So as I and my clients have blasted through thousands of leg elevated weighted crunches over time I look at my midsection and wonder when will I get those deep cuts that we all so deeply admire? There is no other testiment to hard work in the nutrition arena and iron slinging game than a ripped midsection. Not to take anything away from a solid foundation with the legs or a back so wide and thick that walking around town is scary since airplanes are constantly asking for clearance to land on your runway and dare I not mention the mirror muscles that the real hardcore dweebs only focus on just to find a stacked bleach blond at the bar with more plastic and silicone than a playskool toy factory like the arms and chest. The real indication of good nutrition and hard work is the midsection and more specifically the abs and obliques. Why? Its simple and clearly obvious that the midsection especially in women is usually the last place the fat gets burned from. Its just how it is and the reason its harder for women is because along with that chromozone comes the genetic download to store fat here for childbirthing.

That being said let me explain why crunches may be costing you time and frustration in your routine.One of the coaches I study (he is about as elite as elite can get) brought up this point in a recent article which over the past 2 days I have studied and researched and in 2 days I have come to a solid conclusion of duh why didn't I think of that. Here is the skinny, Think about this logicaly and come to your own conclusion. A full situp like the ones our coaches in high school had us do with little or no concern about lumbar spine pressure and of course they had us pulling on our necks putting even more pressure on the smalles part of the spine at the cervicle region. Anyway when coach was standing on our feet and chit chatting with the senior volleyball captain who so conveinently was on the track jogging with the skimpy shorts at the time you where busting your ass doing situps. Ok the form here is horrible for the spine and does little to strengthen the core as a whole but we know that. The key here is the range of motion. You go from flat on your shoulder blades with flexion till your chest is to your knees. Now take the crunch and lift the knees closer to the body and situp. You just cut your range of motion by no less than one third to as much as two thirds. Does that sound like full range of motion and I won't even ask about time under tension. I do set after set after set of leg elevated crunches holding 45lb plates overhead and the only real fiber recruitment I get on ab day is from the recent purchase of an inversion board and the performance of inverted situps.

Ok so why is the crunch old hat? The abs like any other muscle need to be worked from a full stretch to a full contraction in order to gain strength through fiber recruitment. With strength comes definition. How do we do this then? Well reach into your pocket and see if you have roughly 30 dollars and get ready to laugh at the simplicity. Go buy an ab roller wheel. You have seen these before, they have the wheel and a bar with grips that go through the wheel. Be warned though if you have back issues you need to strengthen the stabilizers first so start doing 5 sets of 1 minute planks and side planks first. Then start with rollouts with a stability ball which can be bought with the remainder of your 30 bucks. If you don't have an inversion table then put your toes against a wall and sit on your stability ball and put your hands across your chest and do sit ups stretching the abs as you lay across the ball and try to get your head as close to the ground as possible. Then simply sit up keeping tension on the abs so you won't sit completely straight up. A V-crunch is good since the low back stays flat on the ground and you hold a medicine ball overhead but not touching the floor as you lay flat and the legs stay slightly off the ground too. Then raise the knees and situp all in one motion until you touch the medi ball to your toes then return to the start.

Next let's talk obliques a little since in most cases they are truely the forgotten muscles. The inner obliques fiber direction warrants twisting motion which also are the main muscles that actually pull the tummy in so learn to love Russian Twist with a medicine ball and the Palloff press. Remember the obliques don't just support twisting motion but also resist the motion as well and with the Palloff press you get that eccentric motion that is where we really gain strength anyway is in resisting the eccentric phase. The outer obliques are simple and fairly fast and straight forward. Weighted leans but do one side at a time so the non weighted side fights the eccentric pull as well and keep spine pressure in mind when loading up on weighted leans but go fairly heavy. There is a basic guideline for abs and obliques and I hope it helps you as much as I hope it helps me and my clients.