“A great alternative for targeting your obliques is the Cross Crawl, which is ideal for anyone with lower back sensitivity or previous injury. What oblique exercises are better options? You are producing some abdominal tension … but you are also generating compression, flexion and rotation on the disc … It’s just not worth the risk.” While the benefit is that you are producing some abdominal tension, you are simultaneously generating a lot of compression, flexion and rotation on the disc, which effectively just chews it up.” “The rotation brings in additional stress which will also produce a training effect on the obliques. The half sit-up position will create strain and stress on the abdominal muscles and if they fatigue you will get a training effect from this.” “You can assess the effectiveness of any exercise by weighing up the risks versus the gains. And the worst-case scenario would be a disc bulge – which may require surgery.” What are the benefits of the Russian Twist? A more acute problem would mean that you’re actually unable to train. This could lead to you experiencing back pain when you try to sit down. This causes all the other ligamentous tissues that are trying to maintain the position of the spine to buckle and become slack. As soon as you start to lose the fluid integrity you will start to get leaks, and the vertebrae start to sit closer together. As long as the disc contains fluid it buffers the vertebrae apart so that everything is under tension. Think of your discs like the shock absorbers on a car. When you perform an exercise like this you are effectively juicing your discs, but the fluid is meant to stay in the middle of the disc. The long term consequences can be more serious. “The short term risk is that you may experience pain performing the fully flexed Russian Twist. This is like bouncing into a full crouch – your knee is not meant to go that far with that amount of joint stress.” W hat are the risks of this type of Russian Twist ? Each vertebra in the lumbar spine has only about three degrees of rotation, so when you try to produce a lot of rotation in your lumbar spine you are actually taking the joint to end-range rotation. Imagine the pressure of juicing a lemon in a lemon squeezer… this is exactly what happens to the disc when you perform the Russian Twist. “The final issue is that the compression and flexion is combined with rotation. When you perform an exercise like the Russian Twist in full flexion you are effectively juicing your discs, but the fluid is meant to stay in the middle of the disc. From here, the onion rings begin to leak and the disc fluid can actually leak out from the middle of the disc.” So the rounded back position creates lots of pressure, driving the disc fluid backwards, and eventually this pressure and stretching of the fibers at the back causes the onion rings to tear. When you compress the disc at the front, the toothpaste moves in the opposite direction to the compression. Imagine the rings of an onion with the inside portion scooped out, with some toothpaste injected into the middle of the rings. The analogy is this: the discs between our vertebrae consist of a series of fibrous rings with fluid in the center. In this position, the front of the vertebrae compress, which opens up the back of the lumbar spine, causing the disc fluid to move to the back. The combination of compression and end-range flexion produces a lot of pressure on the spinal discs. Because your back is not being supported by the floor, often you find yourself in full flexion, where the spine is rounded. Staying in that half sit-up position requires a massive contraction of the abdominals and hip flexors, which in turn produces excessive compression of the lumbar spine. Here he explains why … What are the main problems with this Russian Twist exercise? This is not a good idea, says Bryce Hastings, physiotherapist and Les Mills Head of Research. The worst version of the Russian Twist is performed with the trunk and thighs lifted off the floor to create a V-shape with the back fully rounded you then twist the torso from side to side with a heavy weight in your hands. It’s been touted as one of the most effective ways to trim the waistline and eliminate love handles … but often the risks far outweigh any such benefits. If you’ve ever looked for ways to strengthen your obliques, you’ve probably come across the Russian Twist.
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