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| Physical Solutions News #10
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April 2008
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Core
Training
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Beyond Sit Ups and CrunchesYour core is the middle of your body, the part between your arms and your legs. It's not just your stomach, no matter how many people in your gym equate "strong core" with "six-pack." Your core goes all the way around, including your sides and back. It also includes several layers of muscles.
Sit ups and crunches work on just the front of your core and just on one layer: your rectus abdominus. Good core training works the whole cylinder of your core and all the layers of muscles involved. The training strengthens many muscles we don't usually even know we have.
Sit ups and crunches have other problems, too. They tend to reinforce the bad posture that many of us have from sitting hunched forward all day - working at a desk or computer, driving, etc.. They also aren't much like the motions you want to do when you are in the non-exercise part of your life. I don't usually say to stop doing sit ups or crunches, but I do recommend focusing on more effective exercises.
In general, build your strength from the inside out. The best place to start is by working your transverse abdominus, external obliques, and deep low back muscles, including multifidus, by keeping the low back and pelvis relatively still, with your normal lumbar curve in place. Once these groups are strong enough, strengthen other layers, including your internal obliques, quadratus lumborum, lats, glutes and paraspinals. Making sure you are engaging the right muscles can be tedious, hard work for both you and your trainer. But as you develop a foundation of strength, you can move on to more interesting and dramatic exercises involving your arms and legs as well as your core.
If you have a very weak core, start by doing exercises lying down. As you get stronger, advance to exercises done on all fours, then to kneeling with your torso straight in a kneel-stand, and finally to standing on two legs or just one. We can make the exercises harder at any stage by adding instability. This might include kneel-standing on a BOSU ball or standing on a folded towel.
What a good goal for core strength? Being able to keep the middle of your body stable in a relatively ideal position while moving your arms and legs. By "relatively ideal," I mean with good posture and a normal lumbar curve in your back (that's a slight sway back). You don't want to be stiff like a pillar, flat like a board, or arched like the bridges of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Having good core strength gives you power and control, whether you are pitching a baseball or lifting up your kids. Small changes can make a big difference.
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Success Story
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Kim Jackson
Kim came to us after having hurt her back
while doing a dead lift at her gym. She says, "I bent down and started
to pick up the weights. Suddenly, I heard a loud pop in my back and
felt a wave of pain. The man next to me heard it too! He said I should
go to the emergency room, but I tried to walk it off on a treadmill."
The walking didn't help, so she went to a chiropractor who told her to
stay out of the gym for four or five weeks. The problem is, Kim teaches
pre-school. She could quit going to the gym, but not quit moving. And
she loves going to the gym. She
started to get worse.
"I had pain down my right leg," Kim said. "My right foot went numb,
and then my left leg started to hurt too. I was even dragging a foot!"
She went to a orthopedic specialist and had an MRI done. When the
results showed
three partially herniated disks, the doctor sent her to Physical
Solutions.
I knew that carefully
planned exercise could
help Kim recover without surgery. Back pain can be so excruciating
that
it's hard for some patients to make themselves exercise. But Kim
says, "In the gym, working with Cathy and
later with Mark Forsythe, I knew that my actions were controlled so I
was
safe. It's the actions and reactions outside the gym that could
get me
in trouble. Working with pre-schoolers means I'm always tempted to go
twisty to pick up kids."
How's she doing now? "I'm functioning normally. Of course, I still have
some good days and bad days. But I'm delighted to have avoided back
surgery." Both her father and brother have had back surgery and Kim's
glad to have avoided the down time that the surgery entails.
This month as part of her workout with Mark Forsythe, she was doing
one-legged squats while balancing on a BOSU ball. That's normal
for Kim ... and amazing for most people. We're glad to have helped her
get back there.
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PHYSICAL SOLUTIONS - Physical therapy with
a sports-medicine edge
At
Physical Solutions, you'll find athletes treating athletes and other
active people. We know what it is like to be out of action and what it
takes to return. We listen to you. You're the most important part of
your program and will participate in all aspects of it.
Physical
Therapy -
Let us work with you to find explanations and effective treatment for
problems that limit your activities and enjoyment of life. Whether you
are an athlete, an active gardener, or a walker, you will be cared for
in a personalized, goal-directed way.
Personal
Training -
Work one-on-one or in very small groups with an expert trainer to
improve your personal strength, power, balance, and flexibility.
Athletic-Performance
Solutions
- Get a "sports physical" for your musculoskeletal systems. Then get
stronger and better in group classes that help you enhance your
performance, prevent injuries, and improve your abilities for
specific sports.
Sincerely,
Cathy Busby
Physical Solutions |
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