From that perfect looking Olympic snatch, to something as humdrum as mopping the floor, every movement involves the core. Whether you are a professional athlete, a crossfitter, a fitness enthusiast or someone with a desk job, all movements, no matter how simple or complex, rely on the use of core.
What Makes The Core?
Think of your core as the center of your body, and through this very center the force to perform all movements pasees to our extremities.
Image 1 shows the core muscles:
- Rectus abdominis, or widely referred to as abs, at the front,
- The internal and external obliques,
- The erector spinae,
- Lumbar multifidus, and quadratus lumborum at the back,
- The diaphragm at the upper edge and
- The pelvic floor, and the iliac psoas at the bottom.
Until a few moments ago, you thought it was all about those washboard abs! Your core is far more complex, and training to build a strong and functional one requires more than performing crunches and leg raises.
Great, now you know what makes the core.
Why Build A Strong and Efficient Core? Let’s Find Out.
There are a plethora of reasons behind world-class athletes, strength and conditioning professionals, and physical therapists around the world talking so much about the importance of building a strong core. Ever wondered why? Here are a few reasons :
- Postural Control and Postural Balance: Our movement involves constant balance and unbalance. Imagine you want to jump, and while your legs push off, your trunk is falling down towards the ground – the constant battle with gravity. In scientific terms, it is the ability of your body’s postural system (musculoskeletal, vestibular, somatosensory and visual) to maintain the center of mass within the limits of stability.
This complex skill of postural balance and control is what allows you to sit upright in your office chair, get in and out of it, and drive your car. Building a strong core allows us to perform simple and complex tasks with good coordination, and provides our body with stability.
- Low Back Pain (LBP): More than 60% of people around the world develop chronic low back pain. Literary evidence suggests performing systematic all-round core strengthening helps in prevention and treatment of LBP.
- Stability: Core strengthening improves stability and control of the lumbar spine and pelvis, thereby allowing for efficient execution of athletic skills, as well as activities of daily living such as bending to pick up an object and tying of shoelaces.
- Healthy Ageing: Ageing is associated with reduced muscle capacity, loss of functionality in performing activities of daily living (ADL), poor gait, and increased risk of falls and fractures. Performing core strengthening improves functional abilities in performing ADLs, reduces tremors and the risk of falls by improving postural control and stability.
- Dysmenorrhoea: A common gynecologic disorder, refers to painful menstruation. Pain can reduce the quality of life and can become irritating to live with. Performing planned core strengthening exercises improves blood flow to the musculature around the pelvis, and improves the metabolism of the uterus, which reduces the intensity of pain and duration of dysmenorrhoea.
Guidelines On How To Build A Strong and Functional Core.
You want a strong core? Make sure you train the flexion (forward bending or rounding of the spinal column; ), extension (backward bending of the spine), lateral flexion (bending sideways), and rotational strength (ability to rotate the torso) of your core.
- Free Weight exercises, such as the squat, bench press, clean and jerk, snatch, and deadlift are excellent to develop a rock-solid core, as they work on all the muscles of the core. Adding destabilizing bars, using resistance bands to suspend weights from the bars further loads the erector spinae.
- Unilateral exercises such as skater squats, unilateral dumbbell shoulder press, chest press, and rear foot elevated split squats are great for building external obliques as they challenge the rotational strength of the core.
- Hollow rocks, sit-ups, hanging leg and knee raises target the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques.
- Instability in performing exercises such as stir-the-pot is great to work on external obliques..
- Front plank with and without hip extension on the floor, and on stability ball targets internal obliques, multifidus, and erector spinae.
- Exercises such as Pallof press train anti-rotation strength by targeting transverse abdominis, and isometrically contracting rectus abdominis.
- Glute bridges are great for developing strong erector spinae and the gluteal muscles.
- Prone trunk and hip extensions are great for strengthening the lumbar multifidus.
- Performing side planks and Copenhagen planks with and without suspension systems for transverse abdominis, and the adductors of the hip.
- Unloaded and loaded birddog are excellent to build transverse abdominis, primary trunk stabilizer, and anti-rotation strength.
Investing 15-20 minutes daily in strengthening the core will make sure you keep it strong, have the ability to perform daily tasks efficiently, and keep health problems such as low back pain, at bay.
Author details:
Shikhar Suman Bassi
Exercise physiologist and strength Coach.
M.Sc. Sport and Health Sciences
University Of Exeter,
Exeter, United Kingdom.
References
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- Hibbs, A., Thompson, K., French, D., Wrigley, A. and Spears, I., 2008. Optimizing Performance by Improving Core Stability and Core Strength. Sports Medicine, 38(12), pp.995-1008.
- Human Kinetics. 2021. Build Your Core. [online] Available at: <https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/build-your-core> [Accessed 25 February 2021].
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- Publishing, H., 2021. Core conditioning — It’s not just about abs – Harvard Health. [online] Harvard Health. Available at: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/core-conditioning-its-not-just-about-abs> [Accessed 25 February 2021].
- S Saleh, H. and E Mowafy, H., 2016. Stretching or Core Strengthening Exercises for Managing Primary Dysmenorrhea. Journal of Womens Health Care, 05(01).
- Smith, B., Littlewood, C. and May, S., 2014. An update of stabilisation exercises for low back pain: a systematic review with meta-analysis. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 15(1).
- Willardson, J., 2007. Core Stability Training for Healthy Athletes: A Different Paradigm for Fitness Professionals. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 29(6), p.42.
- Willson, J., Dougherty, C., Ireland, M. and Davis, I., 2005. Core Stability and Its Relationship to Lower Extremity Function and Injury. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 13(5), pp.316-325.