There is so much talk about stomach exercises and it seems to be such a hot topic for people. The problem is that far too many people focus on the appearance of the stomach and not so much the function of the stomach. It stands to reason that getting the stomach working properly will not only improve the finished product but also ensure that your exercises don't come at the expense of your posture.
Firstly, let's get a few things straight. The stomach contains a vast set of muscles yet non are key drivers in human functional movement. This means that exercises like sit ups bear no relevance to your body and are more likely to cause pain or injury over time due to them encouraging supporting muscles to become dominant. With this in mind, get out of the habit of seeing isolated stomach movements or typical 'ab' exercises as any good whatsoever. The stomach works to stabilise the body, provide a crucial connection between upper and lower body and protect vital organs therefore conditioning the stomach in those natural situations is going to be much more functional and effective.
We'll come onto what exercises are good to condition the stomach, but first let's understand how the stomach is designed and what purpose it provides. This is more than worth understanding if you really want to have an incredible washboard stomach. It may not have been necessary as primal man to know this as our lifestyles caused us to constantly engage core muscle but our current lifestyle causes almost the opposite often leaving core lazy and weak. So, the core is made of two distinct elements known as the inner and outer units. The inner is the stabilising unit. This consists of involuntary muscles that work subconsciously to keep us upright, support spine and posture.
The outer unit is made up of bigger and more voluntary muscles that create movement in the body. One problem is that if your inner unit has picked up bad habits, then movement in the outer unit only serves to compound the problem and embed poor neural pathways which become harder and harder to repair.
So let's start at the beginning and get the inner unit working properly helping maximise the benefits of bigger movements. It may sound like we're starting with absolute basics but breathing is the first part of getting this right. As babies we breathe from the stomach and as we develop, we tend to breathe more and more from higher in the lungs. This leaves the inner unit to become lazy and reduces the efficiency of the oxygen supply to the body. Not very good hey - so let's start to improve this situation.
Abdominal breathing exercises are an excellent way to engage inner units and work the core. Eventually, the techniques of this can be applied into exercises but nail the basics first.
Ideally, these should be done standing up. Slightly softened knees, stood tall with stomach drawn in. Take a big breathe in through the nose and at the same time, inflate the stomach. Then breathe out a concerted breath through the mouth and draw the stomach back in tight. Look to do 10 of these, 2-3 times daily for at least 10 days to start embedding the habit of doing this without having to think about it.
Refer to this training video for a demonstration, notice after how just a few days of performing this drill make you much more conscious and in control over core stabilisation and get ready for my next blog on taking this to the next level.
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