Latest News on three-year study targeting low back pain.
Reach Your Peak in Health Fitness
Sit-ups vs. core strengthening?
Over the years, several studies have shown strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities…
Almost everyone has experienced some low back pain, and according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke…
Did you know low back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in the United States?
Back in 2006, a joint team of physical therapists at the Army Medical Department Center and School on Fort Sam Houston, Texas…
In partnership with the University of Florida began a study aimed at the prevention of low back pain, determining whether a core-strengthening exercise program during training might decrease low back injuries?
Since the core-strengthening exercise program did not include traditional sit-ups, they wanted to determine any impact of the core-strengthening program on Army Physical Fitness Test scores.
The study looked at 3,916 Soldiers in Advanced Individual Training…
Half performing a traditional exercise program and the other half performing core-stabilization exercises.
Abdominal sit-ups vs. core-stabilization exercises
Over the years, several studies show that strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities.
The deeper the muscle is located, the greater the ability it will have for creating and maintaining a healthy spine.
And by large, muscular skeletal health.
Several abdominal muscles affect the trunk’s posture and ability to function properly:
* Rectus abdominis (aka the six-pack muscle)
* Transversus Abdominus
* Internal/External Oblique,
* Multifidus muscles.
The deeper stomach muscles (i.e., Transversus Abdominus, Multifidus, and Internal/External oblique muscles), also known as the “core” muscles…
These muscles are foundation for posture, balance and coordinated movement.
Training these muscles will correct postural imbalances, allowing you to body build, perform at your chosen sport or activity better without injury.
Abdominal sit-ups:
Several studies have indicated performing just sit-ups is ineffective because this exercise only strengthens the abdominal muscles closer to skin ( rectus abdominis).
Therefore, they do not improve core-muscle strength!
In addition, performing traditional sit-ups results in increased loading in the low back that may result in an increased risk of injury and low back pain.
“Sit-ups just train one component of the core, which is the least important component”.
Core exercises:
Exercising the key core muscles is important because they surround the body’s center of gravity and can improve posture, balance and stability.
“There are many muscles that surround the trunk so when you just do sit-ups or ab crunches; they tend to only work Rectus abdominis muscles.
Having strong deep abdominal muscles is vital for supporting the lower back and preventing lower back pain.
One of the concerns researchers had at the start of the study was integrating core-stabilizing exercises.
However, the results of the study have shown that scores actually slightly increased for soldiers who completed the core-stabilization exercises.
To help translate this data, in a company of 400 Soldiers, approximately 34 Soldiers fail the sit-up event of the APFT.
The results of this early study demonstrated that training and strengthening of core muscles is not necessarily to change the makeup of the APFT and eliminate the sit-up component.
What if core-stabilization exercise from their final study results is shown to decrease the incidence of back pain, the next logical step would be to ask ourselves whether they’re using the best low back pain testing standards?
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