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January Featured Article

Aquatic AB-Solution
By: Greg Peterson

The first thing we need to think of when training the four abdominal muscles is to understand the mechanics of how these muscles work. The four muscles we are going to look at are the Rectus Abdominus, External Oblique, Internal Oblique and Transverse Abdominus.

The first muscle is the Rectus Abdominus. This muscle runs from the lower portion of the rib cage and attaches to the pelvis. The Rectus Abdominus is responsible for flexion of the spinal column and compression of the abdominal cavity. We are going to focus on flexion of the spine with the resistance placed on the top portion (doing an “abdominal crunch” with movement taking the sternum towards the belly button) and flexion of the spine with the resistance placed on the lower portion (doing a “pelvic tilt”). 

The first exercise is a crunch from the supine position (on your back) using the hand bars. From the supine position, you will bend your legs so your shins are parallel to the surface of the water. You want about a 110° bend in your knees and at your hips (formed with your trunk and thighs) with the top of your shoulders out of the water and the hand bars out to your side (make sure the hands are below your shoulders in relation to your body). From this position, you want to do your pelvic tilt and hold it throughout the movement; slowly curl up trying to get the shoulder blades out of the water without moving the legs, arms or hips. Then, slowly return back to the starting position. A more advanced modification would be to hold the same position with the heels about an inch out of the water.

The next exercise will be from the standing position. You want to be in water about mid chest deep. Place your feet about shoulders width apart and squat down so your shoulders are in the water. Now cross the hand bars over one another so they form an “X”. Hold the bars out in front of you with your hips directly under your shoulders. From here, you want to slowly “crunch” down and pelvic tilt at the same time trying to touch the lower ribs to the upper part of the pelvis and then slowly return back to the starting position. During the movement, you do not want the angle formed from your arms and body to change. You should only have about 20°-30° of movement with the arms. The arms are acting as the resistance lever for the movement.

The same two exercises will work the Transverse Abdominus as well. It is the “pelvic tilt” that works the Transverse Abdominus.

The next muscle we will look at is the External Oblique. This muscle runs from the side of the rib cage to the front of the pelvis. The External Oblique is responsible for forward trunk rotation.

Our first exercise for the External Oblique will start from the same supine position as above. From this position, take your knees over to one side so that the top leg is parallel to the top of the water and on top of the water. Your shoulders should still be facing in the same direction. Do the same “crunch” that you did with the first exercise bringing the shoulder blades out of the water. Remember, you do not want the hips, arms or legs to move. An advanced move would be to lift the heels out of the water while executing the “crunch” without changing the angle at the knee.

The next exercise will be performed from the standing position. Once again, you want to be in water about mid chest deep and squat down so your shoulders are in the water. For this exercise, you want some type of drag equipment such as gloves, paddles, Hydro-Bells, etc. You want to hold the drag equipment out to your side with your elbows bent. The closer the hands are to your side, the less resistance you will have and the easier the movement will be. You want to make sure that the drag equipment is completely under water and you do not lock the elbows. Now, you will rotate at the hips without moving the arms out of the frontal plane. You want to be sure that you have equal rotation in both directions.

This exercise will also work the Internal Oblique, which runs from the side of the pelvis to the front of the lower ribs. The Internal Oblique, allows for trunk rotation in a backwards direction.

Remember, that in order for the exercises to be of maximal benefit, you need to apply maximal force with each contraction to the targeted muscles for each movement of every exercise. Perform exercises for one set to the point of failure while never compromising form.

(This article first appeared on the AEA Website in May 2003).