Fitness Tip of the Week #12 Core Training

Core Training has become extremely popular in recent years, due to the medical field and the emphasis they have put on its benefits in relieving lower back pain and overall spine health. All types of programs and routines have been developed utilizing crunches and situps and all sorts of ab work. I want to give you a tip this week that will help assist you in doing your crunches.

First off, lets talk about core training. The “core” consists of much more that the rectus abdominis, or the “six pack.” I would argue that core efficiency is much more important than core strength. But, what all would core efficiency entail? Remember that our muscular system has a few functions, one being that it is what holds our skeletal system in the ideal anatomical position. Secondly, it moves the joints through their range of motion. Now in terms of spine health, what is the base, or foundation, of our spine? Isn’t it the pelvis? The angle at which our pelvis sits will affect the various angles of the spine, and since our muscular system determines how our skeletal system is aligned, wouldn’t a good core training program want to focus on giving the muscles surrounding the pelvis the right stimulus to hold it in a neutral position? There are a number of muscles surrounding, and connected to, the pelvis: the iliacus, psoas major, psoas minor, rectus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique, transverse abdominis, gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus, tensor fascia latae, piriformis, obturator, and many others.

Here’s a very simple core training tip that involves the muscles of the hips as well as the abdominals: Try doing wishbone and frog crunches as a part of your core routine. To do a basic wishbone crunch, lay on your back with your hips and knees in the air at 90 degrees. Now press your knees together while trying to separate your feet as far apart as possible. From this position, place your hands behind your head keeping your elbows back, and contract your abs, lifting just your shoulder blades off the ground. Next, do frog crunches. Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Now let your knees fall to the sides and place the soles of your feet together. Contract the muscles of your glutes, and from this position do basic crunches.

These two simple additions to the basic crunch make the move much more efficient for the alignment of your pelvis and spine by activating more muscles around your hips as you crunch.

Loren