Reader Renee points us to an article in the NY Times about the dangers and pitfalls of "core" strengthening. It's worth reading as are the comments.
I agree with most everything in the article. The transverse abdominis, while important, is not the only muscle you need to be concerned about and that hollowing the stomach by aggressively sucking it in may do more harm than good by de-stabilizing the supporting structures. Sit-ups are a poor choice for most people carrying far more risk than necessary and that goes for back extensions over the edge of a stool or a Roman Chair too.
My disagreement in avoiding using isolating techniques to activate the transverse addominis is that the stabilizing muscles, multifidus and rotatores, are inhibited following a back injury and since these muscles are not under your volitional control, you must find another way to jump start them. The transverse abdominis is the jump start mechanism. Once you learn how to contract the transverse abdominis (and this is done not sucking in the stomach but rather bracing the mid-section as if you're about to get punched in the stomach), which by the way needs only a mild contraction to turn on the multifidus, you can then move on to more functional drills incorporating the tension from the transverse abdominis.
Of course, there's no strong link between a "weak core" and lower back pain but there is evidence that suggests people with chronic lower back pain tend to have an atrophied multifidus muscle and we know that atrophied muscles are weak muscles.
Hides, J. A., C. A. Richardson, et al. (1996). "Multifidus muscle recovery is not automatic after resolution of acute, first-episode low back pain." Spine 21(23): 2763-9.
Danneels, L. A., G. G. Vanderstraeten, et al. (2000). "CT imaging of trunk muscles in chronic low back pain patients and healthy control subjects." European Spine Journal 9(4): 266-72.
Reader Renee points us to an article in the NY Times about the dangers and pitfalls of "core" strengthening. It's worth reading as are the comments.
I agree with most everything in the article. The transverse abdominis, while important, is not the only muscle you need to be concerned about and that hollowing the stomach by aggressively sucking it in may do more harm than good by de-stabilizing the supporting structures. Sit-ups are a poor choice for most people carrying far more risk than necessary and that goes for back extensions over the edge of a stool or a Roman Chair too.
My disagreement in avoiding using isolating techniques to activate the transverse addominis is that the stabilizing muscles, multifidus and rotatores, are inhibited following a back injury and since these muscles are not under your volitional control, you must find another way to jump start them. The transverse abdominis is the jump start mechanism. Once you learn how to contract the transverse abdominis (and this is done not sucking in the stomach but rather bracing the mid-section as if you're about to get punched in the stomach), which by the way needs only a mild contraction to turn on the multifidus, you can then move on to more functional drills incorporating the tension from the transverse abdominis.
Of course, there's no strong link between a "weak core" and lower back pain but there is evidence that suggests people with chronic lower back pain tend to have an atrophied multifidus muscle and we know that atrophied muscles are weak muscles.
Hides, J. A., C. A. Richardson, et al. (1996). "Multifidus muscle recovery is not automatic after resolution of acute, first-episode low back pain." Spine 21(23): 2763-9.
Danneels, L. A., G. G. Vanderstraeten, et al. (2000). "CT imaging of trunk muscles in chronic low back pain patients and healthy control subjects." European Spine Journal 9(4): 266-72.