Dr. Andy Galpin

From an investigation perspective, I don't want to go much further.

That's about all we have.

And again, if you have a specific need or desire, you can look up other tests to perform.

I would actually rather move directly past interpretation and go right into intervention and start talking about which exercises we select, the order we do them in, the frequency, the intensity, the volume, the rest intervals, and then how to successfully progress these exercises.

Because as I've mentioned several times now, the progression strategy

in concept, in theory, should be the same as progression for any other muscle, but we do have practical and realistic considerations to make that tell us we maybe should have a different style of progression.

All right, you've collected these data, you've run some tests.

Now, how do we properly interpret these?

Oh, I hesitate to do this part because I want to make sure all of you continue to train your abs regardless of how you score.

But that said, let's take some context in the results.

I'm going to run the gamut from scientific information and evidence to what I actually personally like, and I'll distinguish when I'm doing the former versus the latter.

First off is that classic SARMA test.

Generally, if you're at level three or lower, this is what I would personally call highly problematic.

You're probably experiencing back pain or really close to it.

So I would spend a lot of time as a primary focus if you're at that.

If you're at a four or a five,

I would personally like to see five always.

And I guess maybe to clarify, these are typically not scored in terms of force output or duration of time.

These are simply, can you execute the exercise without that low back moving off of the platform?

So it's pass fail kind of stuff.