Everything You Knew About Good Abs May Be Wrong

IT used to be that the only time someone told you to suck in your gut was when the family had lined up for a photo at the Grand Canyon.

Today, the advice to draw your navel to your spine is ubiquitous and has little to do with vanity. Drawing in (as the move is called) is supposed to engage a deep abdominal muscle called the transverse abdominus. (The technique involves inwardly pulling in, distinguishing it from the more general advice to contract the abdominals.)

Fire the transverse abdominus, the thinking goes, and the torso temporarily acts like a muscular corset, protecting the lower back. Practice firing that muscle enough, and over time not only will you get a strong midsection, but the transverse abdominus will eventually fire on its own.

Physical therapists instruct back-pain patients to draw in during sessions and as all-purpose advice before lifting groceries. Personal trainers instruct clients to perform the move during mat exercises and on stability balls; some even say you should be drawn in while running or cycling. And Pilates relies on some form of drawing in, although it also addresses a whole range of muscles related to core strength.

But new questions are being raised about whether drawing in is an appropriate technique for all kinds of exercisers. Critics, including personal trainers and specialists in the spine and biomechanics, are now saying that drawing in may not make sense while, say, lifting weights or performing a crunch or running a race. In fact, some say, drawing in may even be counterproductive.

?f you hollow in, you bring the muscles closer to the spine, and you reduce the stability of the spine,?said Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics in the department of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Try rising from a chair with a hollowed out stomach; not only are you ?eak,?he said, but ?t? very difficult.?

Dr. McGill, who has treated patients with back disorders for 25 years, has measured spinal loading forces and their effects on spinal stability with computer models and in test subjects wired to computers.

His findings dispute not only the validity of drawing in, but also the very notion that the transverse abdominus plays a pivotal role in stability. All abdominal and back muscles are important, not just this one, Dr. McGill said.

Some trainers who once thought that drawing in was the key to protecting their lower back and building a strong midsection are now having second thoughts. Vern Gambetta, the author of ?thletic Development: The Art & Science of Functional Sports Conditioning,?now thinks the move is difficult to teach and too unnatural for athletes to maintain while being at their competitive best.

?n most sporting activities, things happen too fast to consciously think about contracting a specific muscle,?Mr. Gambetta said.

He and others have also seen that no matter how many times people hollow out their stomachs, firing the transverse abdominus rarely becomes second nature.

? don? know of a study that shows that drawing in becomes a subconscious reflex,?said Shirley Sahrmann, a professor of physical therapy at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Some say the problem is the way people are taught to fire their transverse abdominus. Most of the time, exercisers are lying prone when they are told to consciously fire the muscle. Less often they are taught to perform an exercise that engages the transverse abdominus.

? would rather facilitate the motion that turns the muscle on all by itself,?said Gary Gray, a physical therapist in Michigan who has been trying to re-educate other therapists to abandon the drawing-in technique. ?otion is the thing that turns on muscles, not the mind.?

Dr. McGill said there is a better way than drawing in to protect the spine and build the core. For those about to lift something heavy or, say, leap for a rebound, he recommends bracing all the abdominal muscles ?something he said the body does more naturally during exertion.

?racing is stiffening the abdominal wall,?he said, explaining the difference. It? a neutral position. ?t? not sucking in and it? not pushing your belly out,?he said.

The easiest way to teach it: ?retend you are going to get whacked in the belly,?he said. The body? natural response is bracing.

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