Originally Posted by 0311

[B]If you think about it, all sporting movements are variations of this force transfer concept, leaping, jumping, swinging a baseball bat, swimming, throwing. From pitching a fast ball to lifting the washing basket, the main type of ‘contraction’ your abdominal muscles perform are called isometric or ‘static’. They contract hard but don’t shorten, keeping everything critically tight while the rest of your body; your limbs perform the movement.

I would recommend you acquaint your self with those big, round, blow-up balls you may see siting idly around in good gyms. They are the best abdominal strength-training apparatus to be introduced in the last 50-odd years.