{"id":268,"date":"2010-08-02T03:30:39","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T03:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2019-01-19T23:26:57","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T23:26:57","slug":"the-lumbar-flexion-debate-mma-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/the-lumbar-flexion-debate-mma-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lumbar Flexion Debate – MMA Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debate about whether or not to do lumbar flexion exercises (sit ups, knee ins, bicycles, v-ups, etc) is a heated one.\u00a0 To tell you the truth, it probably wont ever end\u00a0as professionals will always reside on one side of the fence (lumbar flexion isn\u2019t that bad!)\u00a0or the other (stabilize, stabilize, stabilize!).<\/p>\n

Dr. Stuart McGill has done a great job conducting research on the topic and lecturing around the world regarding appropriate training strategies for strength coaches, fitness professionals, and rehabilitation specialists.\u00a0 However, one of the common debates that often comes up is,\u00a0\u201cCompetitive fighting\u00a0athletes go through lumbar flexion (sometimes very aggressive lumbar flexion)\u00a0in their sport and thus we must train that movement to ensure that they are adequately prepared for competition.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sounds good, right?\u00a0 After\u00a0all, the role of the strength coach is to prepare the athlete for their competitive endeavors!<\/p>\n

The only problem I see with this argument is that as the strength coach, we need to ensure that the athletes are healthy and injury free.\u00a0 If we know that the mechanism of disc injury is repeated flexion, and we know that the athletes go through this movement in their sports training and competition, is this a movement that we really need to do more of in the gym?\u00a0 To me, that sounds like the same as doing a high volume plyometric program for an inseason basketball or volleyball athlete.\u00a0 They are already getting a lot of contacts in practice and games, why do we need to load that up more?\u00a0 In fact, we should unload that and do something with less impact that sufficiently addresses the strength needs of those athletes.\u00a0 Speaking of basketball, when taking a jump shot, athletes will typically go into knee valgus.\u00a0 With this same mentality, shouldn\u2019t we train that movement it so that they are prepared for it when it happens in a dynamic environment like competition?\u00a0 Obviously I don\u2019t expect anyone to\u00a0answer\u201cyes\u201d\u00a0<\/em>to that question.<\/p>\n

The next\u00a0point that is always brought up is\u00a0\u201cAthletes who fight competitively all over the world train using lumbar flexion exercises and then go and practice and compete and do more lumbar flexion and don\u2019t seem to have problems.\u00a0 Maybe it isn\u2019t such a big deal.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the things science does is helps us to remove our assumptions of what we think is going on based on our observations.\u00a0 Our assumptions\u00a0are brought\u00a0about by several factors\u00a0including the sample size of people we are working with and our own personal bias towards what we are doing.\u00a0 Basically, we put it in the hands of a neutral third party who tests these assumptions and then comes back to us an either says,\u00a0\u201cYep, you were right!\u00a0 It looks like that is happening\u201d, or \u201cActually, we tested your assumption and we found the opposite to be true.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>This of course leads to more research and more questions and eventually theories are developed to help give us a larger explanation of what is taking place.<\/p>\n

While the idea that,\u00a0\u201cTraining these movements is essential because they happen in sport\u201d\u00a0<\/em>may sound good on paper, are the programs being created really helping these athletes compete without incident?<\/p>\n

A 2007 study conducted by Okada et al, looked at the prevalence of nonspecific low back pain\u00a0and lumbar radicular abnormalities in 82 male judo athletes in three different weight classes \u2013 light, middle, and heavyweight.<\/p>\n

Back pain:<\/strong><\/p>\n