Dr. Andy Galpin

The problem is, as we mentioned, it's really hard to load up your rectus abdominis.

Like it is easy to load up your quads on a leg press machine.

I can't put 400 pounds on a side bend.

It doesn't work, right?

I can't hold even maybe 50 or 60 pounds in front of me and do a Russian twist.

Like it's just very difficult for most people to do.

So again, principles are the same, but we have to think about the loading strategies a little bit differently, but we need to get to the loading strategies.

In fact, I'll be so bold as to say, most people who do not see progress, whether that be aesthetics or in strength, in their ab or core muscles, it's because they're forgetting to add load or forgetting to progress with intensity.

The general strategy we see here is always either do it longer, add more seconds, add more minutes to my hold, or do more repetitions.

Those are fine.

Those do represent progression, but there's an entire other pathway here.

And it turns out your core muscles and abs respond better to that strategy than only using more time, duration, and fatigue management.

And so when we think about these dynamic movements and we compare these to our sit-ups,

If I know that the load matters a ton, it's far safer and easier for me to put a several hundred pounds on a sled and push it than it is for me to put several hundred pounds on and try to do that sit up.

And so again, make sure you're tracking with me here.

If I know I have to get the rectus abdominis and transverse abdominis and internal and external obliques to contract at its highest force capacity, and I can do that,

by putting hundreds and hundreds of pounds onto a barbell and doing a squat with it or a deadlift, I can actually get that muscle to activate more, to turn on and produce more force than I can with a side bend because of the limitations in loading the side bend.

Does that distinction make sense?

That's why those big movements are critical to maximizing ab and core development.

It's not the fact that they're isolating your core any more or less, it's that they are a safer way to maximize their force contraction ability.