helps develop well-rounded core endurance.

With these three core movements, you should be well on your way to developing rock solid anti-lumbar-extension/anti-anterior-pelvic-tilt core stability and endurance.

The post The Hollow Body Position and PPT Straight Leg Bridge appeared first on Bret Contreras.

Loads Aren’t the Only Determinants of Spinal Loading and Muscle Force Requirements

Standing rotary exercises are usually performed with loads held at arm’s length which create exceptionally long levers and high torques at the spine which are countered through ground reaction forces at the feet. For this reason all of the joints between the arms and the feet are called into play, making rotary training a highly-effective form of “total body training.” You’ve got spinal rotation, hip internal rotation in the front leg, and hip external rotation in the rear leg all summating to generate maximum torque which is transferred through the body from the feet to the hands. This requires a tremendous blend of stability, mobility, propulsive power, and coordination. Despite the fact that modest levels of resistance are often used during rotary training, the long levers and multiple muscles involved in producing or preventing rotation produce large compressive loads on the spine and require high thresholds of neuromuscular and metabolic activity. This is why a couple of sets of rotary training can leave you quite exhausted.

Sports Mastery Requires Hip Power

Most people throw in some token rotary training toward the end of their sessions and try to feel the movements solely in their obliques. While the obliques are certainly important for rotary power, so are the gluteus maximus and other hip external rotators.

In fact, I believe that a strong, powerful gluteus maximus is often what separate the elite athlete from the average athlete. As athletes advance, they learn to incorporate their hip and leg musculature into their movements to a much higher degree. For example, beginner shot-putters use predominantly their upper body muscles when throwing, whereas advanced shot putters use predominantly their leg muscles. The correlation between athletic achievements in beginner athletes’ arm strength is .83, whereas the correlation between athletic achievements in beginner athletes’ leg strength is .37. That means they’re not using their legs enough! For advanced athletes, the correlations flip flop to .73 and .87, respectively. In other words, in order for athletes to advance, they must learn how to derive maximum power from the hips and legs.

Elite golfers show greater angular velocities of trunk rotation than less-skilled golfers (Zheng et al. 2008) and higher spinal rotation is correlated with increased clubhead speed (Hellstrom 2009). Upper torso and pelvis separation (called “the X-Factor”) is a must for maximum golfing proficiency (Myers et al. 2008, Chu et al. 2010). However, when you perform rotary movements, don’t try to target the spinal muscles. You need to get the hips into the mix – for a couple different reasons. Chan et al. (2011) found that rotary motion was indeed healthy for the lumbar discs as long as end ranges were avoided. How can going to end-range lumbar rotation during explosive movements be prevented? First, ensure proper hip and thoracic spine mobility, and second, make sure the hips are strong and powerful so they’re used extensively during rotation tasks.

For this reason I recommend really trying to “feel” the glute and other hip external rotators of the rear leg working hard during standing rotational exercises, and you should even feel the hip internal rotators of the front leg assisting in the task. If you want to know which muscles act as hip external rotators and which muscles act as hip internal rotators, you need to know how much flexion is involved at the hip, as the levers change as the hip moves from a neutral position into flexion. Delp et al. (1999) examined these changing roles and found functional subdivisions of muscles and altering roles of hip rotators.

If you examine this chart you’ll realize that the hip external rotators vary considerably between a standing exercise, where the hips are more neutral, than the bottom of a squatting or single leg squatting motion, where the hips are substantially flexed. At hips neutral, posterior glute med and min, anterior and posterior glute max, pyriformis, quad fem, obt int, and obt ext are hip external rotators, whereas anterior glute med and min and iliopsoas are hip internal rotators. At hips flexed 90 degrees, some of anterior glute max and posterior glute max, iliopsoas, quad fem, obt int, and obt ext are hip external rotators, whereas anterior and posterior glute med and min, most of anterior glute max,  and pyriformis are internal rotators.

Rotary Training and Landing Mechanics

Recent research has shown that standing rotary training can improve landing mechanics in the absence of jumping exercise (Nyland et al. 2011a, Nyland et al. 2011b). Both of these studies involving a GroundForce 360, which looks pretty badass to me but I have never experimented with it.  Click on the link and check out the video.

In a nutshell, proper landing mechanics require rapid hip abduction and external rotation moments (torques) about the hips in order to prevent valgus collapse. Knee valgus is characterized by hip adduction and hip internal rotation and can be quite detrimental to knee health (ie: leads to patellofemoral pain) and performance (ie: energy leaks). The studies above showed that improving neuromuscular output through rotary training led to improved landing efficiency, which is very interesting considering that no jump training was performed. This suggests that rotary training can transfer to a myriad of tasks such as jumping/landing, squatting, climbing, throwing, striking, and swinging. Hell, Louie Simmons even noticed increased deadlifting strength after using the grappler.

Best Rotary Exercises

In a perfect world, we’d all have access to a Ground Force 360. Since this is not the case, standing rotary exercises can be performed with bands and cables to simulate various chopping and lifting motions in different positions including tall kneeling, half-kneeling, split stance, and parallel stances. Bands exercises that challenge the hips have been used quite effectively in improving golf mechanics and performance (Lephart et al. 2007). Medicine balls can be used for higher contraction velocities. Here are a few of my favorites:

Band Hip Rotation (if you do this one right, your glute activation can sore through the roof)

Half-Kneeling Cable Anti-Rotation Press (this isn’t performed standing but the rear glute and hip rotators get worked tremendously)

Band Rotary Hold (I like this more than Pallof pressing as I never feel like the pulses adequately tax me)

Rotational Medball Shotput (Tim gets his whole body into this one)

If you haven’t seen Gray Cook talk about chops and lifts, check it out below. I love listening to Gray speak – he’s so eloquent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7gACSxA9oM

I definitely recommend learning chops and lifts this way as beginners lack segmental control in the spine and don’t know where to move and how much to move. Over time as this control is mastered, I recommend progressing toward some slight movement in the spine (but not much) and progression to standing stances. I like bands more than cables for hip rotations and rotary holds, but I like cables more than bands for variations of chops and lifts. Often beginner women find the band movements problematic and do better with cable rotation movements until they get stronger and can use the bands efficiently.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has given you some food for thought. Most lifters do not view standing rotary work as effective full body training. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and if you get freakishly strong at these movements than you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’ve been teaching the band hip rotation to some big and strong rugby athletes here in New Zealand and they’re amazed at how weak they are initially at this movement. Within a couple of months strength sky-rockets on these movements which is very important for balanced strength.

As far as programming is concerned, I like to perform just two sets on each side for 8-12 reps, and I do this at the end of my training sessions. Sure my long segments help with rotational inertia, but whenever I see a punching bag arcade game like the one below I always test it out and I’m usually able to set the all-time record. I credit some of this to the consistent amount of rotational work that I do week in and week out.

The post Standing Rotary Training is Whole Body Training! appeared first on Bret Contreras.

Some coaches feel that spinal rotation strengthening should be avoided completely, some coaches believe that spinal rotation strengthening should be performed but the movement should occur at the thoracic spine and the hips while the lumbar spine is locked down, and some coaches think that spinal rotation strengthening is great and you don’t need to cue anything because the body is smart and knows how, where, and when to rotate.

In Mike Boyle’s article entitled, Is ‘Rotation Training’ Hurting Your Performance?, he quotes Shirley Sahrmann, who states the following:

The thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine should be the site of greatest amount of rotation of the trunk… when an individual practices rotational exercises, he or she should be instructed to “think about the motion occurring in the area of the chest.”

Mark Buckley does an excellent job of discussing the biomechanics of spinal rotation exercises in this free PDF. He states that:

Rotation is not the concern – where the rotation takes place is the concern

Mark goes on to state that thoracic rotation accounts for 60-70° (Segmental contribution as high as 7-10° in the mid thoracic area at T3-T9) of rotary movement in the spine, while lumbar rotation only accounts for 10-15° (Segmental contribution as small as 0-2° at L1-L5 and 0-5° at L5-S1) of rotatry movement in the spine.

Our Lumbar Spines are Jacked

In this article, Eric Cressey pointed out that in this study, it was shown that in the lumbar spine:

52 percent of the subjects had a bulge at at least one level, 27 percent had a protrusion, and 1 percent had an extrusion [82% of subjects]. Thirty-eight percent had an abnormality of more than one intervertebral disk

Our Thoracic Spines are Also Jacked

Last year I was pulling up research pertaining to the thoracic discs, and I stumbled upon some interesting and perplexing information. This study states that thoracic hernations occur with much less frequency than lumbar or cervical hernations. This study reports that thoracic hernations are responsible for only .15-1.8% of all spinal herniations.

However more recent research paints a different picture. In this study involving 90 individuals,  37% of asymptomatic individuals had at least one thoracic disc herniation, 54% had a disc bulge, 58% had an annular tear, 29% had deformation in the spinal cord, and 28% had Scheurmann end-plate irregularities or kyphosis. And this study, conducted in 2007, which claims to be the largest study in the world’s literature on the topic of thoracic disc herniation, states that thoracic disc hernations occur in 50% of patients and that 26% of patients had multiple herniations.  This study states that degenerative disc disease and disc herniations are the most prevelent thoracic spine abnormalites and that disc herniations predominate in the lower thoracic segments and are a dynamic phenomenon.

Disc Herniations are in Flux

Interestingly, while disc degeneration does not improve, thoracic herniations are in a state of constant flux. This study shows that 27% of disc herniations improved over a 4-149 week range of follow-up. After a mean follow up period of 26 months, 48 previously looked at discs in this study were examined, and they found that 3 of 21 small disc herniations increased in size, one of twenty and three of twenty medium discs increased and decreased in size respectively, and four of seven large disc herniations decreased in size.

Method of Imaging Matters

It appears that the method of imaging matters, as this study showed that 21 of 48 thoracic discs appeared healthy when using MRI, but when using discography only 10 of 48 appeared normal. Studies involving discography likely underestimate spinal abnormalities.

Torsion Hammers the Lumbar Facets (But Extension and Lateral Bending are Worse)

This study shows that lumbar facet joints carry no load in flexion, and large loads during extension (205 N at a 10 Nm moment and a 190 N axial load), torsion (65 N at a 10 Nm moment and a 150 N axial load), and lateral bending (78 N at a 3 Nm moment and a 160 N axial load).

Thoracic Facet Joint Pain vs. Lumbar Facet Joint Pain

This study showed that the prevalence of facet joint pain was 39% in the cervical spine, 34% in the thoracic spine; and 27% in the lumbar spine.

This study showed that painful thoracic facets occurred in 42% of individuals with thoracic pain, while only 31% of individuals with low back pain suffer from painful lumbar facets, however of the 500 people with chronic spinal pain involved in the study, only 6% had painful thoracic facets and 25% had painful lumbar facets. During the background portion of the article, the authors stated that, “facet joints have been implicated as a cause of chronic spinal pain in 15% to 45% of patients with chronic low back pain, 48% of patients with thoracic pain, and 54% to 67% of patients with chronic neck pain.”

Poor Hip Mobility Most Likely Increases the Risk of Low Back Pain in Rotary Sport Athletes

This study stated that “Among people who participate in rotation-related sports, those with LBP had less overall passive hip rotation motion and more asymmetry of rotation between sides than people without LBP.”

This makes perfect sense, as individuals possessing insufficient hip internal and external rotation mobility will be forced to compensate and rotate more at the lumbar spine. Over time this will usually result in injury and/or pain if left unchecked.

Rotational Exercises are Safer With Some Axial Pre-Loading

In this article, Nick Tumminello quotes the late, great Mel Siff:

A certain degree of compressive preloading locks the facet assembly of the spine and makes it more resistant to torsion. This is the reason why trunk rotation without vertical compression may cause disc injury, whereas the same movement performed with compression is significantly safer.

Some Things You Need to Think About

Let’s say that a certain movement requires 60 degrees of spinal rotation. Do you want all 60 degrees of rotation occuring in the 12 thoracic motion segments with absolutely zero motion occuring in the five lumbar motion segments?

Would this be the safest method of execution, and is this a natural movement pattern?

Or, would it be safer if the individual rotated (for example) 55 total degrees in the twelve thoracic motion segments and 5 total degrees in the five lumbar segments?  Is some lumbar rotation natural and beneficial, or do you want to completely  “lock it up” by cueing all motion in the chest/t-spine area?

Aren’t end ranges of spinal motion the most dangerous for the discs? Wouldn’t we want to distribute load evenly rather than concentrate it in one region?

Does architecture (ie: what the lumbar spine and thoracic spine were built for) matter when thoracic discs and facets get beat up just like the lumbar discs and facets?

Are spinal rotation exercises even worthwhile considering they are high risk? Should we ever do any spinal rotation under load, or is it wiser to stick to just rotary stability exercises for the spine where the spine stays motionless while rotary forces are resisted/prevented?

Segmental vs. Fluid Rotation

Nick Tumminello talks about segmental rotation in this video:

My Take

It is very important to first qualify individuals for proper hip and thoracic spine rotational mobility. If they don’t have it, you need to prescribe mobility drills until they get it. Here are a bunch of different t-spine rotational mobility drills:

Here are some hip mobility drills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEwfxa_9_y8

While you are developing hip and spine mobility, you can simultaneously work on preventing torsion by prescribing rotary core stability exercises such as band or cable rotary holds or foam roller prone and supine rotary holds.

Next, you can introduce a dynamic component and have individuals prevent spinal rotation while the limbs are moving dynamically. These include cable chops, cable lifts, landmines, and tornado ball slams. Finally, you can incorporate some slight motion in the spine via various types of chops, lifts, landmines, and medball throws, but you want to make sure that individuals are moving at the proper segments. If you followed the correct steps, then individuals should be able to distribute loading efficiently and rotate with a combination of hip and t-spine rotation with slight motion at the lumbar spine.

To reiterate, there’s a 2-step process:

1. Increase hip and t-spine mobility and work on static rotational core stability

2. Move to dynamic rotational core stability and eventually rotational strength with some spinal movement involved

As far as cueing to “move at the chest,” I believe that it’s best to err on the side of caution and try to get most of the mobility in the t-spine rather than involving the lumbar spine. Even though discs at all spinal regions appear to take a serious beating and develop herniations, and even though facet joint pain seems to occur at all spinal regions as well, it makes sense to look at the architecture of the spine and try to determine its optimal function.

Furthermore, many novices erroneously believe that spinal rotation should occur mostly in the lumbar spine and they therefore actively attempt to twist to end-range lumbar rotation. This is highly dangerous. If individuals think of movement occuring in the chest, they’ll stay tall and properly distribute stress over a broad range of joint structures which will minimize tissue damage and the likelihood of injury. I’m sure that even when individuals attempt to lock down the lumbar spine there is still some slight (but not dangerous) motion involved.

Evidence shows that there is a huge genetic component to disc degeneration and herniations. While trainers and coaches like to believe that we can prevent the onset of spinal degradation by teaching the body to move properly via mobility, stability/activation drills, and proper cueing for motor control feedback, it appears that there is only so much we can do.

I only perform (myself) and prescribe (to clients) spinal rotation work twice per week and stay away from end ranges. Two sets of 6-10 reps is the typical volume. One day per week usually involves anti-rotation (the spine stays neutral and resists rotation), while the other day involves actual rotation (the spine twists a bit).

What’s your take? Are spinal rotation movements worth the risk? If so, where should the rotation occur, how should the exercises be cued, and how frequent should they be prescribed?

The post Topic of the Week – Spinal Rotation Exercises appeared first on Bret Contreras.