Lively Abs With Dead Bugs
Did you ever wonder why planks have become en vogue in the last 10 years? About 12 to 15 years ago a study came out showing repetitive crunches actually destroyed the spine. Of course when one study comes out everybody runs with the results and goes to extreme opposite route and starts a new exercise trend. This trend of anti-movement ab exercises I do not mind. I do think there still is room in the program for crunches. (click here for abdominal crunch video)
Majority of ab function throughout the day is not necessarily flexion or extension, but having to absorb forces created through our limb movement in order to keep the spine stable. Other fitness experts saw the benefit in this type of ab training as well, hence everybody’s doing crazy long abdominal planks. My beef with planks is not necessarily the exercise itself, it is just how they’re performed. Usually, I’ll see people holding a plank position via their arched back or holding a plank position with their neck and shoulders rather than their abdominal engagement. The time frame some hold it for is a little ridiculous. Holding an abdominal contraction for anything over 15 seconds in my view is pointless. In every day life when you need maximum abdominal pressure and engagement it is usually when you’re performing a very heavy lift which is only going to last one or at most three seconds. Holding a plank over 15 seconds depending on the client can be dangerous. Whether it’s raising blood pressure or just losing form and getting hurt.
The plank is the base and closely related to all anti-movement ab exercises. That is why I chose to highlight it. What I wanted to talk about is another great anti-movement abdominal exercise which is safe and when done right it’s one of the most effective ab exercises you can do. That is the dead bug. The dead bug has many different progressions and regressions. The video link in this blog is a more advanced version with bands. However, I’d suggest to you yourself to perform the dead bug without any extra resistance at first and just your own body weight. What is the dead bug? You simply lay on your back with your arms straight up towards the ceiling bend your legs at 90° and then pick your feet up off the ground. This is the key to the whole exercise; you must draw your lower back into the floor. If you just arch your lower back and the low back is not not driven into the floor you’ll have no abdominal engagement. The spinal erectors therefore will be doing the work that abs should be doing in this exercise. It is of utmost importance that you have minimal arching your lower back to actually get the benefit of this exercise. After you feel that engagement you simply extend opposite limbs. Right arm and left foot extend out and then slowly bring them back in. Repeat with the left arm and right foot and keep going until you’ve done a sufficient amount of reps to where you feel those abs working. Whenever starting out an exercise like the dead bug don’t go to failure. By the time you fail your form will have given out and you’ll be using the lower back the last five reps. Quality reps are more important than the quantity of reps. Once you can do 20 reps with no problem that’s when you can start to add some resistance like in the video demonstration. You can use weighted apparatuses to your hands and or ankle weights to your feet. Chances are it’s going to be a while until you need to do this. I would just add more reps for beginners.
Here you go guys, a safe and very effective anti-movement ab exercise.
To Your Health,
Mark Radio