VALUE OF THE CORE

BY BRETT A. RIESENHUBER 09/24/08

People always talk about core training, but most have only a small notion of what the core truly is when it comes to the human body. Most see a guy with a six-pack stomach and immediately think that he is in great shape. Well maybe not??? Maybe all he conditioned was the muscles in front of the abdominal cavity?

The CORE is everything from the extremities inward. Your legs, arms, and head all come off of the body core. So the core is composed of the abdominal muscles, both internal and external, the muscles of the spine, oblique muscles, hip muscle complex, and shoulder muscle complex. Lack any of those and there is instability in the body, and stability starts at the core.

Think about the guy with the six-pack and the physiology behind that: If you can see the front (‘anterior’ for those who love to use anatomical terms...I do not because it confuses people not in the fitness profession) abdominal muscles and not the oblique muscles(lateral), or lower back (posterior) musculature, the guy missed something. Now let’s take that a bit further…imagine that the body is held together by the bones and then the muscles give it rigid structure…not hard to do since it is true! Well if we have the spine in front, the anterior abdominal muscles, and nothing else, what keeps everything from collapsing laterally and turning into a mess? Kind of like trying to say that two wet noodles can stand up together!

So now that we have the core defined…my way;-), let’s talk about how to train the core and make it solid, rigid, strong, and structurally complete!

The way is to take the body through a range of motions with resistance while covering all possible motion possibilities. Got that? Sound tough? Darn right it is.

Does traditional weight training handle that? No.

How about traditional cardio? No…and we’ve gone over the way to train cardio in a previous Blog (and will probably do it again;-).

So what does train the whole core? A variety of training protocols all combined to create a synergistic effect on the body. (Sounds like the Americas Boot Camp program is getting a bump here too;-) Let’s go over some of the points that need to be addressed for this program:

Abdominal muscle complex – contract, rotate, and extend.

Back – pull down and towards, and all angles between.

Chest and shoulder complex – push, rotate, and stabilize.

Hip complex – stabilize, lift and push.

OK, that made things a bit easier, or did it? Wow, that is a lot! Sounds like hundreds of exercises! Well, it can be if you train traditionally.

So let’s go in an untraditional fashion and voila! The America’s Boot Camp Program is born!

Training techniques that will help condition the core, and even bring in the extremities! How about these:

Planks – not too many exercises totally tighten up all the muscles of the core, and this is the KING! You are forced to contract your abdominal muscles (all of them), your back, shoulder complex, hip complex, and everything else! Just doing this one exercise will help out a ton!

Kettlebell Training – not only are the major muscle groups trained and conditioned with kettlebell training, but the core is forced to stabilize and gets worked hard. Kettlebell exercises strengthen the shoulder and hip complex, the back, as well as being able to train the major and minor muscle groups of the body.

Suspension Training – only one or 2 points positioned on the ground while exercising with rest of the body suspended in air by some form of cable…can’t force the small muscles to work much more than that!

Balance Training – unstable surfaces lead to forcing the muscled of the core as well as the small muscles of the joints to fire hard and get stronger.

With all of these overall techniques available to improve core training, all you need now is a way to pull everything together into one solid program…thus the America’s Boot Camp Program was developed!