Matthew Mitcham on the cover of the March 2009 issue of The Advocate serves as the perfect talking point: that divers have great abs.

Why do divers have great abs? In answering this, I want to address some abdominal-related myths to ‘clear the water’ of some ridiculous or otherwise ill-informed ideas that have come to me as a diver and as a weight training instructor.

First, let’s get into some basic anatomy so that we’re all on the same page. Your ‘abs’ or ‘abdominal muscles’, or ‘core muscles’ commonly refer to your transverse abdominal, right and left internal obliques, right and left external obliques, and your rectus abdominis. For anatomy, I like to use Gray’s Anatomy as the old stand-by. (No, I’m not talking about the TV show). Click the pictures below to enlarge in a new window.

Check out the pictures and you’ll notice that your “6-pack” muscle, the rectus abdominis, is actually one muscle. Bands of connective tissue cross the rectus abdominis creating what appear to be 6 individual square muscles. This is important because we can use this information to address several misconceptions about “abs.”

I don’t have abs. Yes you do, we all do. You might not be able to see them, however, because adipose tissue (the nice way of saying “fat stores”) gets deposited for long term storage below the skin and superficial to the muscle in the lower abdomen.

A 6-pack is stronger than a 4-pack. First of all, we know that your rectus abdominis is not made up of individual square shaped muscles. What people are probably referring to in this case is the number of visible sections of muscle that are crossed by connective tissue. Because fat in the lower abdomen “covers” the muscle, the lower two sections crossed by connective tissue may be visible only in people with exceptionally low body fat. People with exceptionally low body fat, in turn, are then more likely to be in better shape and have greater overall muscle strength.

Crunches are worthless. Well it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Crunches have been given a bad rap lately because they only work the rectus abdominis in one plane of motion. Core stability seems to be the fad now, and for good reason, because posture and stability of core muscles can reduce the risk of painful back problems down the road. Any contraction of your abdominal muscles will have an effect on either maintaining or increasing their strength.

I need an ab workout, stand on my stomach. This works! Well let me explain, it’s not magic and actually you don’t need someone to stand on your stomach. But the principle behind this one is a simple isometric contraction. Basically you’re flexing your abs so that your partner doesn’t crush you. It has nothing to do with lying down with their feet on your stomach, except as good motivation to keep holding the contraction.

I slept with an electro-shock belt on and woke up with great abs! Unlikely. Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), or ‘stim’ as its known by athletic trainers, causes a muscle to contract by administering an external electrical impulse which mimics the action potential coming from the central nervous system. While this does contract the muscle, there is no resistance to the contraction so the muscle doesn’t do any ‘work.’ EMS as a type of therapy is most effective at preventing muscle atrophy caused by disuse. Stength, when measured by how much force you can generate, is heavily influenced by your motor skills. The careful timing of muscle contractions can have a huge effect on what you perceive as ‘strength,’ and by using an artificial action potential (the shock) your body can’t adapt its motor programs like it would during real physical activity. In a way, your muscles aren’t learning anything. –One more thing (I know we’ve all got short attention spans)– an electro-shock belt won’t help you lose weight to uncover those hidden abs because caloric expenditure is much more heavily influenced by cardiorespiratory function. You burn more calories when you get your whole body up and moving rather than just flexing one muscle.

What can you do to get diver abs?
Contract your ab muscles in a variety of ways and directions. Your core is designed to let you bend your torso in any direction, so take advantage of that. Crunches are convenient because you can lay on your back, but they only work in one plane of motion. Divers are airborne during practice, which in itself is an ab workout, so they are free to twist and turn in any direction.

In order to increase your muscular strength you need to increase the resistance on the muscle. Divers can face considerable resistance without adding weights to the equation because divers contract their abs over a wide range of motion in an extremely short amount of time.

Between all the twisting, back extensions, and pikes, divers never need to worry about changing their ab routine. It’s an increasingly popular notion that doing the same workouts over and over will lead to a plateau. So while doing 8-Minute Abs over and over will certainly benefit your washboard-ness, changing it up may help you get there faster or get out of a plateau.