Fiber Made Simple

by John Meadows, CSCS – 8/11/2011

Let's talk fiber. Do we really need as much as doctors claim? If so, how much? Can we get too much? Will it prevent cancer? Are grass-fed steak and whole eggs good sources of fiber? How the heck do I get rid of this constipation?
This is just a sampling of the many questions I get regarding dietary fiber.
What is Dietary Fiber?
Fiber is a complex carbohydrate made up of non-starch polysaccharides, resistant starches, and/or cellulose. In simple terms, when you hear fiber, think plants, namely veggies, fruits, and whole grains. Just as we have cells that give our body structure, so do plants. (Don't eat humans, though. They don't provide fiber.) These plant cells can hold nutrients, water, and other things. There are essentially two kinds of fiber. Each is unique, and possesses specific beneficial qualities.

Soluble Fiber

This type is very resistant to breakdown by the digestive enzymes in your mouth, stomach, and small intestine. Gums, pectins, and inulin are in this category.
Gums stabilize food, giving it more of a shelf life. They also add texture to food. Probably most importantly, they slow down the absorption of glucose.
Pectins are a little different in structure than gums. They're more acidic, aiding in the absorption of certain minerals like zinc. Similar to gums, they also lower blood sugar levels. Probably the most well known source of pectin is apples. They're the source for many commercial pectin formulations.
Inulin is a FOS, or fructooligosaccharide. If you read my article on digestion you'd know that inulin is a pre-biotic that feeds the good bacteria in your stomach. When I noticed this was in Metabolic Drive®Muscle Growth, I did cartwheels (figuratively, of course). When you see foods containing FOS in the chart below, take note.
You'll generally find soluble fiber in fruits, beans, barley, oats, and some other sources. It does get digested – sort of – but not until it hits the large intestine, where good bacteria ferment it, producing butyric acid (found in butter) and acetic acid (found in vinegar). This helps the digestive system maintain its acidity.
Some soluble fibers provide a bit of energy, about two calories per gram; likely not enough to get you through a particularly harsh drop-set on the leg press. Others such as gums are non-caloric.
So what are the key benefits to soluble fiber? There are three that warrant attention.

Three Key Benefits of Soluble Fiber

Stabilizes blood sugar. Soluble fiber slows down transit time (the time it takes for food to enter and leave the body) and encourages a more gradual breakdown of food. Specifically, it slows down the emptying of the stomach and the digestion of starches (and subsequent entry of glucose into the blood stream). Since glucose absorption will be slower, you can avoid the blood sugar ups and downs.
I've even heard of people mixing guar gum with water before meals to accomplish this. If you're a diabetic, you should consider this before you opt to skip the veggies. Eating your veggies could mean you'll need less insulin.
Lower LDL levels. When short chain fatty acids are made as a result of the fermentation of soluble fiber, it appears to result in a decrease in LDL levels. Good news for those concerned about cardiovascular disease.
Increased defense against cancer. Fiber can bind with cancer-producing compounds and remove them from the body, rather than letting them hang around to wreak havoc. Also, as fiber is fermented into short chain fats like acetic acid in your intestine, it helps the colon maintain its pathogen-killing acidity.

Insoluble Fiber

This type of fiber doesn't get digested anywhere. It's essentially lignin, cellulose, or hemicellulose, and you'll typically find it in wheat or veggies. Its job is to simply carry food and water through the digestive system.
Unlike soluble fiber, insoluble fiber doesn't dissolve in water. This means that it swells up like a sponge, and adds bulk to the stool. This makes your feces move faster through your intestines (called intestinal hurry). There are several key benefits to insoluble fiber.

Three Key Benefits of Insoluble Fiber

Less constipation. Since insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool, it aids in elimination, resulting in less constipation. One of the most common complaints I hear from dieters is that they're constipated. If you've ever competed in bodybuilding, you know what I mean. It happens to almost everyone, and can be very problematic. I go so far as to consider it a sort of "silent killer," like high blood pressure. There are many studies that demonstrate adding raw bran decreases intestinal transit time. Constipation and the non-evacuation of waste tie directly into the next point.
Toxic waste dump clean up. When your colon doesn't completely evacuate, or when bad bacteria begin to dominate the good bacteria, putrefaction occurs. This means that toxic substances can get reabsorbed back into the blood and other tissues. By binding with toxins and hormones, insoluble fiber is very good at keeping you "cleaned out." The payoff is that without so much of these toxins and hormones sitting around in your gut, you'll be better protected against bowel diseases, cancers, and other maladies.
Note: You may have heard of the "fiber hypothesis." It means that a low intake of fiber promotes certain diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity, colon disease, and 30-40 other diseases, while a high fiber intake protects you against them. If you're a research junkie, look up the work of Drs. Denis Burkitt and Hugh Trowell. Their work in Africa is what formed this hypothesis.

How much do we need and where do find it?

First, you shouldn't rely on fiber supplements. I believe it's best to get your fiber from a wide variety of whole food sources that contain different types of fiber. One of the major benefits of dietary fiber is that the phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, etc., within the food choice often accompany it. This is also what makes fiber research problematic. Which of these factors is helping the most? Or is it all these things working in concert that prevent disease? It's a tough call.
For how much should we eat, the common recommendation is 25-35 grams a day, with some experts saying around 40 grams. It's recommended that diabetics get upwards of 50 grams a day.
When determining your needs remember that as a weight training athlete, you're probably eating way more protein, fat, etc., than the "normal" person these recommendations were designed for. In all likelihood, fiber is simply one of those things that you have to play around with until you get it right. When you're passing soft bowel movements a few times a day without reliving the dinner scene from Alien, you're probably there or well on your way.
Note: You may get gassy and bloated upon increasing fiber intake. You may also get diarrhea if you eat too much insoluble fiber (mainly from bran). For the sake of your social life, increase gradually!
So now that we've covered the fiber basics, where do we find it? Here's just a sampling to get you started.

Whole grains

Whole oats contain a type of soluble fiber called beta-glucan, a gummy soluble fiber. Studies demonstrated a lowering of cholesterol from this type of fiber, hence Quaker's label claims that oats reduce cholesterol. Oat bran is also very popular due to its insoluble fiber content.
Rice bran is an interesting fiber source. According to Dr. Ann Gerhardt, it's been shown to lower LDL levels.
Cocoa Bran sounds tasty. This is the outside layer of the cocoa bean. According to Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto, it's been shown to protect against oxidized cholesterol and raise HDL.
Konjac mannan is another interesting fiber. It contains a high concentration of glucomannan. I'd never even heard of this until I recently bought some "Miracle Noodles." Turns out that researcher Dr. Hsaio-Ling Chen has also been using this type of soluble fiber to lower LDL levels.
Buckwheat. I had to add this whole grain as many don't understand that it's completely unrelated to wheat. The nice thing is that even with buckwheat flour, you still get the good parts of the seed.

Legumes

Beans, lentils, peas, and peanuts are all part of the legume family. Beans in particular are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. My favorite are black-eyed peas (not the band).
I toss them in rice, add a cayenne-based hot sauce, and it's pure awesomeness. If you're concerned about flatulence because you're in a new relationship or work around a lot of exposed flames, you have to give beans a few weeks to work. They contain loads of soluble fiber, which means it's going to get fermented in the large intestine. This is a good thing. Be patient and your flora will adjust.

Fruit

Pectins are common in fruits, and being a soluble fiber get fermented in the large intestine, thus producing short chain fatty acids. Fruit also contains cellulose much of the time, an insoluble fiber that will keep things moving.

Nuts

You may have heard about "phytates" in nuts, which are anti-nutrients that bind with certain minerals that cause a depletion of that mineral. Here's my take: in a well-balanced diet, it's not something worth losing sleep over. If you're concerned, I suggest soaking the nuts until they begin to sprout, and then dry them again. Sprouting breaks down the phytate into inositol and phosphate. You're good to go.

Seeds

I should also mention a few seeds. Flax seeds are very high in fiber, 7 grams per tablespoon, and have a portion of lignan (insoluble fiber type), which have been reported to be cancer protective. Sesame seeds are popular too, but have the phytate issue to contend with. As stated, I wouldn't worry about this, as a strong case could be made that phytates are also cancer protective.

Veggies

The first thing people usually associate with fiber are veggies, and for good reason. My favorites are spinach, kale, asparagus, and broccoli.
Every good nutrition article needs a chart to help make sense of all the information. Ask and you shall receive!

Source	Portion	Total Fiber	Miscellaneous Notes
Fruits
Apple	1 whole	4	Good source of pectin.
Avocado Hass	1 whole	8
Banana	1 whole	3	Contain FOS and inulin, food for good bacteria.
Blueberries	1 cup	4	Very high ORAC fruit, and good for the brain.
Dried Figs	5 figs	9	Have some laxative and diuretic properties. My first contest carb load was with figs! No, I didn’t keep those posing trunks….
Kiwi	1 whole	3	Great source of Vitamin C.
Papaya	1 whole	5	Great source of digestive enzyme papain.
Pineapple	1 cup	2	Source of bromelain, but much is in the stem.
Prunes	10 prune	1.6
Raspberries	1 cup	8	High in fiber! Great choice.
Strawberries	1 cup	3	Good source of anticancer nutrient ellagaic acid.
Whole Grains (cooked)
Brown rice	1 cup	4
Buckwheat	1 cup	17	Whole-grain pancakes are awesome.
Quinoa	1/4 cup	3
Oat bran	1/3 cup dry	2	High amount of insoluble fiber.
Oatmeal	1/2 cup	2
Veggies (cooked)
Artichokes J	1 cup	2	Good source on inulin.
Asparagus	4 spears	1	Mild diuretic. Good source of inulin.
Green beans	1 cup	4
Broccoli	1 cup	4	Don't forget the stems, a good source of cellulose.
Kale	1 cup	3
Onion - raw	1 cup	2	Good source of inulin.
Mushrooms	1 cup	4
Potato - baked	1 whole	5	Half the vitamin C is in the skin. Just saying.
Spinach	1 cup	4	Good source of cellulose and pectin.
Legumes (cooked)
Kidney beans	1/2 cup	6.5	Red kidney beans.
Pinto beans	1/2 cup	7
Lentils	1/2 cup	8	Green ones have the most fiber. High in folate.
Black-eyed peas	1/2 cup	7	My favorite! I mix it in rice and put hot sauce on it.
Nuts (dry)
Almonds	1 ounce	4	Great source of monounsaturated fat.
Cashews	1 ounce	1	This measure is for dry roasted.
Brazil	1 ounce	1.5	Great source of selenium.
Pistachios	1 ounce	3
Walnuts	1 ounce	2	Good source of omega-3 essential fatty acids.

Also

• If you're thinking that simply adding fruit to your diet will relieve constipation, think again. Most of the fiber in fruit is soluble and thus broken down in the colon and doesn't really have the bulking effect of cereal fibers like wheat bran.
• Be very careful with fiber if you have an intestinal disease like Crohn's disease. High amounts of fiber can aggravate it.
• It's possible that even a perfect diet will not relieve constipation problems.

So what else can we do to ensure we stay "regular?"

• Drink a lot of water!
• Move around, exercise. When I was in the hospital, my digestive system was essentially asleep after my digestive surgeries. The doctors were on me 24-7 about walking to wake my system up. I must've clocked 50 miles walking the halls of the Mount Carmel Medical Center.

These things aid in a faster transit time, which means it can help solve constipation problems.

The Straight Poop

When you're new to the iron game, all you want to learn about is the training side of the equation like sets, reps, and exercises. You know, the fun stuff. But as you progress and graduate from white belt to yellow or blue belt, you soon learn that the nutrition side is just as important to bodybuilding success, if not more.
Moving beyond good nutrition is the pursuit of long-term health and vitality. While not sexy or exciting – what, fiber isn't exciting? – topics that prioritize health may be the most important of all. Because the strongest, most jacked physique on the stage or at the beach can still be a ticking time bomb if care isn't taken to keep key health markers in check.
That's the next level of enlightenment, when you marry a love for the iron with sound bodybuilding nutrition and lifestyle practices that promote lasting health and vitality. That's when you graduate to black belt. That's the level I hope all T NATION readers aspire to.
I'll see you there!

Wikio

Breaking Down the Single Leg Squat

by Ben Bruno – 8/09/2011
Single-leg squats can be a valuable addition to virtually any lifter's program, whether the goal is strength or physique oriented.
That is, if the lifter can perform single-leg squats. Most simply can't.
Let me clarify that statement; most can't in the beginning. Unfortunately, the majority of lifters never make it past the beginning stage. They try it once or twice – if they even try it at all – fail miserably, and immediately write it off as a bogus circus exercise.
I was one of those people. I was introduced to single-leg squats when I started interning for Mike Boyle, at whose gym I now work. Before my internship, I remember reading Mike's writings praising one-legged movements and thinking "bullshit."
I considered myself to be a pretty strong guy (at the time, I had over a triple bodyweight deadlift and near double bodyweight front squat) and the first time I experimented with single-leg squats, I couldn't even do one rep with just my bodyweight. Had I not committed to my internship already, I probably would've quit doing them right there.
I quickly realized that trying to simply drop into a full single-leg squat right off the bat was going to be an embarrassing endeavor, so I took a step back and started through a methodical progression system to work my way up to it. It took about three sessions to get the hang of it and about six sessions to get to where I felt comfortable enough stability-wise to start adding additional load.
Keep in mind, I wasn't devoting entire workouts to just single-leg squats. I'd do a few sets of whatever progression I was on followed by my regular leg workout, so I didn't miss out on valuable training time while I learned the movement.
With some concerted practice, it soon became a staple in my program, and I've never looked back. My legs have gotten significantly stronger, and they've even grown despite not training specifically for hypertrophy. As an added bonus, my back has never felt better.
It's not just me though; I've also seen them work wonders for the hundreds of athletes that train with us.
To understand why I like them so much, let's take a closer look at the benefits single-leg squats have over their bilateral counterparts.

Balance

Balance takes on a dual meaning here. First is building balance between legs. Single-leg squats can both detect imbalances and asymmetries between legs and help to correct them once they've been brought to light. Symmetry is crucial for both aesthetics and injury prevention, so it's not something to take lightly.
The other part of balance comes from standing on one leg. Single-leg squats help to improve overall balance and proprioception by strengthening some of the smaller stabilizing muscles in the hips and pelvis, namely the adductor magnus, gluteus medius, quadrates lumborum, and the external hip rotators to prevent rotation of the femur and pelvis in a way that doesn't occur in a bilateral stance.

Less Spinal Loading

Single-leg squats allow you to target the legs with greatly reduced shearing forces on the spine. Moreover, the overall external loads used for single-leg squats are typically less than with bilateral lifts, so there are fewer compressive forces, making them much more low-back friendly than their bilateral counterparts.
This is obviously appealing for back-pain sufferers, but also healthy back populations, too. One study revealed that in a random sample of 98 "healthy" asymptomatic backs, 64% of the subjects had a disk abnormality of some sort.
Also worth noting is that while the overall prevalence of disc abnormalities didn't change much with physical activity, the prevalence of disc protrusions at L5-S1 was higher in people that exercised regularly as compared to more sedentary folks (16% to 4%). Remember, these were asymptomatic subjects, so just because you're not currently experiencing back pain doesn't mean that your spine is necessarily healthy. Chances are it's not.
Don't take your spine for granted. Remember, you only get one.

More Load on The Legs

While the total external loads used for single leg squats are typically less than in bilateral squats, the overall load on the legs is actually higher due to a phenomenon known as the bilateral deficit, which means that the sum of the forces produced by each leg is greater than the total bilateral force production. To understand this, it helps to use some calculations and real-world examples.
Once our athletes familiarize themselves with the exercise, it's not uncommon for females to use anywhere from 20-50 pounds of external load and male athletes to use upwards of 75-110 pounds, sometimes more.
For example, one of my high school freshman hockey players recently performed six reps on each leg with 80 pounds of external load at a bodyweight of 176 pounds.
To calculate the load being placed on the working leg, we must first calculate his "super incumbent bodyweight," which is the weight above the joint being used to lift the load, in this case, the knee.
If we estimate that the lower leg and foot weighs 12 pounds, then his superincumbent bodyweight during a single-leg squat would be 164 pounds. Add in the 80 pounds of external load and you get 244 pounds of load on the working leg.
Now let's compare how much weight would be needed in a bilateral squat to get the same amount of load on each leg. During a back squat, the superincumbent bodyweight for this kid would be 152 pounds, so he'd need to squat 336 pounds for six reps to achieve the same overload on his legs. There's no way in hell he could handle that weight for one rep, let alone six.
I recently used 184 pounds of external load for a set of six at a bodyweight of 183 pounds. Taking into account my superincumbent bodyweight (171 pounds), that's 355 pounds of load on the working leg.

To get the same overload on my legs during a back squat, I'd have to use 539 pounds. I doubt I could even get 539 pounds off the pins, much less squat it six times.
The message is, for the majority of people, there's more potential to overload the legs during a single-leg squat, and the balance swings even more in their favor with increased proficiency.

Now What?

All of this is irrelevant though if you can't single-leg squat right to begin with.
I want to share with you the progression system I used to reap the many benefits that single-leg squats have to offer.

• If it looks like a long, arduous road ahead, fear not. It won't take nearly as long as you might think. Individual times will vary from person to person, but most will become reasonably proficient in about 6-10 sessions.
• You have to be willing to check your ego at the door because if you try to bypass steps, it will only take longer, and you'll probably end up making a fool of yourself in the process.
• You also have to be open-minded. Many people (guys in particular) go into it with the mindset that they can't do it or simply aren't "built for it." That's a cop out. Sure, certain body types lend themselves better to certain exercises, but we use this exercise with people of all shapes and sizes; short and tall, thick and thin, from middle school girls to older adults to 300-pound NFL lineman, and everyone in between. The key is just to follow the progressions.
• There's no preset amount of time that you should spend on each step. Move through at your own pace, but make sure you've mastered each one before moving forward.
• If you have no prior background with unilateral leg training whatsoever, spend some time with more basic exercises like split squats, lunges, and rear foot elevated split squats (Bulgarian split squats) to build stability and get acquainted with the feeling of being on one leg. If you've already done some of these exercises, you should be good to go.

Breaking It Down

The progressions are largely related to the range of motion, but the main tenets of the exercise remain the same throughout.

• Hold small dumbbells in your hands to serve as a counterbalance. I can't stress this enough. It may seem counterintuitive that holding extra weight would make the exercise easier, but it does. I'd recommend 5-8 pound dumbbells for smaller individuals and 8-15 pounders for bigger guys.
• Begin each rep with the dumbbells at your sides and raise them to shoulder height as you squat down. This is important. It's easy to get lazy and only raise them to waist level, which causes you to lean forward, lose balance, and round at the lumbar spine. The higher you raise the arms, the easier it is to keep the torso upright. Similarly, keeping the arms straight as you extend them helps significantly with balance. For this reason, I rarely recommend that anyone use more than 20-pound dumbbells for a counterbalance because shoulder fatigue becomes an issue, which can negatively affect form.
• In the beginning you should squat to a bench, which for all but the tallest people will be a few inches above parallel. This could be considered the single leg equivalent to the high box squat.

• Start by sitting down on the bench with both legs and standing up on one. Once you've got that down, lower yourself down to the bench on one leg and use both legs to stand back up. From there, try to do the entire motion on one leg. Do not bounce off the bench. At first, it may help to pause on the bench, but try to work towards making it one continuous motion. When you can control the eccentric and come back up without the knee caving in, it's time to move on.
• The next step is to increase the range of motion. The best way to do this is to stand on a step placed in front of the bench so that the non-working leg can drop below the foot of the working leg. Work down gradually until you reach a depth where the femur is at least parallel to the floor.

Remember that you're not sitting on the bench here; it's merely functioning as a depth gauge. It's important to keep the weight on the heels as you descend to take stress off the knee. If you struggle to keep your heel planted, you may benefit from using a heel wedge (a small five-pound plate can also work) until you build up the required mobility to do it correctly.

• Once you can complete smooth and controlled reps to parallel, you have two choices: begin loading the exercise, or progress to a free standing squat without a box behind you. If you choose the latter, stand on the edge of a box or bench to allow the non-working leg to hang freely and descend until the femur of the working leg is at or slightly below parallel to the floor.

I prefer the free standing variation because people often end up bouncing off the box, so taking it away forces them to control the reps more. That said, the box can be useful for certain people to standardize depth, such as those with a history of knee pain who want to avoid going too low, or those that habitually do their reps high.
Taller athletes also tend to do better with a box, although I've seen guys as tall as 6'6" do the freestanding version just fine. Folks with knee pain may also benefit from pausing on the bench each rep.
Note: I'm not advocating a true "pistol" squat, which would be done standing on the floor, "ass to grass." I don't think the pistol is a bad exercise; it's just that in my experience, most are unable to do it correctly due to mobility restrictions or anthropomorphic considerations. Either they can't reach depth or if they can, they go into severe lumbar flexion, often resulting in back pain. This is especially true with taller individuals.
Standing on a box is much more user friendly, and you don't lose anything performing them that way. If you're one of the few who can do a full-range pistol while maintaining an upright body position and neutral spine, more power to you.

Advanced Variations

If you've gone through the entire progression and still aren't satisfied, here are a few ways to make them even harder. These are great for people that don't have access to things like weight vests and chains because they add difficulty through other ways than external loading.

Paused Reps

Pausing each rep at the bottom kills the stretch reflex and forces you to control the eccentric portion of the rep to avoid bouncing out of the bottom.

Slow Eccentrics

Slow on the way down, fast on the way up. These are brutal.

"1.5" Reps

Squat down, come halfway back up, squat down again, and come all the way back up. That's one rep. If you're looking for something to add size to your quads, look no further. I'll warn you right now, these burn.

Closing Thoughts

• How you choose to incorporate single-leg squats will largely depend on your goals. For people with back problems, I'd advise making them your primary form of squatting (along with other unilateral variations) to allow you to continue to train the legs hard without loading the spine.
• For strength athletes concerned with improving their squat, single-leg squats can be useful as an assistance exercise. I personally noticed tremendous carryover to my bilateral squatting after focusing almost solely on unilateral work for the better part of a year. I still front squat every couple of months (probably not the smartest idea given my back issues) and I'm always pleased to see my numbers climbing despite hardly ever doing them. It makes sense that if you strengthen your legs and build up the stabilizing muscles in the hips, your squat will improve.
• For lifters who are relatively healthy and just train to look and/or perform better, single-leg squats should absolutely be part of the equation, and not just as an afterthought. You must take them seriously to receive the maximum benefit. I'd recommend adding single-leg squats to the start of your leg workouts while you're fresh because they'll be much harder to learn in a fatigued state.<

The goal here is not to denounce bilateral squats but to show you that single-leg squats are another legitimate way to build bigger and stronger legs. Single-leg squats and bilateral squats are brothers of the same mother, just like barbell rows and one-arm dumbbell rows. They're all good choices under the right circumstances.
Check your ego, be patient, follow the progressions above, and most importantly, give the exercise a chance before forming your opinion. You might be pleasantly surprised.

References

Mike Boyle. Advances in Functional Training. On Target Publications. Aptos, California. 2010.

Mike Boyle. Functional Training for Sports. Human Kinetics. Champaign, Illinois. 2004.

Maureen C. Jensen et al. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine in People without Back Pain. New England Journal of Medicine. July 14, 1994; 331:69-73.

Wikio

Optimal Frequency and Intensity of Training

by Tim Henriques – 8/05/2011
How many times a week should you bench or squat or deadlift or even train abs? Great question, and like most things in the strength and conditioning world, a hotly debated one. This article will try to offer a more measured perspective.

Frequency versus Intensity

There are two main variables in exercise program design, frequency, and intensity. Frequency refers to how often you perform something, either the total number of workouts or a specific movement like the bench press, usually in a one-week period. This article will refer to the former as "overall frequency" and the latter as "frequency of training each area."
Intensity refers to the level of difficulty of the workout. With cardio we'd use heart rate to measure intensity, but since the subject is weight training we'll use a percentage of the one-rep max (%1RM). Precise as that may sound, it can still be a little fuzzzy. If your 1RM bench press is 365 pounds and you lift 315 pounds, that's 86% of the 1RM, usually considered moderate to high intensity.
But aren't we missing something crucial to really classify the intensity of that set? We need to know how many reps were performed. If you can lift 365 pounds and you hit 315 pounds for one rep, that's a relatively easy set. Three hundred and fifteen pounds for three reps is more challenging but certainly doable; that sounds like moderate intensity to me.
Three hundred and fifteen pounds for six reps sounds like a balls-out high intensity set that would be almost as hard to complete as 365 for one rep.
To address this, I propose the term "overall intensity," which combines the intensity of the load calculated as a percentage of 1RM and the number of reps performed at that weight. To do this perfectly you'd need to know what your own conversion chart is, but to save time here's a quick conversion chart that works well.

Reps Performed	Estimated %1RM	Reps Performed	Estimated %1RM
1	100%	7	84.9%
2	96.8%	8	83.0%
3	93.7%	9	81.0%
4	91.2%	10	79.2%
5	88.8%	11	77.5%
6	86.8%	12	75.9%

This chart predicts how many reps you should be able to perform lifting a certain percentage of your one-rep max. It also allows you to calculate overall intensity. Simply take the %1RM that you're lifting and then calculate how many extra reps you completed on that particular set.
You must lift something once for it to count, so an extra rep is simply the number of additional reps you completed after the first rep. Once you calculate how many extra reps were completed, move that number of levels up the chart (each rep is one level).
Here are a few examples.

1RM: 365 pounds
Set completed: 315 x 3 reps
Extra reps: 3 - 1 = 2 extra reps
315/365 = 86% intensity (6RM estimated max)
Overall Intensity (go up two levels) = 91.2% intensity

1RM: 365 pounds
Set completed: 315 x 1 rep
Extra reps: 1 - 1 = 0 extra reps
315/365 = 86% intensity (6RM estimated max)
Overall Intensity (go up 0 levels) = 86% intensity

1RM: 365 pounds
Set completed: 315 x 6 reps
Extra reps: 6 - 1 = 5 extra reps
315/365 = 86% intensity (6RM estimated max)
Overall Intensity (go up five levels) = 100% intensity

(Confused? Post your 1RM and the set completed in the LiveSpill and I'll help you figure it out.)

Why Should We Care About This?

You might be wondering how this will affect your training. I'll try to make that clear.
We must balance frequency and intensity. If frequency is too low, the stimuli won't add up, resulting in a poor training effect. Too low an intensity is just wasting time. If the frequency is too high, the likelihood of chronic injuries or over training increases. Ditto if the intensity is too high, and throw in acute injuries as well.
In the beginning it's easy. Just train at a moderate intensity 2 – 3 times a week. You're not used to anything so you respond to just about everything, and make great progress. Usually as a person starts to lift heavier and harder they find they can't recover quite as fast.
They need more volume and intensity to make the muscle grow, and that added intensity increases recovery time requiring the training frequency of each area to be reduced. But the story does not and should not end there.

Optimal Frequency and Intensity

A picture is worth a thousand words. Below is a graph that outlines what the optimal overall frequency, frequency of training each area, and overall training intensity might be over a lifter's career, followed by a discussion of the key points.
There are several key points to this graph.

• The red line with the gray shading (center section) represents the suggested frequency of training sessions a lifter should perform per week. Notice that it generally rises over a lifter's career.
• The dark blue line with the light blue shading (bottom section) represents the suggested frequency of training each area or movement per week. Notice that it decreases for the first few years and then increases later in a lifter's career.
• The dark green line with the light green shading (top section) represents the suggested overall intensity a lifter should train at per training session. Notice that it steadily increases for a few years, peaks, and then gradually decreases but remains quite high throughout the rest of the career.

Note: Don't get hung up on the exact timeline given, or if you've trained for more than 10 years. The point of this graph is to serve as a general guide showing how things will progress over the course of one's training career.

What Does This Graph Teach Us?

• When starting an exercise program, a lifter should workout 2-3 times a week, training each area 2-3 times a week (thus following a total body routine). Their overall intensity should be light (<70%) to moderate (<85%). A great example is Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.
• After a year or two, hopefully a lifter has achieved a "decent" level of strength. His overall training frequency should remain the same or increase, the frequency of training each area should decrease, and the overall intensity of training should continue to increase.
• After several years and/or achieving a "good" level of strength, the overall training frequency will likely increase, up to 4-5 sessions a week. The frequency of training each area might remain the same or increase, and the overall intensity of training will peak.
• After a lifter has been lifting for many years and/or has achieved a "great" level of strength, the overall training frequency will likely continue to increase (assuming they wish to continue to make progress), the frequency of training each area should increase, and the overall intensity of training will slightly decrease to accommodate the higher frequency.

Let's start with the intermediate lifter. The graph has him or her training intensely during 3-5 sessions a week and likely following a split routine. It's safe to say at least part of one's lifting career should be spent training this way as this type of training will increase hypertrophy and teach a lifter to recruit the Type II B muscle fibers.
Going balls out and performing super intense sets that leave you sore for days has value in the ability to improve neuromuscular coordination, fully fatigue and stimulate the muscle, and build mental and physical toughness. Exercise programs set up like this also tend to allow the lifter more time to focus on general assistance exercises devoted to all parts of the body and can help bring up weak points.
However, once a lifter becomes significantly more advanced (most people reading this likely aren't at that stage yet, but hopefully will get there), that type of full throttle training is probably no longer optimal – at least not on a regular basis – especially if strength is the goal.
Once you're advanced, it's easier to outwork your recovery abilities. This type of lifter will likely get better results by reducing the intensity slightly and significantly increasing the frequency to compensate for the reduction in intensity.
The increased frequency will allow the lifter to further refine his technique while allowing more time be spent practicing specific assistance exercises required to bring up an already impressive lift. At this stage, general assistance exercises usually take a back seat and are used to maintain balance and prevent injury, as opposed to increase performance.
For example, the lifter in our scenario might be able to bench 315 pounds for six reps once a week, but finds it extremely taxing and basically wrecks him for the next several days. It might be better for that lifter to instead choose 315 pounds for 3-4 reps, but now perform that set two, three, even four times a week.
That argument, however, doesn't hold water with a weaker lifter who can perform 200 pounds for six, but instead opts to do 200 pounds for a double or triple more frequently. That lifter is likely leaving much of his muscle "untapped," and needs that intense set to open up and "awaken" their muscles.

Closing Arguments

Not every lifter is the same, nor is every lift the same, which is why you rarely meet experienced lifters suggesting that beginners and rookies should train the same or that the bench press and deadlift should be trained with the same frequency.
That said, taking a long-term approach to program design and knowing where a lifter is today versus where they want to go tomorrow is extremely helpful. Skipping any of the significant stages presented here might ultimately cause the trainee to miss out on his or her full lifting potential.
Wikio

Take Your Pull-Ups to the Next Level

by Ben Bruno – 8/01/2011
Pull-ups are to workout routines like vegetables are to nutrition. We all know we should eat lots of fresh vegetables, but how many of us actually do? The same goes for pull-ups.
It's an exercise that should be in any training program, regardless of whether the goal is strength or physique oriented. There's no better test of real-world strength, and getting strong at pull-ups will have carryover to all other major lifts. They'll also add serious muscle to your lats, traps, rhomboids, biceps, and forearms, and if you control your lower body, even your core.
According to strength coach Mike Boyle, lifters should be able to do pull-ups with as much weight (including bodyweight) as they can bench press, meaning that a 200-pound guy that bench presses 300 pounds should be able to do a pull-up with 100 pounds added.
In my opinion, a 1:1 pull-up to bench press ratio should be the minimum. I'd much rather see the scale tipped towards pull-ups.
Sadly, I rarely see that happening, and considering pull-ups have been removed from most middle school physical education curriculums – because so few kids can even do them – it's doubtful that we have a generation of kick-ass "pull-uppers" on the horizon.
This is not okay, and it's time we raise the bar and get people pulling their chest up to meet it.
I'm going to assume that most of the males reading this can do at least 7-8 bodyweight pull-ups, with whatever grip you prefer. If you can't, and have been training for more than a few years, take this as a wake-up call that you seriously need to reconsider your training, nutrition, or both. Read this article from T NATON contributor Tim Henriques and get to work. If you can already do 7-8 reps, keep reading.
Once you've established a solid strength base, it's time to take it up a notch. Here are five effective ways to get more out of your pull-ups and build some big-time strength and muscle to take your training to the next level.

Isometric Holds

I put these first because they lay the foundation for the progressions to come.

• Pull yourself up until your upper chest is level with the bar.
• Keep your chest puffed out, elbows pulled down and back, and focus on squeezing the shoulder blades together hard. Now hold it right there.

Feel those muscles burning in your upper back? Those are the ones you should be using on every rep of pull-ups. For now though, just squeeze harder.

Iso holds are great because they force you to recruit the proper muscles. If you don't actively retract your scapulae and try to rely on your arms to do the work, you won't last long. They'll also help strengthen the lower traps and rhomboids, which can assist with posture and ward off shoulder issues.
I recommend doing these with a pronated "false" grip (an overhand grip with the thumbs draped over the top of the bar). While both variations work the lats, research has shown significantly higher EMG activation in the lower traps during pull-ups as opposed to chin-ups, which emphasize the biceps. Using a false grip helps take the elbow flexors out of the equation so the back can bear the brunt of the work.
Try adding a 30-45 second hold at the end of your regular pull-up workout. Once you reach 45 seconds, add weight.

Hands Free

Here we literally take the arms out of the pull up. You'll need a pair of ab straps, typically used for hanging leg raises.

• Get into the same starting position as you would for leg raises, with your upper arms in the straps and your legs hanging straight down (I prefer to cross them to prevent leg swing).
• Make sure the straps are flush against the top of the triceps, almost into the armpits.
• Puff out the chest and arch the back slightly.
• Now pull up as high as possible and hold for a second.

If done correctly, you should get a similar sensation in your upper back that you felt during the iso holds, and the body position should be essentially the same: chest up, elbows back, shoulders pinched together. Now lower as far down as you can and repeat for reps.

The range of motion will be slightly shorter than a normal pull-up, but the basic movement pattern is the same. These aren't meant to replace pull-ups, but can serve as a teaching tool to help you learn to use the right muscles to get more out of pull-ups. Try doing a set of these before your regular routine to help activate the right muscles and give you a sense for how it should feel.
This variation is also great if you ever (heaven forbid) incur an injury to a finger, hand, wrist, or elbow so you can still get a good training effect while your injury heals.

"1.5" reps

This is a personal favorite of mine because it's a teaching tool and a muscle and strength builder all wrapped into one. When someone comes to me saying that they "can't feel their lats" during pull-ups, I give them these and voila, it's an instant cure.
You can use any grip you wish – pronated, supinated, neutral, they're all great. However, if you go with a pronated grip, I'd recommend using a "false" grip since this is more a "feel" exercise and we want to remove the elbow flexors as much as possible.

• Perform a pull-up as normal.
• Now lower yourself halfway down until the top of your head just clears the bar, and pull yourself back up. That's one rep.
• Now lower all the way down and repeat.
• Perform 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps.

This style helps ensure that each rep is done under control and the right muscles are doing the work. Not to mention that because you're performing twice as many contractions as a normal set, it's great for strengthening the upper back and lats, and the increased time under tension can lead to more muscle growth.
1.5 reps can be used in place of regular pull-ups in your routine. Remember though, that 6-8 means 6-8 "1.5" reps. You should be able to handle about two-thirds of what you can do for regular pull-ups, so if you can normally get 12, you should be good for 8 "1.5" reps.
Once you can get 6-8 clean reps, add weight. Just be aware that they can produce intense soreness, particularly in the beginning, so be aware and consider limiting the volume to start.

Speed Work

Let's shift from "feel" exercises and focus on getting stronger. Weighted pull-ups are the first step, but most lifters will quickly reach a plateau. Here's where "speed work" can come into play.
Powerlifters have long used speed work to improve their bench, squat, and deadlift. The goal is to improve rate of force development, so instead of going heavy they'll use a lighter load and move it fast. Taking this concept and applying it to pull-ups, we get the band-resisted pull-up.

• Attach one end of a band (or bands, depending on your strength level) to a heavy dumbbell on the floor directly beneath the pull-up bar.
• Affix the other end to a belt attached to your waist. The band should be taught at the bottom, but not overly tight.
• Do pull-ups as normal, trying to do each rep explosively. Speed is key here.

Bands work great because they provide accommodating resistance, meaning there's less tension at the bottom and more tension at the top as the bands get pulled tighter. This forces you to pull explosively through each rep to avoid being pulled down by the bands as the tension increases.
Once a week, perform 6 sets of 3 reps in place of your normal pull-up workout. Do 2 sets each with a pronated, neutral, and supinated grip, and don't go anywhere near failure on any set. Add more band tension as needed, but err on the side of too light as opposed to too heavy.

Supramaximal Weighted Hangs

I got this idea from Dante Trudel, creator of Dogg Crapp Training, and adapted it for my own purposes. Dante suggests strapping onto the bar and doing a heavily weighted, wide-grip pull-up hang for 90-120 seconds at the conclusion of a back workout to help stretch the fascia and induce hypertrophy in the lats.
There's research to suggest that prolonged weighted stretching may induce hypertrophy, and Dante's track record of producing behemoths certainly backs up his methods. However, that's not my primary goal with this movement.
I suggest doing the hang without straps and only holding it for 45 seconds. This is to increase task-specific grip strength and to get the body acquainted with heavier loads than you'd otherwise use for pull-ups, so when it comes time to perform the weights don't feel as heavy. It can also lead to some new muscle growth, but I suppose that's just gravy.
It's important to note that this isn't a passive hang – you still want to keep the chest puffed out, lats flared, and scapulae depressed to keep the tension on the muscles and off the joints. Another way to think of it is to keep your shoulders pulled down as far away from your ears as you can. A pronated or neutral grip works best here, as a supinated grip puts too much stress on the shoulders and biceps.
Perform one hang at the conclusion of your pull-up workout, on a different day than you perform the iso hold mentioned above. Be sure to choose your weight conservatively in the beginning and work your way up slowly. It will take some getting used to, but soon you'll be able to handle far more weight than you could ever dream of pulling up. Once that happens, grip strength should be a non-issue and your heaviest pull-ups will feel far less intimidating.

Wrapping Up

Now that you're armed with five new tools for your pull-up arsenal, it's time to figure out how to put them to use in your current program. While I suggested general guidelines for how to use each exercise, I avoided exact sets and reps recommendations as that must be based on your current strength levels and the program you're following.
I certainly wouldn't include all five variations at once though, simply because you'd have no way of knowing what worked and what didn't! Add them in slowly, and always give it a few weeks to see how things go before making further changes.
Which exercises work best for you will largely depend on your weaknesses. If you're one of those people that can't seem to "feel" their back working on pull-ups, the hands-free and "1.5" rep technique work well.
On the other hand, if your rhomboids are weak and you struggle to finish the last few inches of each rep, iso holds may help, and if you lack starting strength, try speed work. Finally, if you need grip work, weighted hangs could be just what the physique doctor ordered.
You get the idea. Figure out where your weaknesses are, and see if you can apply the right tools to help shore them up. Whichever way you chose, just make sure that you include some form of pull-ups and for goodness sake, get strong at them. After all, someone has to carry the mail for the next generation of couch potatoes.

References

Jose Antonio and W.J Gonyea. Progressive stretch overload of skeletal muscle results in hypertrophy before hyperplasia. Journal of Applied Physiology. 1993; 75:1263-71.

Mike Boyle. So You Think You Know Strong?

Tim Henriques. Programs For the Pull-up Deficient.

Robert M. Palmer et. al. The influence of changes in tension on protein synthesis and prostaglandin release in isolated rabbit muscles. Biochemistry Journal. July 1983; 214, 1011-1014

JW Youdas et.al. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. Journal of Strength Conditioning Research.December 2010; 24(12): 3404-14.

Wikio

5 Drills That Are Better Than the Prowler

by Nick Tumminello – 8/02/2011
These days the Prowler is everyone's choice for conditioning. Yet as much as I'm a Prowler fan, there are other effective conditioning options out there.
Note: in no way is the intent of this article to "bash" the Prowler. Instead, it's to give you perspective on how to choose the best conditioning tool to fit your specific needs and goals.

Prowler Pros and Cons

In the fitness world it seems "you're either with us or you're against us." In other words, something is either "good" or it's "bad." If it's bad, we never use it. And if it's good, we use the shit out of it.
The fact is that there's really no good or bad exercises, just poor applications. In the case of the Prowler, I consider it to be a great tool that's being way over-applied.
To use a tool effectively you have to understand its pros and cons and above all else, be objective. Here's my list of pros and cons for the Prowler.

Pros

• It's simple to use and most anyone can do it with little to no learning curve.
• It's self-regulated. When you get tired, you stop and rest before starting again.
• There's little danger of hurting yourself.
• It's great for folks with knee, hip, or back injuries that prevent them from effectively performing lower body exercises like squats, deadlifts, and lunges.
• It's just plain tough and a great way to push people to work hard in a controlled manner.
• The load is easily adjusted.
• It emulates many of the motions used in many sports like football, grappling/MMA, rugby, etc.

Cons

• It's a slower movement than most sports, which are played at a fast, explosive speed while forcing the body to deal with momentum. As legendary strength coach Al Vermeil said, "Too much heavy weight sled or Prowler type work will make athletes great grinders. But it does little or nothing to make them more explosive."
• It puts the body in an awkward, bent over position that, although similar to sports like football, is unlike any actual position seen in many other sports.
• It forces the arms not to remain stationary while holding onto the handles, which is nothing like running or sprinting where arm swing is critical. With the arms fixed in place, the shoulders can't rotate as they would during normal walking or running, and anchoring the shoulders forces more rotation upon the hips and lumbar spine, which may not be safe over the long term.
• It forces athletes of all sizes (short, tall, etc.) to hold on in the same manner without accommodating their specific body needs and mechanics.
• It requires no eccentric action. While great for a deload day/week, in sports you must have great brakes (eccentric ability) to be able to stop the power your high-performance engine (the muscles) can produce.
• Many push the Prowler with a rounded lumbar spine for prolonged periods, especially as fatigue sets in. While more of a coaching flaw more than anything, the position needed to push the Prowler makes it difficult not to begin rounding the back as you fatigue. Furthermore, taller athletes may have to round their backs right away.
• It fails to create the full hip extension needed to express max power/speed in sports. That's why most after Prowler pushing get fatigued in their quads and calves versus sprinting where they get glute fatigue and occasionally gluteal spasms, known in the track and field world as "butt lock." This is why I always follow Prowler workouts with a few sets of a hip thrust variation.
• It can be costly to buy for folks on a budget.
• It takes up storage space, which in many small gyms or private training studios is often limited.

5 Conditioning Drills I Like Better Than The Prowler

At Performance U I use the Prowler mostly with general fitness clients and physique competitors as a "finisher" and with injured performance athletes who are unable to do the drills listed below.
But if you're a healthy, uninjured performance athlete looking to enhance your sports performance by training in a manner that will have functional carryover to your sport, the following would be my go-to conditioning drills over the Prowler any day.

Hill Sprints

This is one of the absolute BEST ways to improve cardio conditioning, stride length, leg drive/power, and build a great looking, athletic physique. In addition, the impact on the joints is much lower than running on a flat surface since you're always stepping up to something.
Hill sprints are also a more natural exercise, allowing the arms to swing while keeping the torso in a natural, upright position. It also forces you to move fast with the momentum of your legs swinging into the strides.
Find a fairly steep hill that's at least 25 yards long. If you're lucky, you'll find one about 50 yards long. Run up the hill and walk down it as many times as you can in 8-15 minutes. Each consecutive workout, try to either perform more reps (trips up the hill) or simply lengthen the time. You can also wear a weighted vest (as long as it's snug) and keep adding weight to the vest each workout.
With the vest, you can also undulate every other week.
Week 1 – use the weighted vest.
Week 2 – no vest and go for faster speeds.
Repeat

Note: I recommend walking back down the hill and NOT running down it.

Run Stairs

Find a stadium or local high-rise building and hit the steps. If you've never done this, it's a very humbling experience. You'll find that your legs get even more smoked from going back down the stairs to start your next climb than they do sprinting up them.
One side "benefit" from stairs running is having to think and use your balance and athleticism to not trip and fall on your face. You certainly don't get that from the Prowler.
There are three primary ways I've used stairs as a conditioning tool.

• Skip every other step. (Take two steps at a time with every stride. Two strides covers four steps.)
• Same as above but also use your arms to pull yourself up on the side railings. This only works if you have a railing on both sides of stairs that aren't too wide for you to hold onto.
• Touch every step and pick a specific leg to lead with every step. Then, change lead legs with each new flight of stairs. If it's one long set of steps, change lead legs every 20-50 steps.

I like to progress the stairs workouts the same as I do the hill sprint workouts, discussed earlier. I'll also include weighted vests here as well.

Shuttle Runs (aka - Suicide Sprints)

If your high school experience was anything like mine, the term "suicides" brings back gym class and wrestling practice flashbacks. I say keep the memory alive and add some old-school shuttle sprint work to your conditioning workouts.
Considering most readers aren't concerned with improving their 40-yard dash times, I'm referring to 200-300 yard shuttle runs. That said, these shuttle runs would likely have a more positive effect on your 40 time than Prowler work since they're more similar to the 40-yard dash.
I've already described how to perform 300 yard shuttle runs and an alternative using the treadmill in this article. Bring some of these shuttle runs into your life and you won't just want to take a rest afterward; you'll want to go home and take a nap!

Tire Drags

Dragging a tire by using a harness allows the arms to move in a natural action, increasing shoulder involvement while activating the core to work harder.
The harness also forces you to keep a straight, stiff spine throughout the exercise, regardless of how tired you get. Rounding the back at anytime will immediately look and feel very awkward, giving instant feedback to straighten out or stop and rest.
Also, unlike the Prowler, in which you can kind of Ôhang' off the handles, you have to drive into the sled harness. If you try to just hang on it you won't move much at all.
Here are my favorite ways to use the tire to build insane conditioning.

• With a heavy tire: Go 20-25 yards per set. Perform a total of 100-150 yards. Rest as needed between sets.
• With a medium weight tire: Go 40-50 yards per set. Perform a total of 200-300 yards. Rest as needed between sets.
• You can also undulate heavy to medium load tires each consecutive workout.

Here's Oxygen magazine fitness model Alli Mckee doing some harness tire drags.

Tire Prowler Drags

This is Prowler pushes, version 2.0. I like using the tire for the following reasons.

• You control your torso position and can stand in a manner that best fits your size.
• You have two unstable handles to control, which forces the upper body and core muscles to work harder than with the stable handles of the Prowler.
• It's more sports specific to grapplers and football players who have to control their opponent when blocking, pushing, or grappling.
• You can't hang onto the handles. You must stay tight and strong, otherwise you don't move.
• The tire Prowler push requires more balance and muscular control to keep the body from swaying side to side, which happens to most beginners when first trying this exercise. It also forces you to control the rotary forces by keeping the arms out and the rope the same length on each side throughout the exercise. None of this happens with the Prowler due to its stable and very wide base of support.

Use the same workout protocols as described with the tire drags.

Final Thoughts

Now, don't get all bent out of shape simply because you're emotionally attached to the Prowler. I'm NOT saying the Prowler is no good; on the contrary, I love it! But it's just a tool, and a tool can be used or downright abused and overused.
You need to understand both the pros and cons of everything you do in the gym – even what's immensely popular – and while the Prowler is a great tool, it's also a slower, more grinding exercise that's not as athletic or natural as the other drills I've provided.
The keys to training are variety, intensity, and specificity. I've given you some effective tools to incorporate these three keys into! Now get busy!
Wikio

To Crunch or Not to Crunch

by Bret Contreras and Brad Schoenfeld – 8/04/2011

The most heated argument in strength and conditioning today is to crunch or not to crunch. It's bewildering that this seemingly harmless, short ROM exercise could create such a rift between so many smart strength and conditioning professionals, yet the great crunch debate rages on.
At the center is research showing that repeated spinal flexion using cadaveric porcine spines resulted in herniated discs. This in vitro research seems to indicate that lumbar flexion is a potent herniating mechanism, and anti-crunch proponents have extrapolated from the data that humans possess a limited number of flexion cycles throughout their lifetimes.
Accordingly, they've gone out on a limb and recommended that spinal flexion exercises such as the crunch be avoided at all costs. While this may seem logical on the surface, there's more to this topic than meets the eye.
Someone needs to step up and grow some balls and address the 2000-pound gorilla soiling the carpet. We know dozens of respected strength coaches, physical therapists, personal trainers, researchers, and professors that all have serious doubts about the danger of crunches, yet none wish to discuss it out of fear of being chastised.
The line must be drawn here!

Fitness is Religion

Humans have a basic need to fall into camps, rally behind a leader, believe in supernatural phenomena, and rebel against scientific principles. Throughout history scientists have been punished for questioning current dogma. Sadly, it's no different in the fitness industry.
Many fitness professionals have been seeking a culprit for low back pain and jumped aboard the anti-crunch bandwagon without question. These folks have adopted absurdly rigid views of the lumbar spine, believing that you should go through life moving this region as little as possible to spare insult to the spine, to the point of altering normal biomechanics in daily living.
Taking it a step further, they then intimidate others into jumping on the bandwagon and get downright emotional when confronted on the topic.
This is the antithesis of scientific thinking. We're just happy that we won't be house-imprisoned like Galileo for hypothesizing that the Earth wasn't the center of the universe.
After delving into the topic, reviewing the literature, and applying our critical thinking skills, we've concluded that like every other exercise, a reasonable dose of spinal flexion exercise is potentially good for you and need not be avoided.
We presented our position in a review paper published in the Strength & Conditioning Journal and while we won't rehash everything in the article, we do continue to question the recent "anti-crunch" movement and suggest a plausible alternative theory.
In our journal article we addressed the following issues, which will only be succinctly summarized below.
For more detailed explanations and citations, we encourage you to pull up the article and read it in its entirety.

Methodological Issues in Research Against Lumbar Flexion Exercise

Removal of muscle. The experiments used in the studies used to refute lumbar flexion exercise used porcine (pig) cervical spines with muscles removed, which alters spinal biomechanics.
No fluid flow in cadavers. Cadaveric spines don't function the same as living spines as fluid doesn't flow back into the discs as it does when tissue is alive.
Range of motion in porcine spine. Porcine cervical spines have smaller flexion and extension ranges of motion than human lumbar spines.
Doesn't mimic crunch exercise regimen. When most people do crunches, they might do a few sets of 10 to 20 reps or so and then wait a couple of days before repeating. This allows the discs to repair and remodel. In the studies used to bash lumbar flexion, thousands of nonstop cycles were performed, which does not replicate a strength and conditioning regimen. It should also be noted that cadaveric spines do not remodel while living spines do.
Genetics. In the world of intervertebral disc degeneration, the role of genetics is huge. It appears that some individuals are quite prone to disc issues while others are not, suggesting that optimal programming would require knowledge of genetic traits.
Range of motion in the crunch exercise. Many years ago, an NSCA journal article described proper performance of the crunch exercise, which involved 30 degrees of total trunk flexion, most of this motion occurring in the thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine. If the lumbar spine doesn't approach end range flexion in the crunch exercise, then the studies wouldn't be applicable to the crunch exercise.
IAP controversy. There's a chance that models used to estimate compressive forces during the crunch have been overestimated due to failure to take into account the role of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). If this is the case, then the studies could have used too much compression along with range of motion mentioned earlier, which would render the studies inapplicable to crunching. However, there's conflicting research in this area and it's likely that the effect isn't significant.

Potential Benefits of Lumbar Flexion Exercise

Increased fluid flow and nutrition to posterior disc. Lumbar flexion enhances nutrient delivery to discs by increasing nutrient-carrying fluids to the discs.
Increased remodeling of tissue. Proper doses of spinal flexion likely strengthens the disc tissues, which would therefore increase tolerance to lumbar flexion exercise and prevent future injury.
Sagittal plane mobility. Some studies have linked lack of spinal mobility to low back pain, however the literature is somewhat contradictory. At the very least crunches can prevent losses in spinal mobility, which might be important in low back pain prevention.
Rectus abdominis hypertrophy. When taking into account the entire body of knowledge on hypertrophy research, it's abundantly clear that dynamic exercise is superior to isometric exercise in increasing muscle mass. Much of this has to do with the increased muscular damage incurred from eccentric activity as well as the increased metabolic stress. Bottom line, if you want to optimize your "six-pack" appearance, spinal flexion exercises will certainly help to achieve this goal.
Performance enhancement. Contrary to what some have claimed, lumbar flexion is prevalent in many sport activities. Thus, concentrically/eccentrically strengthening the abdominals may very well lead to increased athletic performance.

Anecdotes and Other Arguments

Now let's look at some anecdotal evidence to support our claims.

If we're indeed "limited" in the number of flexion cycles, where does the number lie?

Several fitness professionals have suggested that humans possess a limited number of flexion cycles and believe that we should save these cycles for everyday living such as tying one's shoe rather than wasting them on crunches. Realizing that anecdotal evidence doesn't prove squat, it's still interesting to ponder and can provide a basis for theoretical rationale.

• In 2003, Edmar Freitas, a Brazilian fitness instructor, performed 133,986 crunches in 30 hours, thereby setting a world record. This beat his previous record of 111,000 sit-ups in 24 hours set in the prior year.

Manny Pacquiao, one of the world's best boxers, performs 4,000 sit-ups per day.

• Finally, Herschel Walker, football legend, Olympic bobsledder, and current MMA hopeful, has been performing 3,500 sit-ups every day since he was in high school. He started doing sit-ups daily when he was 12 years old. Considering that he's now 49 years of age, this equates to 47,267,500 sit-ups. That's almost 50 million flexion cycles performed under compressive loading!

Granted, the argument could be made that perhaps all these individuals have screwed up spines and if you were to obtain MRI's from each you'd see appalling evidence of herniations and degeneration, but we doubt this is the case. Instead we believe that this is clear evidence that the spinal discs can remodel and become stronger over time to resist damage incurred from spinal flexion exercise.
Another argument could be made that these folks are "outliers" and their freakish genetics allow for such incredible flexion cycles. We disagree, and believe there are likely many individuals that have unknowingly met or exceeded this number in their lifetimes. Instead, we believe that this is evidence that muscular balance, abdominal strength, and flexion exercise can protect the spine.

Should We Just Shoot Ourselves?

If we cherry-picked select disc studies to determine which forms of exercise we do, we wouldn't be allowed to do literally anything.
We found 13 studies to indicate that spinal flexion is a bad idea. (Callaghan and McGill, 2001; Drake et al., 2005; Tampier et al., 2007; Drake and Callaghan, 2009; Marshall and McGill, 2010; Adams and Hutton, 1982; Adams and Hutton, 1983; Adams and Hutton, 1985; Lindblom 1957; Brown et al. 1957; Hardy 1958; Veres et al., 2009; Court et al. 2001). This means no crunches and sit ups.
We found 11 studies that showed that combinations of spinal loading aren't a good idea. (Gordon et al. 1991 (Flexion and Rotation); McNally et al. 1993 (Flexion and Anterolateral Bending); Shirazi 1989 (Lateral Bending and Rotation); Kelsey et al. 1984 (Flexion and Rotation); Adams et al. 2000 (Complex); Marshall and McGill, 2010 (Flexion/Extension and Rotation); Drake et al. 2005 (Flexion and Rotation); Veres et al., 2010 (Flexion and Rotation); Schmidt et al. 2007 (Lateral Bending and Rotation, Lateral Bending and Flexion, Lateral Bending and Extension); Schmidt et al. 2007 (Lateral Bending and Flexion, Lateral Bending and Rotation, Flexion and Rotation); Schmidt et al. 2009 (Lateral Bending and Flexion, Lateral Bending and Extension). This means no exercises such as twisting sit-ups or Russian twists.
We found a couple studies showing that spinal extension is a big no-no (Adams et al., 2000; Shah et al., 1978). This means no Supermans.
Several studies show that spinal rotation is bad (Krismer et al., 1996; Aultman et al. 2004; Farfan et al. 1970). This means no cable chopping motions. And you better not be performing these on a vibration platform as that would produce a double whammy to the spine. Vibration has been shown to be bad for the discs (Dupuis and Zerlett 1987).
There's research to suggest that lateral bending is bad for you (Costi et al. 2007; Natarajan et al. 2008). This means no side bending. Similarly, asymmetrical lifting has been shown to lead to negative results as well (Natarajan et al. 2008). This means no unilateral exercises or weighted carries.
Here's where things get interesting. We found 18 different studies showing that static or dynamic compression is a very bad idea (Virgin 1951; Liu et al. 1983; Lai et al. 2008; Lotz et al. 1998; Tsai et al. 1998; Iatridis et al. 1999; Lotz et al. 1998; Kroeber et al. 2002; MacLean et al. 2003; Hsieh and Lotz 2003; MacLean et al. 2004; Ching et al. 2004; Masouka et al. 2007; Veres et al. 2008; Lai and Chow 2010; Nakamura et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2007; Huang and Gu 2008).
This not only means no squats, deadlifts, and core stability exercises, it means no physical activity involving free weight exercise whatsoever, since muscular contractions create compressive loading on the spine. We should have known that though, as heavy lifting is bad for the back (Lee and Chiou 1994; Kelsey et al. 1984), as is overactivity (Videman and Battie, 1999). So now we know that weightlifting and intense training is out.
It goes on and on. We've found studies suggesting all sorts of every day activities are bad for the back, even sitting down and bed-rest. Maybe we should all just shoot ourselves before we become completely debilitated?

Do Crunches Screw up Your Posture?

The theory goes something like this: Crunches shorten the rectus abdominis. Since the rectus abdominis spans from the sternum/rib cage to the pelvis, continually shortening the muscle will pull down your ribcage, ultimately resulting in kyphosis (i.e. a round-back posture). It's an interesting theory. It's also completely unfounded.
As with many theories, the essence of this claim is based on a kernel of truth. Specifically, placing a muscle in a shortened position for a prolonged time causes it to assume a shorter resting length. For example, if you immobilize your arm in a cast at a flexed position for several weeks, your arm will tend to remain flexed once the cast is removed.
This is due to an adaptive response whereby the elbow flexors (i.e. biceps, brachialis, etc.) lose sarcomeres in series while sarcomeres are added to the antagonistic extensor muscles (Toigo & Boutellier, 2006). This has been coined "adaptive shortening."
Perhaps you can see the flaw in hypothesizing that performing a crunch will shorten the rectus abdominis, namely, crunches aren't solely a shortening exercise! Rather, the crunch also includes eccentric actions where the rectus abdominis is returned to its resting length.
Thus, any potential negative effects of shortening contractions on sarcomere number would be counterbalanced by the lengthening effect of the eccentric actions. The net effect is no change in resting length.
Some anti-crunch proponents also argue that performing spinal flexion exercises (i.e. crunches) overly strengthens the rectus abdominis so that it overpowers its antagonists, thereby pulling down on the ribcage.
This is a straw man argument. Certainly it's true that an imbalance between muscles can cause postural disturbances – I'm sure you're familiar with guys who hit chest and arms every workout and end up so internally rotated that they have trouble scratching the back of their head. But this doesn't mean you shouldn't perform bench presses and arm curls.
The issue here is one of poor program design, not an indictment of specific exercises.
Regarding crunches, the same principle holds true. Sure, if you perform a gazillion crunches every day and don't train other muscle groups, you're setting yourself up for a postural disturbance.
But this is a non-issue if you adhere to a balanced routine. Performance of virtually any standing, non-machine based exercise will heavily involve the core musculature, particularly the posterior muscles that antagonize the rectus abdominis (Schoenfeld, 2010, Lehman, 2005). It also should be noted that the average person tends to have weak abdominals (Morris et al. 2006), so they could very well benefit from performing spinal flexion exercises.
To sum up, there is no convincing evidence that performing crunches as part of a total body resistance training routine will have any negative effects on posture.

Do crunches lead to additional dysfunction, such as breathing dysfunction and glute dysfunction?

If crunches did indeed pull down on the ribcage and induce kyphosis, then one could speculate that breathing and glute functioning could be compromised. However, as just mentioned, this likely isn't the case.
Anecdotally, hundreds of thousands of athletes in the past few decades have achieved terrific success in spite of doing crunches. If crunches did lead to shortening of the abdominals, given that a majority of people including athletes seem to display an anterior pelvic tilt in their daily posture, one could argue that it would be wise to perform crunches to pull up on the pelvis, which could theoretically decrease anterior pelvic tilt and lead to a more neutral lumbo-pelvic posture.

Are crunches a nonfunctional exercise?

Whenever one questions the implication that crunches are as dangerous as wake boarding in a tsunami, anti-crunchers quickly counter with something like, "Who cares if they're dangerous or not? Crunches aren't functional! They're a short range movement performed while lying on your back. They can't possibly transfer to anything."
As our mentor Mel Siff aptly stated:

"Functional training is any form of training that improves any relevant biomotor ability that does not come at the detriment to other biomotor abilities."

Anti-crunchers will point out that the crunch solely involves bodyweight and therefore isn't heavy enough to transfer to high-force or high-velocity movement. This is absurd, as it's very easy to hold a dumbbell at the upper chest to increase the exercise's intensity. You also can perform a kneeling rope crunch using a cable apparatus to increase training intensity.
What carries over best to functional activity depends on the task. Here's a chart that should help you determine optimal transfer of training.

Biomotor Ability	Examples	Exercise Category	Examples
Trunk Rotary Stability, Strength and Power	Throwing a football or baseball, throwing a discuss, swinging a bat, throwing a left hook	Rotational exercises and anti-rotation exercises	Woodchops, landmines, Pallof presses, cable or band chops and lifts
Trunk Lateral Bending Stability, Strength and Power	Stiff-arming, posting up, landing a jab	Lateral flexion exercises and anti-lateral flexion exercises	Side bends, side planks, suitcase carries, cable or band side bends
Trunk Flexion Stability, Strength and Power	Sitting up from a bench, bar gymnastics exercises, bracing for a punch to the midsection, resisting being pushed rearward as in sumo wrestling, throwing a soccer ball overhead	Flexion exercises and anti-extension exercises	Crunches, sit ups, hanging leg raises, planks, ab wheel rollouts, bodysaws
Trunk Extension Stability, Strength and Power	Carrying heavy loads, picking up stuff off the ground, staying upright in the clinch	Extension exercises and anti-flexion exercises	Squats, deadlifts, back extensions, reverse hypers, farmer’s walks, Zercher carries

Basically, stability exercises appear to be better for stabilization tasks as well as tasks that require proper inner-core unit functioning, while strengthening exercises appear to be better for dynamic tasks and hypertrophy.
As you can see, an exercise like a weighted crunch could transfer quite well to a myriad of functional tasks, and therefore shouldn't be maligned for its applicability to functional or sports performance.

Is There a Healthy Balance and Do Discs Heal and Remodel?

It's been stated by many practitioners that the discs don't heal. This is misleading. It's true that they're poorly vascularized and struggle to receive adequate nutrition, and it's true that disc tissue doesn't heal rapidly. Proteoglycan turnover may take 500 days (Urban et al. 1978) and collagen turnover may take longer (Adams and Hutton 1982).
Hence, the discs' rate of remodeling lags behind that of other skeletal tissues (Maroudas et al. 1975; Skrzypiec et al. 2007).
However, much evidence of disc-healing exists. Common sense would dictate that discs do heal, otherwise anyone that suffered a disc injury would never get better. We'd all just get progressively worse until we could no longer move.
Based on epidemiological studies, it's clear that there's an optimal window of spinal loading that is somewhere in between bed-rest and overactivity (Videman et al., 1990).
A healthy balance has been shown to occur with spinal compression (Hutton et al. 1998; Lotz et al. 2002; Walsh and Lotz 2004; Wuertz et al. 2009; MacLean et al. 2005) and spinal rotation (Chan et al. 2011). Positive aspects of spinal bending have been shown to occur in the discs as well (Lotz et al. 2008; Court et al. 2001).
Furthermore, 16 different studies indicate that the spinal discs can repair and remodel themselves. While several papers reviewed the topic (Lotz 2004; Stokes and Iatridis; Adams and Dolan 1997; Porter 1987), others demonstrated that flexion damages can heal (Court et al. 2007), compression damages can heal (Lai et al. 2008; Korecki et al. 2008; MacLean et al. 2008; Hee et al. 2011), prolapses can reverse (Scannell and McGill 2009), herniations can improve (Girard et al. 2004; Wood et al. 1997), the outer annulus can strengthen (Skrzpiec et al. 2007), collagen within the disc can remodel to become stronger (Brickley-Parsons and Glimcher, 1984), and vertebrae, ligaments, and strengthen to resist loading (Porter et al. 1989; Adams and Dolan 1996).
Every time you move your spine you cause micro-damage to the tissues, which triggers both anabolic and catabolic processes. Ideally, you want to limit the amount of damage, as healing from larger scale damage usually leaves the disc biomechanically inferior.
For example, annular damage is repaired by granulation tissue and the scar never regains its normal lamellar architecture (Hampton et al. 1989). End plate injuries heal with cartilaginous tissue (Cinotti et al. 2005; Holm et al. 2004), fibrocartilage replaces nucleus material (Kim et al. 2005), and a healing of harmed tissue is often replaced by a thin-layer of weaker fibrous tissue (Fazzalari et al. 2001).

A Stress – Eustress Solution?

The study of biomechanics is unique because you must not only consider forces and stresses on human tissues, you must also consider adaptive remodeling. The ideal situation in programming doesn't avoid stress; it keeps the body in eustress while avoiding distress, which ensures that anabolic agents inside of tissues exert more work than catabolic agents inside of tissues to promote full repair, recovery, and strengthening.

Conclusion

We hope that we've provided you some food for thought and encouraged you to rely on logic rather than emotion in decision-making involving exercise safety and program design. An effective practitioner weighs all available evidence and makes appropriate conclusions in a dispassionate manner, without adhering to rigidly held beliefs.
We believe that future research will help hone in on the safety of the crunch exercise and determine proper dose responses, but this research needs to be conducted on living humans and involve pre and post-MRI results with a training intervention that ensures proper crunch technique.

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