How To Build Rock Solid Core Strength
We have all heard time and time again about how important it is to have great “core strength.” Most of us have some vague idea of what this means, but aren’t sure exactly how to go about training core strength. This blog will talk all about what core strength is and how to train it effectively.
What Does Your Core Actually Do?
One job of your core is to transfer force between the upper and lower body.
If your core is meant to be stable, which means it should not move under load, we need to stop primarily training core strength with moves like side bends and sit ups (sorry Sir Mix-A-Lot).
In many ways, core strength is about resisting motion, primarily resisting extension, side bending and rotation.
This blog will cover anti-extension, with future posts covering other types of core training.
How Breathing Can Train Your Core
When training core stability, certain breathing drills can help you feel your core working. Rib cage position can also effect core stability so exercises like these will help you feel this.
Here are some basic drills that can teach you how to properly breathe and brace your core:
90/90 breathing
Breathing drills like this can help you learn how to inhale and exhale fully while feeling your core engaged.
90/90 breathing with Overhead Reach
Adding an overhead reach increase the challenge because it is more difficult to stabilize.
Dead Bugs Variations For Core Strength
Movement makes these drills more difficult because we have to learn to stabilize and resist motion throughout an entire range of motion.
Dead bug variations are some of our favorite ways to progress core strength:
Wall Press Dead Bug
Use a band to help keep your core active and stable while adding leg movement.
Full Dead Bug
Add arm movement to increase the challenge of the dead bug even more.
Advanced Core Strength Exercises
The following are more advanced anti-extension exercises. We use Dead Bug variations with most clients who need to work on core strength, but work these in as people need more of a challenge.
Plank
Planks are a classic core exercise that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Stability Ball Roll Out
The challenge here is to maintain a really solid core position and not allow the back to be dragged into extension.
Hollow Hold
No matter what level you choose, these are tough when done correctly.
Reverse crunch
We like these more than typical crunches because they tend to be more controlled.
Anti-Extension Core Progressions
There are a lot of ways to approach training for core strength and stability and future posts will cover a lot more options. The basic idea is that we need to follow a progression to be successful.
1. Learn to breathe properly while also bracing the core
2. Learn to resist spine motion (extension in this case) in various positions
3. Make resisting spinal extension more challenging with progressions such as planks and rollouts
4. Learn to control spinal flexion (gasp) with exercises such as hollow holds and reverse crunches.
Side note: spinal flexion is not evil and your back will not explode if you train it, you just need to be smart about it like anything else.
As you can see, there are a ton of options for anti-extension. These are some of our favorite exercises, but the options are only limited by creativity.
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