“You gotta work your core!”

“Your core is the basis of all movement!”

“Gotta get that core work in so we don’t get injured!”

You hear this all the time from functional fitness dorks and while there’s absolutely merit to training the “core” and it’s actually fairly important, there’s become a cult-like thought process when it comes to training the core as if it’s the only set of muscles in the body. Everything has to include “the core” for it to be beneficial. This has lead to coaches putting athletes on balance modalities and using dangerous training protocols in an effort include the core (hint, these things don’t actually utilize the core any more than traditional movements). This is another byproduct of sports performance and strength and conditioning coaches taking something that has merit and allowing the pendulum to swing entirely too far one way or using it to create a niche to gain clientele. Like everything else core training is only part of the equation, and to be completely honest we’re focusing entirely too much of our efforts on it. This article is going to explain what the core is, how we should be training it, and the ramifications of the way many of us are training it right now.

What is the Core?

When you think of the core I’m sure you imagine thoughts of six pack abs and striated obliques and maybe lumbar extensors that pop out of your back. But these sets of muscles make up only a very small part of what constitutes the “core.” The core is actually made up of anything that attaches to the spine or the hips. An easy way to think of what muscles make up the core is to think “nipples to knees.” Anything between the nipples and the knees is likely a core muscle as they attach either at the hips or the spine (or both). This means that even your glutes and lats are core muscles, hell even your quads and hamstrings are core muscles. This is important to understand for a myriad of reasons that we’re going to talk about in this article. There’s implications of programming and over training certain aspects of the core in favor of neglecting the deeper aspects of the core that we cannot see.

Stabilizers vs Movers

Now that we’ve established what the core is, we need to look at the different aspects of the core: stabilizers and movers. An easy way to remember the difference between these two different sets of muscles is that anything that’s superficial is more than likely a mover (with few exceptions) and anything that’s deep is meant to stabilize. For example, your rectus abdominis (ab muscles) and obliques are movers while your transverse abdominis and multifidus are stabilizers. Here’s a list of some stabilizers and movers:

• Stabilizers

  • Transverse Abdominis

  • Miltifidus

  • Internal Obliques

  • Muscles of the pelvic floor

  • Transversospinalis

• Movers

  • Rectus Abdominis (6 pack muscles)

  • Spine Erectors (erector spinae)

  • External Obliques

  • Abductors of the hips

  • Hip flexors (psoas, rectus, etc)

  • Adductors of the hips (groin muscles)

  • Hamstrings

  • Glutes

  • Quads

As you can see, there is A LOT more to the core than you probably thought, and these muscles all have different actions and roles. Training the core with sit ups and crunches works very little of the core and actually can create problems from a movement dysfunction perspective, we’re going to talk about that now.

Joint Stacks Model

Before we jump into movement dysfunction caused by core training, we need to take a look at the anatomical implications of the body. The joint stacks model is a way of looking at the body and the way it moves as a series of joints. They alternate between stability and mobility and rely on the joints above them and below them to maintain their function. The model looks like this:

• Foot - Stability

  • Joints in the foot are very stable which makes sense. They’re the basis of our force transfer for everything, from standing to sprinting we need all forces to go through the foot. Stability is necessary for this to happen

• Ankle - Mobility

  • The ankle is incredibly mobile out of necessity. The mobility at the ankle allows for stability at the knee, and if we lose mobility at the ankle we will typically see injury at the knee due to the loss of stability. This is why ankle taping for anything outside of holding someone together to finish a game after getting injured is an exercise in futility.

    • The University of Florida for a number of years had mandatory ankle taping for ALL their football players. Every single one, injury or not you couldn’t hit the field for practice without ankle tape or a spat. This led to a number of knee injuries in those seasons before the practice was scrapped. Forcing stability at the ankle led to forced mobility at the knee, and had disastrous outcomes for the athletes at UF.

• Knee - Stability

  • The knee is a hinge joint. While you can technically internally and externally rotate the knee joint a little bit, it’s designed for flexion and extension (bending and straightening the knee). Valgus and Varus stresses at the knee are undesired.

• Hip - Mobility

  • The hip is meant to be VERY mobile. A lot of people no longer have this mobility from sitting and/or playing sports while leads to mobility increases in the knee and low back (think back pain!)

• Lumbar Spine (low back) - Stability

  • Very stable joint. It’s only really meant to flex and extend (think crunch and back extension). While the lumbar spine has the ability to rotate, it’s not really designed to.

• Thoracic Spine (upper back) - Mobility

  • The thoracic spine is meant to be incredibly mobile. We can flex, extend and even rotate very freely. Loss of mobility at this joint can cause problems with the neck and shoulder.

• Scapulothoracic joint (shoulder blade) - Stability

  • While it’s true that we want our scapula to be able to move relatively freely, we don’t want all the ancillary movement that comes when we lose stability in this joint as it leads to dysfunction both at the thoracic spine and glenohumeral joints.

• Glenohumeral joint (shoulder) - Mobility

  • The shoulder is pretty intricate (the majority of that is outside the purview of this article though), it’s basically the hips of the upper extremity. We can internally/externally rotate, flex/extend, and adduct/abduct. Loss of mobility at this joint leads to problems at the scapulothoracic joint, and more often the elbow.

    • Losing mobility at the shoulder has been one of the reasons we’re seeing KIDS end up with UCL tears and needing Tommy Johns Surgery. KIDS, think about that.

• Elbow - Stability

  • This is a hinge joint and you can think of it as the knee of the upper extremity. We can pronate and supinate at the elbow, however the primary function of the elbow is flexion and extension (bending your elbow).

• Wrist - Mobility

  • Very mobile joint. This is the ankle of the upper extremity.

• Hand - Stability

  • Similar to the foot, this is a very stable joint meant to transfer force and provide the ability of the wrist to maintain mobility.

As you can see, the main joints in our body alternate between mobility and stability and any break in that chain is going to cause problems at the joints around them. The reason for this is because of movement, and the compensations that we’ll make in order to perform certain movements. Here’s an example:

You’re a football player who’s wearing ankle tape during practice. This means that you don’t have the normal mobility at the ankle you would typically have. You’re working on change of direction and decelerating drills. Now when we decelerate there’s a good amount of movement at the ankle via dorsiflexion and possibly pronation/supination (it’s a very mobile joint), but you’ve lost the ability to create this movement due to the ankle tape. You still have to decelerate and/or change direction so guess where this movement is going to come from now? If you guessed the knee you’re right. Now that we don’t have the ability to do what needs to be done at the ankle, the knee is next up and if you remember the knee is built for stability. This can be a disastrous event for you as an athlete where if the forces are high enough, you’re looking at an MCL/ACL event.

Now this is somewhat of an extreme case, but it happens ALL THE TIME. The goal of ankle tape should be to get rid of the ankle tape and every athlete wearing it should be on an ankle strengthening program, fight me.

You may be asking what this has to do with core training, and we’ll answer that question in this next section.

Lower Crossed Syndrome

This is a syndrome that I would venture to say that 90% of the readers of this article suffer from. This is a concept first defined by Dr. Valdimir Janda and it’s categorized by muscles that are either over short and inefficient, or over stretched and inefficient. It looks like this:

Over short (tight) and inefficient/weak

• Hip flexors, mainly the iliopsoas complex and rectus femoris

• Lumbar extensors

Over stretched (long) and inefficient/weak

• Glutes

• “Deep” core muscles

  • Transverse abdominis

  • Multifidis

In a nutshell this syndrome is categorized by anteriorly rotated hips, weak core muscles and glutes, and weak lumbar extensors and hip flexors. It’s typically caused by being in a shortened hip position for long periods of the day such as sitting, or playing a sport in a “hinged” position (that’s pretty much all sports). No one really knows what comes first, whether it’s weak glutes that cause tight hip flexors or if its tight hip flexors that cause everything else but we know when one goes, the rest follow due to the joint stacks model and basic anatomy.

The reason muscles can be both over stretched or over tight and BOTH be weak is due to something called a length-tension relationship. When muscles are too tight they become inefficient because the protein structures within the muscle cell (actin and myosin) can’t grab onto each other efficiently to create muscle contractions. When the muscle is overstretched the same process occurs, we just can’t be efficient. When the tension is too high (short muscles) the length is compromised and we become short and weak/inefficient. When the tension is too low (overstretched muscles) it makes it hard to create tension high enough and the result is a weak muscle. This is one of the reasons people with overly high levels of flexibility (not mobility) are weak.

The ideal length-tension relationship is 80-120% of the length of the muscle. Anything outside of this creates movement dysfunction.

The iliopsoas complex attaches on the anterior (front) parts of the lumbar spine (and even parts of the thoracic spine) and when it becomes tight it pulls the spine out of position. In an effort to keep your spine healthy our bodies will tighten up the lumbar extensors which attach on the posterior (back) parts of the lumbar spine. This process is 100% involuntary. This keeps the spine healthy and free of damage in the short term however it tilts our hips forward causing the glutes and deep core muscles to be over stretched.

Why is this important? We’re talking about abs ammirite?! Well, the majority of the “core” exercises you’re performing are probably marathons of chaotic hip flexion further exacerbating this condition. This kind of training can both create this syndrome or horribly exacerbate it. We’re going to talk about that now.

Sit Ups are Stupid

If you’re like everyone else on the planet I would venture to say that the first ever core exercise you were subjected to was the sit up, or possibly the plank. If you’re my age and went through the Presidential Fitness Tests back in the 80’s and 90’s you probably had to do as many as you could for time, 60 seconds to be exact. This test for “core strength” (it doesn’t measure core strength at all) gave all of us an unrealistic understanding of what core training is. The sit up is actually MOSTLY a hip flexion exercise. While your abs are firing, the bulk of the load is carried by the iliopsoas and rectus femoris (your hip flexors). And what did we learn about these two muscles in the last section? Tightness causes HUGE dysfunction!

One thing we didn’t cover in explaining lower crossed syndrome was that in addition to creating that anterior pelvic tilt, it causes us to lose mobility in the hips. This loss of mobility is going to cause problems both at the lumbar spine and the knee. They’re now forced to become more mobile in an effort to get through normal movement function which means we’re creating potential for both back pain and knee problems. All because we’re overworking the hip flexors.

The truth of the matter is that the majority of the well known core exercises are merely hip flexion exercises OR are so scaled up that they become hip flexion exercises when the client/athlete doesn’t have proper movement ability and function at the hip. So what do we do instead? We’ll break that down now.

Core Stability Exercises

If we really want to tackle this problem we have to do a few things:

1. Work on gaining and maintaining our hip mobility.

2. We need to “undo” the day. Remember that what we do in the gym just tends to exacerbate the movement dysfunction we have in every day movement. We’ve gotta undo the sitting and shortening of the hips that we go through every day before we get to work.

3. We need to strengthen and shorten the glutes and deep core muscles.

4. We need to lengthen and strengthen the iliopsoas/rectus and lumbar extensors.

5. We need to shift our focus to core exercises that promote stability as opposed to movement.

So what is a core stability exercise? Glad ya asked! Core stability exercises are primarily broken down into four different anti-movement categories: anti-rotation, anti-flexion, anti-extension, and anti-lateral flexion. These movements are meant to work the stabilizer muscles of the core and are all about maintaining positioning. The easiest example is the front plank as I’m sure everyone has done one before. This movement is actually an anti-extension movement, as the goal of a plank is to maintain a neutral spine (that’s the anti-extension part) while gravity is giving us downward force vectors. There is no actual movement in this set of exercises and again the goal of the exercise is to MAINTAIN A POSITION.

Another series of stabilization exercises involve movement, while maintaining positioning and the bulk of these movements are dead bug variations and pallof press variations. These two movements involve maintaining a neutral spine while creating peripheral movement in the extremities. The goal is still to maintain a neutral spine but we’re increasing the length of the levers thus increasing force output in the deep core muscles. Here’s a breakdown of these two movements

• Pallof Presses

  • This is an anti-rotation movement done standing or scaled back to a supine position on the ground.

  • This movement involves force vectors in the frontal, saggital and transverse planes

  • Attach a band to a rack right around nipple height. Walk out laterally from the rack and keep the band perpendicular to your body. Extend your arms out and try to keep from breaking in your “core”

  • The goal is to maintain a neutral spine, while extending the arms out.

  • It should look like this:

• Dead Bug Variations

  • This movement is done supine on the ground with the hips and shoulders at 90 degrees. Both the hips and arms extend pulling on the spine trying to force you into lumbar extension and your goal is to maintain a neutral spine.

  • The lats (via the thoracolumbar fascia) and the hip flexors both attach to the lumbar spine so as we extend at the shoulder and hips it will tug on these structures. Try to fight that.

  • Engaging your abs, OR maintaining a draw-in to activate the TA are both acceptable ways to maintain this neutral spine.

  • It should look like this:

These exercises are typically harder to coach because positioning is the goal, and not just work. You have to pay attention to your client while they’re doing this exercise so many coaches will push this type of work to the side in an effort to make their lives easier. These core exercises need to be the basis of your core work, ESPECIALLY if you’re dealing with any level of lower crossed issues.

Deadbug variations are also great because they allow us to stretch AND strengthen our hip flexor muscles as long as we can create and maintain a neutral spine.

Movement-Based Core Exercises

Just because we’re shifting our focus to anti-movement based stability core exercises doesn’t mean that we can’t also work on the show muscles (they’re not just show, they provide vital strength for many movements). We need to make sure that we’re still maintaining good positioning, however different crunch variations and rotational movements are perfectly acceptable to train and encouraged.

One thing we need to make sure we’re steering away from too much violent hip flexion. As I’ve stated earlier in this article, too much uncontrolled stress on this musculature is going to increase tightness in the hip flexors leading to potential lumbar spine pathology and tightness in the rest of the musculature of the hips. It’ll also put the knee in a very vulnerable position and could lead to damage of both ligaments and even the meniscus.

Russian twist variations, crunch variations, some dead bug variations, rotational medicine ball work and controlled full range hip flexion movements should be done in lieu of typical crunches and sit ups. This will ensure healthy, mobile hips and limit movement dysfunction over time!

To wrap this up, taking the time to understand the core and the implications of how it’s being trained are incredibly important. Remember the core is “knees to nipples” and every aspect of it needs to be addressed, not just the abs and hip flexors. Training for stability will have nothing but positive impacts on the rest of your lifts, which means better all around results!