Hi Gang,
If you have ever had back pain, you know that it is a huge drag. Not only are you missing time from work or suffering through your day at work, but you are also not doing your workouts when your back is killing you. A few weeks ago I gave you a crunchless abs routine and I just wanted to follow up with an article that originally appeared in McLean’s magazine. Check it out below:
Dr. Stuart McGill – The Man Who Wants to Kill Crunches
Cheers,
Maria
I had an appointment last week with a low back pain specialist in Vancouver . He is very good and gave me some useful advice BUT one of his recommended exercise sheets included some exercises that looked like crunches to me and so I brought up the recent research and he said he felt it was wrong. I’m still not going to do them until I consult with a sports physio, but crunches seem to be ingrained in the rehabilitation community.
Interesting story Brian – I think some trainers and practitioners get into the mid-set of “well, I have always done it like this”. I like to think if there is some research to suggest that one technique has risks and if I can come up with a way to train the same muscles with less risk, then let’s go with that. Logically if you think of it, crunches do not use our ‘core’ muscles in anyway that respembles functional movement (except for some sports like MMA, gymnastics, etc). Look for maximum reward with minimum risk and that is where I will put my efforts every time.
Thanks so much for the comment Brian!
Cheers,
Maria