Dr. Andy Galpin

Most are gonna acknowledge the fact that sit-ups and that type of flexion activity

are going to activate, develop and engage the rectus abdominis.

Remember that's your six pack ab muscles in the front.

But then the low back specialists might look at this and go, man, I hate crunchies.

I never use them, they're the worst exercise ever because it causes spinal flexion or load and it causes pain.

Either it causes people to develop back pain or those who have a history of back pain, it might bring it back or aggravate it even further and so on and so forth.

and they're not wrong.

But then you might go to the bodybuilding coach who again says the opposite.

I love it because what we want in bodybuilding to look like a strong core, we're generally talking about the rectus abdominis and not transverse and not actually the obliques at all.

And then you're sitting in the middle going like, well, wait a minute, this world champion bodybuilder told me they're great.

And then this scientist, this excellent practitioner told me they're terrible.

Well, they're both correct.

It's a matter of what we're going after, why we're doing it and what risks we're willing to run.

They're not wrong.

Different outcome goals, different perspectives, different criteria.

So this is the world that you're living in and I empathize with it and that's why I wanted to do this episode.

So as we get into these different goals, look, feel, and perform, let's start walking through what exercises to choose, the order to do them, and the frequency, intensity, volume, rest intervals, and then how to progress these things over time.

And we'll just start by going through one by one.

So with that understood, how do our abdominal and core muscles actually work?

As I mentioned,