Your Core Functionality

So what is the "core"? We should clear this up, because when I say "core" you probably think "abs". While it is comprised of those ripply-dipply washboard abs late-night tv says you can have for $19.99, it is so much more. Your core is the entire area, front-side-back, from the tops of your knees to the bottom of your ribcage. It is comprised of your hips and trunk, and everything surrounding them including the internal organs of your digestive and reproductive systems. The core is your body’s center and it is contingent on good spinal posture, proper breathing, and cultivation of it’s use in ALL movement.

The main role of the core is to allow movement while maintaining spinal alignment and stability. Hence, why the hips are part of “the core” and it not just your abdominal area. The upper core, the abdominal area, creates stability. The lower core, the hips, creates proper movement. Together, they create stability in movement.

First and foremost, you core is unlocked by "growing tall." Your body wants to be tall. When you work at keeping your body tall it slowly strengthens itself in that position and begins to pull up into alignment. When your spine is aligned gravity can act on your body the way it should, allowing muscles to hang the right way and bones to stack properly on top of each other.

Secondly, the core is unlocked through proper breathing. When tall, your body can inhale and exhale with full use of all the muscles, and create stability with every breath. Proper breathing while tall also helps massage your internal organs. This aids in digestion, detoxification, and even circulation.

My clients often tell me some days that they want to work on their core. I love to tell them, “everything we do core.” This is true. All movement should cultivate a proper core. From sitting to standing, to prancing and partying, to deadlifting and wrestling alligators; stay tall and breathe.

Try it.

Sit up tall right now. Just like we learned how last week. As tall as you can. Now reach even taller while you exhale every bit of air from your lungs. What did you feel? Did you feel how your exhale started in your abdomen, but then also included your rear end and hips? Did you feel how strong those muscles were when you exhaled? That’s the very center of your core. If you want to be strong, fast, athletic, healthy, prevent decrepitude, and maintain quality movement of all at all kinds of intensities throughout life, you need your core.

To quote James Earl Jones’ character from the movie Conan the Barbarian, “That’s strength, boy!”

Oh yeah baby, I'm a huge movie geek!

How many good athletes have you ever seen with bad posture? None. How many Shaolin monks have you seen that have hunched and bent spines? None. How many people of any race, gender and practice have you ever seen that have truly mastered a skill with short, hunched, curved spines? None. Without being tall you do not have a core, and without a core, you cannot maximize your biomechanics.

Now, many people train their core through movement: crunches, hanging leg lifts, supine bicycles, elevated leg crunches, etc… While the abdomen CAN produce movement, remember that it’s primary role is to create stability. So the best way to train the abdominal core, is isometrically. So, enough with the crunches, no one likes them anyways…

Training the core isometrically, helps set you up for proper functional movements in the future, which we will learn about in upcoming blog posts. For now...

Your Homework:

Perform the following core workouts as often as you want this week.

I have developed eight of them. They all require absolutely no equipment. You’re going to hate them because they are hard. But hard is good; sore is good. Real work produces real results. Start unlocking your core this week.

All the listed workouts below are done for as many rounds as possible until you fail. Track your progress on each workout by how many rounds you can build up to without resting. Remember to be tall and breathe!

Please note some of the tutorial videos have “progressions” for each exercise to accommodate different fitness and skill levels. Watch the entire videos to see what progression is best for you.

Workouts:

60s Plank

15 Forward Bends

60s Anchor Bridge

60s L-Sit

3 min Plank

3 min Bridge

30s Side plank L

30s Plank

30s Side plank R

30s Anchor Bridge

30s L-Sit

30s Superman

60s Situps

60s Plank

60s Flutter Kick

60s Double Leg Raise

60s Rest

10 Forward Bends

10 Double Leg Raise

10 Prone Cobras

10 Situp

60s Straight leg hold

60s Superman

60s Plank

60s Anchor Bridge

60s Prone Cobra

60s L-Sit

Continue to:

1. Play; both inside the gym and outside.

2. Learn new skills or continue to master known ones (or both!)

3. Grow tall at least once a day for 5 consecutive minutes.

I'll keep working on My Body Kinection, you work on yours too!