OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022 - 59

59 WWW.ONFITNESSMAG.COM | VOL 22 NO 5 | 2022
Core training involves targeting the
muscles in the center of your body.
Most commonly thought of as your abs
and your lower back, your core also
includes your hips and shoulders.
W
hen referring to the
core, most gym rats
and fitness
professionals are referring to the
anterior (rectus abdominus,
internal and external obliques,
transversus abdominus, and hip
flexors) and posterior (quadratus
lumborum and muscles of the
erector spinae) musculature of the
trunk region.
However, the most effective
way to train the core is debated,
with various fitness professionals
and researchers touting one
method or focus over another. In
particular, there is great interest in
the importance of training the
core as a whole rather than trying
to isolate its individual muscles.
When we decide which
philosophy is the most effective, a
simple evaluation of how we
humans move should provide an
answer.
While muscles of the core can
be isolated, during most human
movement the musculature of the
core, torso, or trunk region is
firing and activated during
movement.
Take for instance the simple
maneuver any parent is familiar
with. little Johnny drops his
pacifier in the backseat during a
road trip and proceeds to cry
uncontrollably. What does the
parent do to maintain sanity?
Reaches back and finds the
pacifier, wipes it clean, and puts it
back in little Johnny's mouth.
The maneuver undertaken to
reach back involved multiple
muscles of the core and not just
the all-too-exercised rectus
abdominus.
Therefore, when selecting
exercises for the core, taking a
lifestyle or sport-specific approach
should be the norm as it is with
any other movement. While using
exercises that isolate the core can
be effective, if weaknesses are
detected, the core should be
trained as a unit just as it is used
during daily activity and sport.
So if training the complete
core is of importance, what are
exercises that will accomplish
such a task? If a dynamic exercise
is to be selected, the multiple
variations of the woodchop are a
great choice.
The wood chop can be done
with any free motion or cable
pulley machine. A straight bar or
stick should be selected as the
attachment for the pulley system
when performing the woodchop.
The chop can be done while
kneeling to isolate your core to a
greater degree than standing.
However, if rotational activities
at work or during sport are done
when standing, a portion of the
exercise time devoted to chopping
should also be done while
standing.
To perform the woodchop,
stand perpendicular to the pulley,
facing either to the left or right. To
remove the added contribution of
the hips, a kneeling position can
be adopted, either on both knees
or with the inside leg up with the
foot placed on the floor and the
other leg kneeling.
Start with the pulley in a high
position to allow for a full range of
motion. Initiate the chopping
motion utilizing the core only, and
keep your arms slightly bent while
rotating the pulley across your
body and down toward the outside
hip. Your upper body should be
kept erect throughout the range of
motion, and keep your hips as still
as possible.
A chop-up movement can also
be used by dropping the pulley to
a low position and switching your
legs so the kneeling leg is now
toward the pulley. Movement is
across your body, but instead of
down the pulley is pulled up. If a
standing posture is adopted your
feet should be separated in a
scissor position as during a lunge
or split squat.
While rotation involving the
shortening and elongation of your
core musculature is accomplished
with dynamic training, your core
also is responsible for the stability
of your spine during times when a
load is placed on your body.
For instance, when you lift an
object overhead, your core
musculature is not flexing or
extending the spine but is
stabilizing the spine to provide a
solid base to push the object
overhead using your shoulders.
Therefore, in this type of situation,
your core musculature is involved
in isometric muscle action.
Training involving the core
musculature should then also
involve exercises that recruit your
core musculature in an isometric
fashion. The tried and true
exercise for isometrically
contracting the core is the prone
plank or bridge.
This exercise is performed face
down while you're positioned on
your elbows and balls of your feet.
During the isometric contraction,
your hips are raised to the
position where a line could be
drawn from your ears through the
glenoid-humeral head of your
shoulder, down through the
greater trochanter of your hip, and
lateral malleolus of your ankle.
Sets are done for time.
While training your complete
core can be done separately, the
benefit to performing lower body
multiple-joint exercises such as
the squat and deadlift is that the
core is also exercised.
Performing the back squat and
deadlift elicited more muscle
activity than isolating the muscles
of your back with stability ball
exercises.
Thus, if time is of the essence,
select multiple lower body
exercises for the concurrent
strengthening of your legs and the
muscles of your core. Additionally,
while core exercises will be limited
in the ability to load, exercises
such as the back squat will
provide an ever-increasing
stimulus for your core
musculature as your legs increase
in strength.
However, if dynamic
movement as done during daily
tasks and sport are of training
importance, ancillary exercises
such as the woodchop should be
performed to ensure that your
core is trained in every movement
plane. Z
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Anchoring
for
a better
crunch
Lie on your back with
your legs bent at
ninety degrees and
your toes braced
under something
stable.
As you crunch up,
simultaneously try to
lift whatever's
anchoring your feet.
Make sure that the
anchor is heavy
enough so that you
can't budge it. This
action activates your
hip flexors and your
lower abs isometrically.
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OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022

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