One of the first “exercises” I have almost all clients do is demonstrate to me what they think a neutral spine is. Generally we’ll do this in a quadruped position (on all fours) but the goal is to understand what a proper spine position feels like so it becomes easier to apply to almost every exercise we do. My goal is to get an immediate correction when I cue someone to “find neutral”. For most people this won’t come naturally so here’s a quick tip to help you understand what it should feel like.
This picture is of a person doing a “cat-camel” exercise which you may or may not have seen before. The middle picture is a good demonstration of a neutral spine. This is the exact method I use to teach core positioning. Here’s how it’s done:
1. In a kneeling position, round your back over as far as you possibly can (camel)
2. Next, create as much of an arch as you can so your belly button is as close to the ground as you can get it
3. Finally, find the middle!
That’s it! By finding the middle of these two extreme positions you are going to be very close to your neutral spine position. Pay attention to what it feels like…now try to recreate this feeling with each exercise you do!
I was emailed this question from a client a few weeks back and just wanted to address it here.
Each client that starts training with me has a different background, but I can generally place them in one of a few categories. First, there are those that have a lot of experience training under a high-intensity, high-volume program that has contributed in some way to an injury. Their visit to physical therapy is what puts them in front of me in the first place. These can be split into a couple of subgroups; one group that moves effectively and has a solid training background and a second group who has very inefficient movement patterns but pushed through these workouts without knowing any better.
Second, I may get a client who has next to no experience from a training standpoint. They are literally at square 1 and are eager to make changes (I love all my clients but these are some of my favorites!).
In any case, I am a big believer in the MED method to programming (Minimal Effective Dose). In other words, I want to see how little I can give someone and still make positive changes.
At the beginning of a training program, the volume and intensity are so low that someone might even be a little bored during the first week or two. We do this for a couple of reasons. One, I want to introduce new movements the right way to each athlete or client. If I ask too much of them, their form will be sacrificed and we’ll also be hindering results down the road.
Second, I use this time as an extended assessment period. By watching them move multiple times and seeing how each person responds in the 1-2 days following a workout I will have a good sense of how to safely progress them moving forward.
If they move well, don’t break a sweat and are not the least bit sore the day after a training session, it might be OK to progress the volume a bit quicker.
Whether this is the case or not, each person needs to demonstrate movement competency and earn the right to either do more volume (if the goal warrants this) or increase in the intensity.
Another reason we do it this way is for the psychological implications. Let’s say we start with too much volume or intensity and as a coach I know the best thing is to back them off. Many people will take this as a failure as they were unable to do what was asked of them (even though this isn’t the case – this is the coach’s fault). By starting with exercises that are easier, with lower intensity and low volume I am setting the person up for success early on. By mastering these exercises first without putting the athletes out of commission with muscle soreness, we’ve made it easier to progress moving forward. Even though we may end up at the same spot down the road, the feeling of taking steps forward is definitely preferred over pushing too fast, too early and then stepping back.
The goal as a coach is to make things as challenging as they need to be – and no more!
There are fairly complex ways to implement more challenging sets and reps but for the inexperienced trainee we can make a great deal of progress with low volume, simple progressions that ask a little more of you each week.
In the first part of this short summary for training the core, we reviewed the very basics of what makes up your core. Hopefully the difference in function between the inner and outer core (timing mechanisms) was clear. If the inner core muscles aren’t functioning at the right time, other muscles will try to fill in that stabilizing role – pretty cool adaptive capabilities of the body but not a good long term strategy as these compensations will lead to pain or other movement dysfunctions.
The main takeaway is that the core musculature is designed to function as stabilizers of the spine as opposed to prime movers. This distinction is what drives the exercise selection that we’ll go over here.
Before we get into actual exercises it’s a good idea to know what a strong and stable core looks like. To me, a person with a good functioning core is one who is able to hold a relatively neutral spine (from the low back all the way to the neck) while performing other activities. This should happen without thinking about “using your core”. A good inner core will work reflexively.
Here are some cues (other than “turn on your core”) that you can think about:
1. Stay Long through your head/spine
2. Keep your ears in line with your shoulders; Keep a “packed neck”
3. Brace like you’re about to take a punch
4. Breathe deep while staying as still as you possibly can
These apply to most, if not all, core exercises (as well as most strength exercises) that you will (should?) be doing.
When designing programs it’s a good idea to categorize each movement or exercise to help develop a somewhat balanced approach. In other words, we don’t want to have too much of one movement and not enough of another. It’s common to see routines with 10 pushing exercises and only 1 or 2 pulling, for example. If you just pick exercises from a list it’s easy to let this happen…if we pick the movement patterns in a balanced fashion first it then becomes easier to decide the best exercise to use. So for an upper body workout you might decide you are going to do 2 pulling exercises and 2 pushing exercises (we actually like to include more pulling than pushing but for the sake of balancing things out we’re going with 2 and 2). Now we pick 2 different exercises in each category and we’re good to go.
For the core we can break it down into 3 or 4 simple categories. We have 3 planes of motion; Transverse (Rotational - think twisting), Saggital (straight ahead – flexion and extension), or Frontal/Coronal (lateral flexion; think side bends, jumping jacks, etc.).
Since we decided that stabilizing is the best way to train the core though, how do we work these movement patterns without actually moving?
What we need to do is use exercises that create forces that need to be resisted by the same muscles used to create the motions we just identified. We train the core this way by “tricking” the muscles into reflexively stabilizing when they need to.
We have 4 categories of movements that we use for this based on each plane of motion (saggital gets 2):
Here’s a couple videos of exercises in each pattern that you can use on your own if you’re new to the game. Refer to the cues above for execution:
Anti-Rotation
1. Tall Kneeling Anti-Rotation Press. The band or cable is producing a rotational force on your back and your job is to resist that rotation. 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps each side OR 3 reps each side with longer holds (10 seconds) are a good start. The narrower your knees, the harder this will be. It won’t take much resistance.
2. Bird-Dogs (Quadruped diagonals). Go slow. The goal is NO movement of the low back. You’ve got a full drink on your back that you can’t spill! 2 sets 6-10 reps each side is plenty in a single workout.
Anti-Extension
1. Front Plank. Hold for 10 second reps and slowly increase the number of reps you do. Keep your nose over your thumbs.
2. Stability Ball Rollout. Slow tempo, 2 sets for 6-10 reps. The further the ball is from you at the start the harder this movement will be.
Anti-Flexion
1. 2 Leg Glute Bridge. 2-3 sets of 10 reps
2. 2 Leg RDL/Hip Hinging Pattern. This is also one of our basic strength moves but the muscles that keep the back extended (actually preventing flexion) are hard at work here.
Anti-Lateral Flexion
1. Side Plank. Similar to the front plank you’ll want to work towards 10 seconds hold if you’re a beginner. Work up to where you can do 4-5 reps of 10 seconds on each side, in each set, before adding time.
2. 1 Arm Farmer’s Walk. Maybe my favorite exercise to program due to its short learning curve, functional carryover to real life, and the challenge it can impose on beginners and advanced lifters alike. Like the others, stay long and focus on keeping the shoulder blades locked down and back. Crush the handle!!!
I got yelled at by the ATC for not having my brace on before filming this
If you hit each movement pattern 2-3 times per week and 2-3 sets of each you’ll be ahead of most gym-goers when it comes to core function. Would love to hear your thoughts, questions, or suggestions on core exercise you like to do at the gym!
In the last 15 years there probably hasn’t been a more over-used and misinterpreted buzzword in fitness than “core strengthening”. There isn’t an exercise program in the world that doesn’t stress the need for improved core function. It’s safe to say that having good core “strength” is important but how do we define it? What is it? How do we measure it? What exercise do we do to improve it? How do we know it’s getting better?
First Question: What is the core?
If you go to any gym and ask the first person you see to describe their core there’s a good shot they would use the term “6-pack” at some point in your dialogue. They might also jump down and demonstrate some high-quality sit-ups, crunches or maybe even some hanging leg raises for the “functional” crowd. It’s no surprise as this is what everyone sees and what the public is bombarded with on the cover of magazines on every street corner. But the 6-pack muscle (rectus abdominis – just 1 muscle that is divided into 6 parts by tendinous structures to give it that look) makes up a small part of what fitness professionals would define as a functioning core.
Through the work of researchers like Stu McGill, Shirley Sarhmann and Physical Therapists/Strength Coaches Gray Cook, Charlie Weingroff and a host of others we have seen a much better definition of what a core is and what it’s supposed to do.
For simplification purposes (or because my understanding of it is simplistic – semantics, right?) we’re going to break the core down into 3 parts: The Spine, the Inner Core and the Outer Core.
Dr. McGill uses a great analogy in his Low Back Disorders text where he compares the spine to a fishing pole that is being held upright by guy wires. Alone, the fishing pole is very flexible and also unstable. When all the guy wires are working together the pole is incredibly stable. Again in simple terms, your Inner Core is made up of these guy wires. These muscles need to work together and at the right time in order to keep your spine (low back, specifically) from losing its necessary stiffness and stability. To achieve this, the smaller inner core muscles need a combination of muscular endurance as well as proper neurological timing. In other words, it doesn’t matter how strong a muscle is if it doesn’t come on at the right time.
Not a great picture but you get the idea
So what’s the right time?
What we know from the research is that in individuals with low back pain/disorders there is a delayed firing of these Inner Core muscles where the Outer core muscles fire first; it should be the other way around. Inner core should be firing milliseconds before the outer core (I’ve tried measuring this with a stop watch but to no avail).
What’s the Outer Core? Again, in its simplest terms it can be thought of as a barrel that surrounds these guy wires. The sides of the barrel are made up of the obvious (“6-pack”) along with internal/external obliques, lats and other muscles that work to extend the spine (help it stand up). To finish the barrel we need a top and bottom though, which can often be forgotten. The bottom of the barrel is your pelvic floor muscles (kegals, ladies?). The top portion is completed by the diaphragm (the muscle you breathe with; not the birth control product).
Back to the mistiming of the inner core; if there is a delay your outer core muscles will take over and try to provide the necessary stiffness to the spine in order to protect it. Muscles that should be doing one thing are now doing another. In the case of the diaphragm if your inner core is not functioning well you can compensate and gain stability by holding your breath.
The chain reaction that is possible when compensations like this occur can have effects all over the body which is why we spend so much time training core stability with proper breathing mechanics. We don’t gain this function from sit-ups and crunches even if the muscles we “want to work” are firing.
Always remember the end-goal with the exercise. Does the exercise work with the goal and are you doing correctly in order to achieve that goal?
In Part 2 we'll look into actual core exercises and how we use them.
I currently work as a personal trainer in a physical therapy clinic in Stamford, CT. My background includes time as an athletic development coach for youth (primary through high school athletes), strength and conditioning in the college setting as well as adult personal training/group classes. Kind of dabbling for the last 6-7 years while finding my strengths and finding a niche.
