This Article Is the Third Installment of a Four-Part Series On
STABILITY AND WEIGHTLIFTING: TRAINING STABILITY—PART 3 RICHARD ULM, DC, CSCS his article is the third installment of a four-part series on Co-contraction of the abdominal musculature involves not only stabilization in weight training. The first article covered the abdomen, but also the pelvic floor, spinal extensors, and the Tproper spinal (or trunk) stabilization strategy and the thoracic diaphragm. These muscles all work together to control second discussed a common compensatory trunk stabilization the strength of the co-contraction and magnitude of IAP, the strategy called the Extension/Compression Stabilizing Strategy sum of which results in increased stabilization of the trunk and (ECSS) and introduced the concept of “functional capacity.” The spine (2,5,7,12,13,14,16,19). When the diaphragm concentrically ECSS is a stabilizing strategy pervasive in the athletic population, contracts, its central tendon is pulled downward towards the particularly in training sports, such as powerlifting and Olympic pelvis (10,19). This motion compresses the abdominal contents, weightlifting. Both of these sports utilize a profound amount of pushing them downward and outward into the abdominal bilateral hip-hinging exercises that hyper-activates the posterior musculature. Reacting to this outward-pushing force, the chain (e.g., back squat, deadlift, clean, good mornings, and abdominal wall and pelvic floor eccentrically activate resulting in Romanian deadlifts [RDLs]). This article will cover how to train the aforementioned co-contraction, thereby increasing stability trunk stability and how to decrease the dominance of the ECSS of the trunk (2,5,7,12,13,14,16,19). If the trunk stability requirements often perpetuated during training.
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