"CORE" for thought...

I teach a wonderful group of men and women for a CORE conditioning class out in Burnaby and a few of them have brought up some very interesting questions and comments about how I train their core… take a listen:

I don’t know what the core is?
Many participants assumed the ‘core’ is just the stomach. And the stomach is just the abdominals? Partially there… the core is made up of a larger number of muscle groups including the: rectus abdominus (your ‘6 pack’), transverse abdominus (the ‘flat belly’ feel…think, sucking in your stomach), obliques (your waistline…think hour glass figure), erector spinae (lower back muscles that support your lumbar spine), and spinal rotators (back side muscles that helps you rotate the back).

It doesn’t just stop there, here are some forgotten muscles that can also be associated with the core when on the move: hips, hip flexors, glutes, pelvis…its actually safe to say that all movements you do is associated with your core and can’t be done without some type of core strength.

Why did you do so many different squats and push up type exercises? How is that core work?
These functional compounding exercises cannot be executed properly without having the core engaged! And when done slowly (or quickly but with control), you are forcing the core muscles to contract and voila! Core and balance comes into play without you having to realize it!

How do you ‘turn on’ the core? I don’t know the difference and how will I know if mine is turned on?
I spent quite a few minutes with this lady after class to go over a great technique I learnt in school on how to distinguish the feel between relaxed and contracted. Try it out:
Standing, start off with most horrible posture possible, stick your gut out, round your back…you might already look like that now…
Now, simultaneously, take a slow deep breath in and lift your chest up and stand as straight as possible.
Keeping your good spinal posture, as you exhale, press your shoulders down but keep your belly pulled in.
Take your hands and place on your abdominal area and keep pushing that air out (you should feel your belly start to shrink in…), poke your belly and feel it harden!
Hold onto that “feel” around the mid-section, and now continue to breath naturally.
Are you still poking your belly? Do it, it should feel different from when you were standing relaxed.
There’s the difference in how it feels to have it ‘on’ and ‘off’. Now you know how to turn it on. Once you are used to feeling it, engaging the core can be done as easy as switching on a light.
You will know when it is not turned on when your chest starts to drop, or your back starts to round downwards, or your belly sticks out and your lower back starts to hurt.
Every so often, assess your current posture…would you say its bad, or great?

I have never moved so slow or held a position for as long as I am in this class, it hurts!! Why can’t I just move quick, I can do more that way.
There is always a time and place for quicker paced and controlled exercises. But when you take the time to slow things down or even hold it for a longer period of time in the contracted position, it encourages the muscle to maximize the exercise! Imagine this: If you were to do crunches by swinging your elbows and upper torso up to help you, I bet you would be able to do about 100 without breaking a sweat. That is because you are using momentum (the swinging motion of the body) to help you along the way. Now, take the same exercise, move slower, think about the muscles at hand…and hold it at the contracted position for 2 or 3 breaths before easing it down slowly. I bet you wouldn’t be able to do 10 without feeling a greater burn. THAT is all core baby! Get it now? Sometimes it is not about quantity, but about QUALITY.

That is just from the first 2 classes. By the third class, I already have them coming up to me overjoyed because some of the exercises they have been doing now feel ‘differently’. (as in, “I CAN FEEL MY STOMACH MUSCLES REALLY WORKING WHEN I DO IT NOW!”) And you can bet I am witnessing great improvement in their form and stability as well!

=) * pump fist! * Woohoo! Another mission successfully accomplished!