Tug of War.

My friend Christopher recently posted an excellent article on the concept of abdominal bracing.

For the uninitiated, bracing refers to tightening your abdominals in order to steady or stabilize your body. The best non-exercise example I can think of is:

Imagine that someone were to suddenly throw a punch at your midsection. What would you do? Hopefully, you’d tighten up your stomach in order to minimize the effect of the punch (or, using ninja-like reflexes, skillfully evade the punch and deliver payback).

A less painful but similar situation occurs when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake; before exhaling, you automatically tighten up your abs prior to blowing.

What do birthday cakes and body blows have to do with exercise? Plenty. As Christopher describes, volitional bracing of the abs is a necessary component of vigorous strength training. While it’s true that you’ll automatically perform bracing whenever you try and lift a heavy object, volitional control of bracing is beneficial and necessary for improved posture and stability.

Indeed, trying to lift a heavy weight without bracing (no matter how you lift it) is akin to playing tug of war by yourself – you can exert as much force as you want, but there’s not much work being done there.

Take a cue from Christopher and brace.