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I HAD a client who threw out his back maybe two or three times a year. He always did it in the simplest way–sleeping a little awkwardly or getting out of a chair too quickly. One time, he pulled it out reaching into the back seat of his car to get something his young daughter had dropped. The pain once stabbed him so badly that he collapsed to the ground while he was standing at a urinal. His problem wasn’t that he had a bad back; it was that he had weak abs. If he had trained them regularly, he could’ve kept himself from being one of the millions of men who suffer from back pain every year.
Since most back pain is related to weak muscles in your trunk, maintaining a strong midsection can help resolve many back issues. The muscles that crisscross your midsection don’t function in isolation. They weave through your torso like a spider web, even attaching to your spine. When your abdominal muscles are weak, the muscles in your butt (your glutes) and along the backs of your legs (your hamstrings) have to compensate for the work your abs should be doing. The effect, it destabilizes the spine and eventually leads to back pain and strain or even more serious back problems.
As you age, it’s common to experience some joint pain, most likely in your knees, but maybe around your feet and ankles, too. But the source of that pain might not be weak joints; it might be weak abs especially if you’re any kind of athlete. When you’re playing sports, your abdominal muscles help stabilize your body during start-and-stop movements, like changing direction on the football field or basketball court.
If you have weak abdominal muscles, your joints absorb all the force from those movements. It’s kind of like trampoline physics. Jump in the center, and the mat will absorb your weight and bounce you back in the air. Jump toward the side of the trampoline, where the mat meets the frame, and you’ll bust the springs. Your body is sort of like a trampoline, with your abs as the center of the mat and your joints as the supports that hold the mat to the frame. If your abs are strong enough to absorb some shock, you’ll function well. If they’re not, the force puts far more pressure on your joints than they were built to withstand.
Studies shows that people with the largest waist sizes have the most risk of life-threatening disease. The evidence couldn’t be more convincing. According to the National Institutes of Health, a waistline larger than 40 inches for men signals significant risk of heart disease and diabetes. The Canadian Heart Health Surveys, published in 2001, looked at 9,913 people ages 18 to 74 and concluded that for maximum health, a guy needs to keep his waist size at no more than 35 inches (a little less for younger guys, a little more for older ones).
When your waist grows larger than 35 inches, you’re at higher risk of developing two or more risk factors for heart disease. Men whose waists measured more than 36.8 inches had a significantly elevated risk for myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in which an area of the heart muscles dies or is permanently damaged by a lack of blood flow. Men with the biggest bellies were at 60 percent higher risk. The same sad truth holds for women, too. A woman with a flabby midsection is at increased risk for the same health problems.
Studies shows that by developing a strong abdominal section, you’ll reduce body fat and significantly cut the risk factors associated with many diseases, not just heart disease but also cancer and diabetes.
Increase sports performance
If you play golf, basketball, or any sport that requires movement, your essential muscle group isn’t your chest, biceps, or legs. It’s your core–the muscles in your torso and hips. Developing core strength gives you power. It fortifies the muscles around your whole midsection and trains them to provide the right amount of support when you need it. So if you’re weak off the tee, strong abs will improve your distance. But if you also play stop-and-start sports like tennis or basketball, abs can improve your game tremendously. Though speed is the buzzword, athletic success isn’t really about speed. It’s really about accelerating and decelerating. How fast can you go from a stopped position at point A to stopping at point B? Your legs don’t control that; your abs do. When researchers studied what muscles were the first to engage in these types of sports movements, they found that the abs fired first. The stronger they are, the faster you’ll get to the ball.
