Back Pain During Ab Workout

[PANTS]

I've been training this guy for about a year. He's making great progress.
Problem: even with absoulte perfect form he always gets a real tightness and pain in his lumbar region. Crunches, Decline Situps,
any exercise. After the 15th rep it usually kicks in and he has to stop.
I've tried prescribing more lower back exercises to correct any imbalance between back and abs but still no luck.
Any ideas on causes for this ?

 

[jeremys]

has he had a previous back injury?

now that i'm starting back light after a back injury, my back often gets tight and there's sometimes a little pain

 

[the People's Champ]

I would suggest hanging leg/knee raises, and some reverse hypers, or maybe crunches on a swiss ball. I had back pain from doing crunches and decline situps, but after trying these exercises, my back is fine.

 

[PANTS]

Cool, I'll give those a go.
Thanks
P

 

[Zyglamail]

The cause is likely the type of ab exercises he is doing dont work the abs as much as they do hip flexors. You need to have him isolate the abs because as it sits now it sounds as if his hip flexors are overpowering his abs and putting extra strain on his low back. You have to take the legs out of the picture.

Here is an example of what I mean get on the floor, knees bent in a crunch position. Feet flat on the floor. Now have someone hold your feet and do a crunch....pretty simple for most people as it should be, your abs and hip flexors work in conjunction to pull your body up.

Now, have your partner stay in front of your feet like before but instead of holding feet down reach behind the heels and hold firm. The person doing the modified crunch should pull their heels towards their glutes while the person holding their heels resist. All the while keep feet flat on floor. Now the person doing the crunch should concentrate on their spine pressing into the floor and slowly roll into a cruched position, sitting completely upright isnt necessary, bout half way is good. What this will do is incorporate recipricol inhibition into the exercise and prevent the hip flexors from pulling against the spine and therebu it isolates the abs.

Just my 2cc's, there are many other exercises that will do nearly the same.

 

[TheProject]

I had this problem for months when I began training. My lower back was extremely weak, and I have a slight curvature of the spine. Everything I did hit my lower back.

I did lower back work twice a week to bring my back strength up, primarily hyperextensions.

I didn't see real improvement in my back strength until I started doing good mornings, both free standing and chain suspended.

My suggestion: hit the core hard: abs, obliques, and lower back. Have him do GM's with the safety squat bar, higher reps, with low weight, and build up some endurance.

I know for me, it took about 6 months to get to where everything didn't bother my back.

 

[PANTS]

Thanks bros, good info here.
Zyglamail any other ab exercises that incorporate recipricol inhibition into the exercise?

 

[Zyglamail]

Thanks bros, good info here.
Zyglamail any other ab exercises that incorporate recipricol inhibition into the exercise?

Not really that incorporate recipricol inhibition. In order to use that, you need to work the opposing muscle group. However, there are many decent exercises that can isolate abs or work the abs agains the hip flexors so they grow together and one doesnt overpower the other.

Depending on just how weak someones abs are can be dificult to tell if they have powerfull hip flexors. The key to most exercises is that the spine stay pressed firmly against the floor. For example, look at the leg raise, when most people do it their spine will be arched and the hip flexors will be doing the majority of the lifting. To counter this, lay on your back, concentrate on pushing spine into the floor, pull knees up to chest and straighten legs so your heels are pointed toward the ceiling. Now, slowly lower your legs, but they key is the spine must remain firmly on the floor. As you lower in most people you will notice as they get toward the floor the spine will pull away from the floor. That is the point when the abs no longer have the strength and the hip flexors kick in and are able to pull the spine off the floor. Once spine comes off the floor pull knees into chest and that is one rep. You only want to lower your legs to the point where you cant keep spine on the floor, going past that point no longer works the abs. Repeat this 3-5 times for 3-5 sets. Once you can do 5 sets of 5 while lowering feet all the way to the floor and keeping spine firmly agains the floor you will have one strong set of abs. At this poubt add ankle weights, boots or what ever to increase tension.

Another exercise involves the old ab wheels, however once again spine position is critical to concentrating on the abs. Kneel down with hands on ab wheel, tuck your butt so spine is rounded, now slowly move wheel away from you. As you do so they key is tomaintain a rounded spine. Once the spine is pulled toward the ground your no longer working abs but hip flexors. The goal is that the hip flexors cant overpower the abs, this will lead to more stability.

You can do similar exercise without the wheel and directly pit the hip flexors against the abs to make them both grow together or even out any imbalances. Lay on your stomach stretch arms up overhead, balls of feet on the ground. Weight on your elbows, contract your abs and lift your body off the floor just a couple inches. Hold position for 3-5 seconds then lower and rest 3-5 seconds and repeat for 3-5 reps. Rest 3-5 minutes and do 3-5 sets total. If you cant hold yourself up for 3-5 seconds bring elbows back closer to body. If you can hold it for more than 5 seconds move elbows farther away from your body.

I saw a guy (pavel) lay flat out on the floor, ab wheel in hand, body and arms fully extended. He contracted and snapped up so his hands and feet came together, quite impressive.

 

[bignate73]

Thanks bros, good info here.
Zyglamail any other ab exercises that incorporate recipricol inhibition into the exercise?

for recip. inhibition: stability ball crunches with glute activation. ie hips thrust upwards either the whole time or at each crunch. you need to avoid bent knee position crunches for a while.

have you stretched/had him stretch his hip flexors?

 

[Thaibox]

I saw a guy (pavel) lay flat out on the floor, ab wheel in hand, body and arms fully extended. He contracted and snapped up so his hands and feet came together, quite impressive.

Damn...

One of the only useful things I learned from physical therapy was using the tri pushdown cable. Stand like you're going to do pushdowns, press it down and hold the extension, locking your elbows. make a circle with it away from your body. Make little circles out to the side, back and forth, etc. If you've ever gotten your abs sore the day after heavy pressdowns, this is simply isolating the 'ab' part of it. It sounds pretty lame, but it works very well.