What Most Fitness Enthusiasts Don't Know About Core Strengthening

Quite often, my lower-back pain patients come to me with the prescription of 'Core Strengthening' to fix their issues.  It blows my mind when these folks mention how they can't believe their physician put such a prescription; "I train abs every day at the gym...my core is solid!"
Bodybuilding and functional fitness are similar in that they both involve strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition.  BUT, the prime focus of bodybuilding is to develop muscles.....period.  Crunches, leg raises, and trunk twists are staple bodybuilding movements that do a great job at developing the rectus abdominus (the six-pack) and oblique muscles but the flexion and excessive rotation involved in these movements place an undue amount of stress and wear on the joints in the lower back.  Therefore crunches, leg raises, and trunk twists sacrifice the lower back joints for the purpose of developing the muscle.  Crazy eh?

Before I go further, I think it's important to know what the core muscles were meant to do.  The functional activities performed most often by normal human beings are sitting, standing, and squatting and all of them involve a stable spine (not moving).  Incidentally, a recent study demonstrated that the 5 exercises that get the greatest amount of 'core' activation are exercises that are done without movement in the lower spine.  These 5 exercises are referred to as the FAB FIVE and are listed as the following:

1. Prone Plank: the standard plank that most people are familiar with
2. Side Plank: self explanatory but you don't see machines for this or people doing this at the gym
3. Quadruped 'Bird Dogs': flexing one shoulder and extending the opposite hip while on all fours
4. Plank With Rotation: Despite the dynamic nature of the movement, the lower back remains still
5. McGill Sit-Up: Somewhat like a crunch but with one hand held under the lower back to maintain its natural curve.  Once again, the movement (if any) is in the upper back and hips while the lower back remains still.

So the bottom line is that the 'core strength' that health care practitioners are referring to is the ability to keep the lower back STILL while everything else moves around it.  The aforementioned concept is TRUE spinal stabilization (no movement).  Planks are STATIC exercises where the spine is subjected to gravity while one resists its pull.  I'll save the Fabulous Five exercises for another post.

Re-examine your 'core' workout  regimen and ask yourself, "am I training a joint by moving it when it was meant to be held still?"

Happy training and stay tuned for more 'core' advice.

DAVE