Daily Food for thought- Getting to the core

Weekly Theme: Getting to the Core

As someone who has become semi-obsessed with core training (so much so I put out an education course on the creation of effective ab circuits), my view of what this region actually does has evolved along with my training.

While sit ups and crunches have long been cast down as ultimate evil, the rabbit hole goes a bit deeper.

Core stability exercises such planks/side planks/standing carrys and other exercises promote the resistance of forces trying to put us out of place.

On the other hand, exercises such as crunches, leg lifts, torso twists etc cause movement in these areas are MUCH better at promoting muscular development and definition because they are actually requiring the muscle to produce force versus merely resist.

In order to effectively utilize "core" training, we have to understand the purpose of the core in different scenarios:

• Daily life- hold the trunk stabilize while bending over, rotating, etc  
• Sports- Act as a stable base to transmit force generated from the upper and lower body
• Beach- Look like sexual chocolate (or white lightning)
  

My point with this comparison is that we want to spend the majority of our training time focusing on what the core actually does (stabilize) versus sit up and crunching motions which train this area to move.

This also means that we would spend a lot more time doing core stability work with a stay at home mom who is required to pick up her young children than a beauty pageant competitor seeking to get ripped for competition. Ask yourself: how much of each tool does the client need to get their job done? Everything is specific.

But before diving in to crunches with your physique oriented clients, also consider that we much develop stability FIRST to ensure the proper muscles are doing their job during more advanced ab circuits.
 Here is an example of an ab circuit progression we utilized for a Ms. USA competitor recently:

• Phase #1- Static plank hold
• Phase #2- Plank crawl + plank hold
• Phase #3- Ab wheel rollout + plank crawl + plank hold
• Phase #4- Ab wheel rollout + plank crawl + plank step outs

As you can see, we went from static to dynamic movements which require more stabilization. We also included a higher stress exercise (rollout) at the beginning to pre-fatigue the abs and create more bang for the buck with our endurance based planking movements.


For this week, we will lay out our the concepts of our system and key exercises for progressing each exercise. Here is some background reading to get things rolling:
1. How to restore the core
2. Power up your planks
3. Basic core training progressions