How To Train Your core? Core training may be one of the most misinterpreted aspects of fitness and training. There’s always a new, innovative way to train your core and it can be hard to keep up. However, innovation can quickly become a gimmick if you can’t answer why you’re doing an exercise, this is even more true when it comes to core training.
When Personal Training my clients, I always strive to keep my best core exercise simple but specific.
What Is The Core?
The core provides the body with stability at the spine and lumbo-pelvic hip complex (LPHC).
The core is more than just a set of abs, it is comprised of different systems that provide stability and movement. For the purpose of this post, let’s focus on the muscles involved instability.
Local Stabilization System
Attach directly to vertebrae
- Transversus Abdominus
- Internal Oblique
- Multifidus
- Diaphragm
- Pelvic floor muscles
Global Stabilization System
Attach from pelvis to spine
- Quadratus lumborum
- External oblique
- Internal oblique
- Rectus abdominus
- Gluteus medium
- Adductor complex
How to train your core muscles? The most associated muscles of the core are the rectus abdominis, transverses abdominis, internal and external obliques, and erector spine. These are generally the “go-to” muscles when talking about the train your core strength and explaining movements to clients.
A simple way to train your core is to break it down into three main modes of training: Anti-extension, Anti-rotation, and Anti-lateral flexion.
Anti-Extension
Ever done a plank? You know that horrible exercise where you lay on your front, resting on your elbows? That’s anti-extension.
Simply put: Anti-extension is an exercise that is used to resist curvature of the spine, in particular, the lumbar spine.
This type of core stability training is important to be able to transfer force through the body correctly and maintain optimal posture during workout and daily life.
Exercise examples:
- The plank
- The dead-bug
Anti-Rotation
How to strengthen the core? Anti-rotation is exactly how it sounds; resisting rotation through the trunk and spine.
Similar to above, this mode of core training is important for transferring force through the body and stabilizing the spine. Your body generally doesn’t like being rotated against its will, so the more force you can resist the better.
Exercise examples:
- Pallof Press
- Trip pod rows
Anti-Lateral Flexion
Anti-lateral flexion is resisting flexion from the side. The best way to picture this is the side bend movement in the frontal plane. This mode of core training is important for lateral stability, especially during unilateral exercises. The more lateral flexion you can resist, the better equipped you are to effectively complete unilateral exercises.
Exercise examples:
- Suitcase carries
- Single-arm overhead press
Final Thoughts:
It’s important to understand these modes of training because core-specific workout rely on being done correctly. There’s no hiding with core training, and if you’re not in the right position or activating the correct muscles, then you’re not training the way you intended to.
Let’s take the plank as an example. For a plank to be effective, you want to maintain a neutral spine throughout, resisting extension. Once you fall out of a neutral spine, the exercise is no longer effective.
This is one of the more frustrating exercises, as you often see people doing the plank, deliberately in an extended position. I believe this is due to both lacks of know-how and a visual version of gym Chinese whispers (watching others and repeating yourself). If you are aware of the Anti-extension properties a plank should maintain, then it’s hard to get the exercise wrong.