Every Sunday I FaceTime with my parents, and as they fill me in on their week of working out and the weather in Western PA, I ask if they’ve tried the new exercises I sent them using links to You Tube videos.

Dad: What's youtube?

Me: You can also find the link on my blog.

Dad: What's a blog?

Aside from encouraging my parents to do more core training, I also get this request from many clients looking to lose belly fat. And it's a fair assumption that doing more exercises that target that area, or feel like they target that area, is the solution. 

Core exercises aren't going to slim down the waistline though. That comes down to nutrition and reducing your stress. But core training is important for many other reasons, not the least of which is helping to protect your spine as well as improving your overall balance and stability. Yesterday a client mentioned to me that her goal for the summer is to get out of her kayak without help. 

The solution? More core training. 

But training the core isn't the same as training the abs. 

When many of us think of core training, we think of training the ab muscles (the transverse abdominus, the rectus abdominus, the internal obliques and external obliques) which are the muscles that make up that traditional six pack. While it's important and feels good to strengthen those muscles, it's also important to train your obliques (the muscles on your side) and your erector spinae, which is a group of muscles in your back. When you strengthen all of these muscles in a 360 approach, it contributes to better balance (catching yourself when you slip on the ice), better squats, and most importantly, when these muscles are stronger your body doesn't have to rely solely on your bones for support. 

Thanks to the research of Dr. Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, we now understand that too many crunches and sit ups, or too much flexion of the spine, can cause damage to the spine. Rather than doing the traditional sit ups, crunches and side bends ("you can do side bends and sit ups, but please don't lose that butt..") - training the muscles that protect the spine for endurance is what could really make a difference in overall back and spine health.

Do this test right now. Get down on the floor, and using your forearms instead of your hands, press yourself into a front plank position. Like so:

Can you hold that position above for at least 30 seconds? If so, that's great. Continue working on it. If not, then that's a good sign to include more front planks into your workout routine. For more information on how to perform the front plank, check out the video below which I recorded when my arm was supposed to still be in a sling, so don't mind the fact that it's just sort of hanging there. 

Equally important to the front plank, is the side plank or side bridge.

The back muscles used in the side plank, the erector spinae, multifidus and longissiums thoracic are used to stabilize your spine, which in turn prevent it from bending to the side. To perform a side plank, make sure your elbow is properly stacked directly underneath your shoulder (not up by your head) and using your knees, press your hips up from the floor. Squeeze your butt cheeks and work on maintaining a straight spine. 

It helps to wear your Captain America Shirt. 

If this position above doesn't feel challenging enough perform the same movement, but raise both your knees and your hips off of the floor as well.

It also helps to wear your Captain America socks. 

An additional modification if the short side plank (from your knees) is too easy, but the full side plank is a little too challenging, is to use your top arm for support:

Do your planks and side planks. 

Do them!

In the case of both exercises, perform them for breaths as opposed to time, which I explain more in the plank video above.

And enjoy your St. Patty's Day weekend. 

I don't actually think Captain American gets jealous, as that probably goes against his general humility. But we are less than a week out from the new Captain American movie.

My household is split between Captain America and Iron Man....

Six days people. Can you even stand it?

I was more of a Batman fan growing up, but then they changed Batmans 50 times and Chris Evans took over the Captain America role. Ok, mostly Chris Evans took over the role and I could stare at his blue eyes all day long. 

Let's just hope that it's better than Batman vs. Superman which earned negative stars. 

One thing that never gets negative stars is a good core exercise that makes it hard to wash you hair in the morning. (How's that for a transition Doc?*)

No I don't want it to be painful to reach your hands over your head and do the wave at your next minor league baseball game. But getting your core work in is important, as I mentioned here and here. And these two exercises are a good way to make brushing your teeth agony.

And strengthen the core to protect the spine and start developing those abs. 

Bodysaws with Valslides

Valsides are a brand of sliders that you may or may not find at your gym. My last gym didn't have them and I left paper plates in my gym bag which worked just fine.

Who I stole this from: Pretty much everywhere, again, but this was in one of my recent programs from Tony Bonvechio, which reminded me how much I hated it. Thanks Tony!

To perform the exercise: Set up in the low plank position (on your elbows not your hands) and place the sliders under your feet. Shift your weight back and forth in a sawing motion using only your arms to move back and forth on the sliders. You'll notice in the video below that I'm not exactly moving very far. 

Key cue: Avoid using your hips to move the sliders, which is an easy habit to fall into. Concentrate on staying in the plank position and using your forearms to initiate the movement.

Excellent anterior core exercise. If your gym doesn't have Valslides or sliders you can also use paper plates or card stock, or substitute in a TRX or stability ball.

If you don't have a pair of sliders or paper plates handy, you can also use a swiss ball or stability ball to perform the same movement. 

Anterior core exercise is just a fancy way of saying working on your abs. 

And if you'd like to up the ante a little and add some more variety, you can throw this variation in that I stole from Ben Bruno. Grab a pair of dumbbells and the sliders. Perform a renegade row on each side, then pull yourself forward with the dumbbells. Rinse and repeat. You can do this for distance or repetitions. 

I saw this exercise on Ben Bruno's Instagram feed and loved it. If you don't have sliders at your gym, paper plates will do.

And now we're even closer to the premiere of the new Captain Merica movie. 

Win.

*Doc is Dr. Marsters, my favorite college writing professor and mentor. 

I write this blog for many reasons. To educate, to inform, and to answer important questions, like whether or not people over 35 should wear skinny jeans. (Short answer is uh...no). And whether or not the ab wheel is really satan's mistress or just something that's best used for rolling out skinny pieces of pie dough. 

I bought an ab wheel a few years ago while strolling through a Dick’s Sporting Goods. It was inexpensive, came with a complete instruction manual, and I would clearly have a six-pack if I did this while binging the latest season of Gilmore Girls on Netflix.  

Win.

Well done ab wheel packaging people. Well done.

These devices call to you from the shelves, not unlike a three-year old begging for his mother's attention. 

"Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mommy! Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom."

And I caved. The device was simple. Easy to understand. Was located right next to the shake weight. And could produce an effect with just minutes a day.

Minutes a day people. 

Bender ball anyone? (Yes, I bought one of these once. True story). 

I can do this while listening to the latest season of Serial from NPR, you think. You pick it up and walk it to the cash register. Yes. I can use this device for 20 minutes before heading out to happy hour. I will do this ten times a day, easy, if not more. And I will do this for the three months leading up to my high school reunion and I will look fabulous. 

Then you get home and try it. And it looks something like this..

The above video is actually a best case scenario, because at least a face plant into a nasty mat doesn't crank your lower back into some serious lumbar extension (i.e. hanging off your spine like a monkey from a tree branch, as seen a little bit in the photo below).   

The reality is that an ab wheel, despite its size and simplicity, is a very advanced tool. It's not actually satan's mistress, in answer to the original question.But the average Jill walking in off the street with minimal strength and core stability isn't going to have much success with this drill. 

Sagging hips are just cranking on your lumbar spine. Not ideal. 

The concept is an important one in building core strength though, so I'm not suggesting you demand your 12 bucks back from the local sporting goods store. Not just yet. You could, however, exchange your ab wheel for a stability ball if you don't already have one, and use this regression:

Lead with the hips

Coaching cue: Lead with the hips in this drill, not with the arms and upper body. The goal is to keep your upper body and spine completely straight throughout the entire movement. Don't worry about how far you're pushing out when you begin. Go as far as you can without breaking form. 

Try it out and let me know what you think. Or not. I mean that's cool. Either way.