CORE STRENGTH

“Fire your core, tighten your core, brace your core!”

What?! What is our core, what is all the hype about? Physical therapists, chiropractors, and personal trainers of all educational backgrounds are jumping on the ‘core’ bandwagon with valid reason. There are several main reasons why recent research is focusing on core strength.

1. Core strength decreases pain.

2. Core strength may be a factor in delaying the progression of spinal degeneration.

3. Core strength enables good posture.

4. Core strength provides power for the entire body.

5. Last but not least, core strength will most definitely provide a very, nice looking stomachJ

How about a little anatomy lesson, shall we? Think of low back pain, pain that begins from simply bending forward to pick something up; pain that increases when we sit, or when we walk; low back pain that can send burning, tingling or numbing sensations down our legs. Those of us who have suffered from this type of pain, most likely have invested in some type of low back brace. Why? To provide stability around the lumbar spine/low back area. The brace acts as a corset, squeezing the stomach area around the low back to give the body stability. Now, wouldn’t it be nice, if our bodies could act as the corset, instead of relying on a device? The brace will eventually be thrown in the closet, until we bend over sometime in the future and ‘throw our backs out’ again. However, this time the pain will be much worse, think snowball effect. The brain will remember an injury, and unless steps are taken to correct the CAUSE and not just alleviate the SYMPTOMS of the injury, the next time we bend over to pick something up, the pain will be worse, and possibly cause permanent damage.

So what is this core?

The core musculature consists of several muscles that wrap around the body and act as a corset of the lumbar spine. The muscles that I train with my patients are the transverse abdominis,and the internal and external obliques. I want you to grip your waist. Now pretend that someone is going to punch you in the stomach. What do you do? Can you feel that? What is happening? You are bracing your abdominals, activating the transverse abdominis and obliques….you are ‘firing your core’. This is different from various popular strategies of sucking in your belly, or bringing your belly to your back.

For this blog, we are going to discuss these 5 reasons. Reason #1, if we can fire our abdominals and create stability when we move or exercise, we can decrease low back pain by providing structure and stability. The difficult part is learning how to breathe and exercise with this abdominal brace. All of my patients begin with this easy step and progress to more difficult exercises that strengthen the core. The abdominals are believed to be the key to protecting us against developing low back pain. Strengthening them through sit-ups has been recommended in the past; HOWEVER, current research has shown that the sit-up actually increases disc pressure, especially if performed in the morning. Therefore, those of us with low back pain are actually causing more harm than good when performing a sit-up. There are scientifically validated ways to train the ‘abs’ and the sit up is NOT one of them.

Moving on to reason number #2. Let’s talk about the ever growing ‘beer belly’. Have you ever seen this belly hanging over the belt buckle? Well, not only is it bad for your health to have fat around your heart, BUT, it pulls the spine forward, something we call an anterior pelvic tilt. These spines have a big curve in the low back as they are trying to hold up the belly. Spines DO NOT want to be in this position, so they start to form bone spurs or little pieces of bone that will eventually fuse one spinal segment to the other to try and stabilize the back. This is called spinal degeneration. Once these segments are fused, you have now lost all motion at that segment. So, what if we trained our core, (and stopped drinking as much beer), and built a corset around the low back. Suppose we strengthened the abdominals so much, as to decrease the lordosis, or lumbar curve. We would not have as much pressure through the spine thus less degeneration.

Let’s talk posture, or reason #3. How many of us sit at a computer, drive a car, or watch TV? These are all positions that require the body to flex, or bend forward. Spines do not like to be in that much flexion. It compresses the discs of the spine and causes collapse of the skeletal system. The result is the ever popular rounded shoulders, and forward head carriage posture. Now, what causes are upper bodies to collapse? What causes our shoulders to round forward causing neck pain and headaches? There is no support under us. Our core is our foundation. It’s like building a house on sand, how can our neck and shoulders be strong if our foundation is weak? Think about building a rigid cylinder, a steel cylinder around your abdomen. If we had a steel cylinder around our stomachs, our upper bodies would not be able to collapse thus giving us strong, headache free posture!

Okay athletes, reason #4. If you went to kick a soccer ball, or a football; throw a baseball or javelin; run up Torres, like some of you crazy kids out there, where do you think you get all of your power? YES, your core. Your body will always search for strength around your core first, before your extremities can function or move. I have trained all types of athletes on how to increase performance by improving core function. If your goal is to perform at a high level in sports and lower your injury risk, traditional exercise training may not be enough. There are newer approaches that focus on training your core in positions that mimic the actual postures, and activities you face in your particular sport ( e.g, running, cycling, climbing etc. )

Last but not least, number 5. Let’s say we have a female whom has had 3 beautiful children. (The joy of having our bellies expand to the point of explosion is a dream I sometimes wish our male counterparts would have to endureJ ) In any case, due to this expansion, the abdominal musculature becomes stretched and weak. It is mandatory that we gain the strength in our abdominals back, not only for pain prevention, lumbar stability, and good posture, but for a slim and trim looking stomach. Yes, your pant size will go down, if these muscles are trained.

So, lots of information here. Feel free to comment or contact me with any questions or concerns.

Take responsibility for your health TODAY.

Dr. Conley