Happy first day of March!
Spring is just around the corner - if you don’t look out your window that is – and thoughts of loosing weight, becoming more active, and building strawberry towers (or is it just me?) are dancing in many a head.
So what about core strength?
Surely, we need some strength in
the body-middle to perform all the weight – loosing, work–outing, and strawberry – tower building activities safely?
Right?
YES and NO – depending on your definition of what the heck core is and where you plan to find it.
Core strengthening is, undoubtedly, one of the most critical parts of any exercise program if you are looking to continue moving – without pain – well
into your older years.
However, due to the complexity of the mechanical function of the trunk, core strengthening is also the most poorly understood component of exercise instruction.
Let’s unravel this a bit, shall we?
Core strength does not mean abdominal exercises alone. I kinda want to repeat this a bunch of time...
The common
advice to strengthen the abdominals to heal low back pain has backfired on oh-so-many many people, and here is why:
Core strength is the ability to stabilize the bones in the upper body, rotate the torso with proper spinal curvature (something we talked about in class yesterday), and maintain stable pelvic position while sitting, standing and exercising.
It is also the ability to control the bladder (yes, I just said
this!), stabilize the ligaments of the knees with the lower abdominal wall, and BREATHE CORRECTLY while doing all of these.
As you can see, quite a lot of movement skills fall under the category of “core strength,” and none of these – as you can also see – are addressed in the common core strengthening crunch or plank ( choice of photo above pun intended).
In the next couple of weeks we will unpack the
definition of core strength further by taking a look at core strengthening and breathing dynamics; posture, alignment and core strength – and the link between the three (or the absence of thereof); and discuss one of the best abdominal exercises you most like aren’t doing.
