Are the Abdominal Muscle Group The 'People's Muscle'?

I mean I am unsure if this sort of accolade exists but one thing for sure is that, it frequently pops up in conversations that I have with both clients and with colleagues. When we have something shoved in our faces enough times, it starts becoming a "norm" and or even a desire. It is no wonder everyone wants to have these sharpened and visibly defined abs. With every other social media post being relevant to the muscle group, it is proving to be highly popular. There is no denying that the muscle group can be aesthetically pleasing but there is a lot more to the wanderlust muscle group. Strong well activated abdominals can make a huge difference on sporting performance and general well being. If we take into account the differences between elite athletes is often marginal, this could make the difference between a bronze and gold medal. Ensuring that the muscle group is well activated, reduces the likelihood of compensatory movements and more efficient force generation.

Pete et al (2007) conducted research to identify if Core strength impacted, injury prediction and prevention using FMS and core strength programs. They found a significant difference for injuries to the back & upper extremities. A correlation was also found in those who suffered with a previous musculoskeletal injury to their FMS score. With these results in mind, it is fair to conclude that strengthening your core may enhance functional movement and thus having a positive impact on reducing our chances of injuries and therefore, could benefit individuals by implementing these in rehab programs, but also could be useful to include for prehab sessions, to reduce the chances of an injury occurrence.

So even if your goal is not to look like one of those posts on your social media timeline, strengthening your core could be the difference of being the next gold medalist, and if that is not your goal, it is likely to help prevent you from getting injured. We all hate being injured and sometimes being injured can affect you in more aspects of your life than one, such as a loss of income due to time off work, or sense of isolation as you are unable to train with friends / colleagues. 

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1) Peate et al Core strength: A new model for injury prediction and prevention (2007) https://occup-med.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1745-6673-2-3