Oh wow, I was in pain yesterday. I don’t wish anyone would experience it. It was uncomfortable to walk, stand, sit or lay down. Back pain is not a joke.
Today I’m much better, than yesterday, but still in a doubt about a strength of my core muscles. And even if it wasn’t the main reason I pulled my back, it certainly get me thinking how well I’m educating my clients on importance of a strong core unit.
Therefore, I concluded 7 key points everybody needs to know about the core:
1. Firstly, and most importantly – the CORE muscles is NOT ABS ONLY!
It’s the most common mistake people do at the gyms – zillion of crunches to build strong core muscles. Let’s bust this myth for once and have a look at the picture that pin points the deep inner muscles in our bodies that form core unit.
As you can see it’s much more complex than seeing a “six pack” in a mirror.
2. The core (inner) unit muscles (once again: transversus abdominis (TvA), Obliques, pelvic floor, multifidus and erector spinae) activates to provide the necessary “stiffness” to give the arms and legs a working foundation from which to function.
That is exactly why when you first starting to train we will walk you through the lecture of bracing your abdominals and learning how to move your limbs in relation to the midsection being stable and strong. So once again, to make a point:
YOU DO NOT TRAIN YOUR CORE MUSCLES BY DOING CRUNCHES, YOU TRAIN YOUR INNER STRENGTH UNIT PERFORMING VARIETY OF FULL BODY EXERCISES.
3. The core muscles are being misunderstood as a abdominal muscle is because the wrong interpretation of Transversus Abdominis (TvA) muscle.
As we look at ourselves in a mirror all we see is our “ab muscles“. In reality abdominals are formed from TvA, Internal and External Oblique, and Rectus Abdominis muscles. And that’s the sequence they are layered in our bodies. Therefore when we look to the mirror we only see Rectus Abdominis (“six pack”) muscles. The latter muscles is meant to control the tilt of the pelvis, keep us upright and make us look good in bikini (but that’s a different story). TvA on the other hand is meant to create a stability of the entire body and to assist us in breathing. Rectus Abdominis is the superficial muscle layer, and TvA is hidden deep down inside our bodies, close to our skeletal.
4. From the functional perspective TvA is one of the most important muscles in our bodies.
TvA main responsibility is provide body with stability, and assist in our breathing. (Here you must remember that first time trainer asked you to lay down on your back, bent your knees, and perform deep breathing – inhale, exhale, brace your abs. Remember?) And that is the two main reason when trainers reminds you over and over again to tighten your abdominals and synchronize your breaths when performing exercises.
5. If you have weak TvA your body engages other muscles to compensate for it’s dysfunction.
So even we can function well enough without having a reliable core muscle complex, other muscles that are being used will fatigue faster (they will doing more work than they are supposed to). And we know well what happens if we get too tired – we give up, and that’s exactly what happens with the muscles – they give up and it’s just an injury waiting to happen…
6. Sedentary lifestyle is the main cause of the lower back pain, because we do not use TvA frequently enough.
It is well known that low back pain cuts off the neural drive to the TvA and deep stability muscles of core, that will result in lower back pain. It’s a circle that always comes back to hunt you down, unless you break it. With this being said the importance of exercise in your daily routine, especially if you spent 8+ hours at the desk, or couch. You have to workout muscles to keep them working.
7. If you have learned how to engage your core (I’ll explain it in my future post), try making it a constant effort.
Every time you see a red car or every time you hear a phone ring check your posture and engage your TvA for 15 seconds.
Be aware to sit and walk tall!