Core Performance
Core strengthening is often the first line of defense for back pain since it’s preached that a weak core = back pain. I find this rarely to be the case. If you can get out of bed and stand, you don’t have a weak core. I find people don’t maximize it’s use, and that’s usually for positional and/or breathing reasons. Let’s discuss.
First, what is the core? The “core.” I use quotes because it’s become a commercial term But what does it do? How does it work?
Nipples to Knees
Depending on who you ask, you’ll get names of different muscles that make up the core. Below is a list. Feel free to add to or take away, it is a free country, but matters not. To make it easy, just think of the core as NIPPLES to KNEES. And since its nipples to knees, we can stop saying “core” and just say trunk - no quotes needed.
Trunk Control
To understand trunk control, we have to understand normal breathing. The lungs are a pressure system, and pressure moves from HIGH to LOW. When you inhale, the lungs expand, thus decreasing the pressure inside, so air moves from outside (high) to inside (low). It is a passive process so you literally have to do NOTHING to inhale. Key to this process is the diaphragm, the red muscle in the picture below. To be more precise, the diaphragm AND the pelvic floor descends.
Pressure Regulation
I’m going to switch to core, no quotes, since I’m talking about breathing mechanics and the actual center of the body. A canister is the easiest way to visualize the core. The diaphragm is the top, pelvic floor is the bottom, and the midsection makes up the walls (in ALL directions). When you inhale, the diaphragm contracts and pelvic floor relaxes - both move down. It is the opposite on the exhale. The tension in the walls should remain consistent. Since the top and bottom move together, the pressure in the core remains constant.
I’ll never be able to prove it, but I think errors in pressure regulation are the cause of injuries. How do these errors occur? The top and bottom don’t move together, tension in the walls isn’t maintained, or both. The funny shapes below demonstrate this visually. Just not the arrows are facing each other instead of going the same direction.
Issues with the diaphragm are typically related to chest breathing, or never taking in a full breath. Since you never fully use the diaphragm on the first breath, each subsequent breath is affected. Issues with the pelvic floor are usually related to a muscle that never relaxes. A flexed muscle can’t flex again. There are a variety of methods to reduce the tone of the pelvic floor, some involve actually touching them. I don’t do those.
How to Breath
A breathing assessment is part of my evaluation. I’m always amazed at how people can “mess up” a seemingly innate task, and how people have such weird ideas on how breathing should work. Usually they will demonstrate paradoxical breathing:
Is this bad? I don’t know, but it is inefficient. Chest breathing usually pulls people into lumbar extension, so you increase the arch in your back. That changes the tension in the walls of the canister. Instead of using the entire truck to stabilize, you end up biasing it to mostly low back. So, your low back is overworked.
Again, the reminder on how to breath. A full inhale pushes out in 360 degrees, most people don’t get pushing the sides out. It should feel like you are breathing into your low back. If you breath this way, you are ALWAYS using your core; therefore, every exercise is a core exercise.
If you can’t do this, even after practicing, here is a regression. Again, you should feel the air getting into your low back. Two sets of 1:00 is enough. I like timed sets, most people screw up their breathing when they try to count reps. There are other variations of this exercise with squeezing something between your knees, or blowing up a balloon. Feel free to try those, I find that part unnecessary.
A PROgression is the oblique opener. The external resistance actually makes you work. The obliques are the muscles that push the sides out. The guy looks like he’s crunching the weight up, don’t worry about that. Just lay flat, and fill the low back with air as you inhale. It works better on an empty stomach.
Breathing While Moving
So, now that you know how to breath, and realize that normal breathing uses the core correctly, the easy part is just breathing while you move. I like to keep this simple, so INHALE when you need to be the most stable. For most movements, that is the eccentric portion. Lowering into a squat. Lowering the weight down in an RDL. Lowering portion of a push up.
For traditional core exercises, that would be when your hands/feet are moving away from your body. Back exercises can be lumped into core exercises.
This breathing piece is key since the inhale determines your TRUE mobility. I’ll use the plate leg lowering as an example, a favorite trunk stability drill of mine. The leg lowers on the inhale, returns on the exhale. It should move like a piston, no delays between the inhale and exhale. Your leg may only move 6 inches. That’s fine, that’s your mobility today. As you get better at controlling your core, that will improve over time.
Many either don’t breath, or hold their breath at some point of the movement, usually the hardest point, because they are hyper focused on getting the hands/feet to the ground. That isn’t a core exercise, it’s an ego exercise.
You can actually completely change a movement if you EXHALE on the eccentric. It isn’t bad, just different, so don’t beat yourself up on if you are messing something up. Try both, see and feel what the difference is.
Summary
Optimal core performance involves regulating pressure in the canister
Every exercise is a core exercise if you know how to use it
Learn to BREATH while you MOVE
Breathing WHILE you move shows you your true MOBILITY