The abs are one of the more highly researched, studied, obsessed over areas of the body in the fitness industry. Everyone wants to get the chiseled and cut six pack, have the core strength to heave massive weight without ripping a disc, and they’ll do almost anything to get there. Info-mercial hock the latest ab blasting machine that has science-y sounding terminology behind it and fancy animated graphics to show you how much more awesome their device is than the black-and-white “terrible life” segments that seem to be in every info-mercial.

Our culture is obsessed with abs on a superficial level. How else do you explain someone like The Situation having his own workout DVD? Not to be outdone, a quick look through any book store will show you a few DOZEN books, DVDs and small products to help you get the waist of your dreams, not to mention all the diet books that have the word “Abs” in their title.

As a result, you’ll find a lot of people who go hours on end doing ab-centric training like crunches, side crunches, hanging crunches, bent over crunches, crunch crunches, Captain Crunches, and any other version that I didn’t mention of crunches, is the quest to have sick abz for teh ladiez.

It’s easy to say that crunches are a poor exercise for developing core strength, but then again, any exercise done with limited tension for extended duration could be considered a poor exercise for developing strength.

That brings me to the main point of this article: the concept of tension.

When dealing with the core, a lot of cues can be used to all mean similar things. “engage the core/abs/stomach,” “tighten/stiffen,” “brace,” and any other one you probably use or have heard shouted at an unwilling client by a benevolent trainer. They all mean the same thing, right?

Wrong

Consider the ability of a muscle to contract as a continuum of tension, with “it’s on because otherwise it would be a puddle” core activation of laying on your couch on a Friday evening at the low end of activity to the “sweet merciful McGillicutty that’s a lot of core tension” produced by a massive weight deadlift, where the core is trying to not have you poop a disc across the room.

One way to consider the core tension continuum is to see it represented in a graphical format. Each is best categorized by how easily you can breathe.

Tensing is essentially a way of having the core muscles flex, but very hard at all. This is ideal for when you’re trying to get specific activation from certain core muscles, stretch, and pretty much any low level activity. A lot of long duration cardio is done while in a tensed manner, which allows the spine to stay vertical and still supple enough to move and bend, rotate as needed, and breathe deeply. That being said, too often the long duration cardio tends to fatigue aspects of the core and leads to tensing in less than ideal posture, which makes other muscles hate life and hold on for dear life.

Here’s an example of a tensing movement:

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5HQsy6xog’]

The goal is to feel muscles contracting, but no so much that it alters your ability to breathe, talk or even break a sweat. The intensity of the contraction is about a 2 or 3 out of 10. In other words, the odds of Snooki’s baby growing up to be a Rodes Scholar would be higher than the intensity of the core tension you’re generating here.

With bracing, we bump the intensity up a bit and make the contractions significantly harder. The goal with bracing is more of a preparatory or reactionary contraction, where the force generated is higher, but still not enough to completely restrict breathing. Overall, breathing should be challenging and take more effort to inhale and exhale.

Heres an example of a bracing contraction:

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5RJisj5sHs’]

The goal is to keep the spine from deforming due to stresses being applied in different directions and loads, whereas tensing isn’t applying much if any loads to the spine other than some axial loading. Bracing is about a 5-6 out of 10 intensity, which makes it perfect for most non-maximal lifts people do in the gym.

Bracing is great to use, especially in athletes who require a quick change of direction. It’s much easier and faster to get abdominal bracing going on than stiffening, which is what we’ll talk about next, and the rapid bracing and relaxation of the core is integral to the ability to accelerate and change directions.

Stiffening is a much higher, maximal or near maximal contraction of the core with the goal of maintaining maximal spinal stability and resisting deformation. This is ideal for much heavier loads, higher velocity movements, and anything where the risk to have your spine explode goes up by a factor best measured in shitballs, such as:

Holy shitballs, that’s a lot of weight!!

Sweet sufferin shitballs, I’ve never sprinted so fast!!

Sonofa merciful shitballs, that’s ridiculously hard work!!

Here’s an example of high force, low velocity stiffening. Please note the expression on my face that essentially screams “Holy shitballs, that’s a lot of weight!!”

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-MJHtgVa5g’]

Here’s another example of stiffening coming from a high force, high velocity acceleration training using some kettlebells. Note the look on my face that screams “Holy shitballs, I’d better not let go of these things!!”

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0LiUn2c4Y’]

Bracing should bring about some serious levels of core muscle soreness following the exercise. Essentially, to do it right you have to have an absence of muscle isolation. You need to consider using everything you have available to you, and getting every single muscle that crosses the lumbar spine to contract.

HARD.

The intensity of these contractions should be closer to the intensity of Oprah rushing that dumptruck of money up to Lance Armstrong’s Hawaiian retreat in order to snag that interview to save her floundering OWN network. Like I said, shitballs.

So when determining how intense your core contractions should be, you have to consider the exercise itself and what the purpose of said exercise will be. If you’re doing some low level exercises to work on mobility or core specialization, tensing may be sufficient. For most movements that require working against a load, or accelerating in a change of direction, especially where tension has to be tampered on and off rapidly through varying amounts, bracing is best. For mind-numbingly intense and stupid weight/velocity movements, stiffening is your guy.

Knowing who to take to the party can make the difference between a night to remember and one soaked in booze with you lying in the gutter with nothing but heartache and repressed memories. By knowing how to dial your core contractions up and down, you’ll have a better chance of getting the best out of your workouts and avoid the over-contraction trap of walking like Frankenstein everywhere you go.