The rhythm of life in the modern world makes us move less and less, and also worse: chronic postures maintained over time, poor mobility in our joints or muscles weakened by disuse. This lack of mobility can cause from pain in different joints, restriction and limitation of movement, insomnia and especially more sedentary lifestyle.
It is clear that in this situation, the best medicine is the movement itself and that the richer the better. In this article we will also see how one of the secrets of good posture and quality movement is to have a core strong that allows to guarantee a good central stability.
What do we understand by core?
The concept of core it does not refer to a muscle in the body or to a clearly defined area of the body. The core It comprises a set of active and passive structures in the middle of the body, including the thoracic spine, lumbar spine and pelvis.
The functions performed by the core They are not limited to the functions that each muscle of the same performs or the sum of all of them, but acts as a system. The core as a system collaborates to fulfill a function: to balance, stabilize or counteract internal and external forces. In this way, the core It does not act as a motor but as a brake.
How can I select the exercises that allow me to train the core efficiently?
As we mentioned a few lines above, the muscles of the core they are rather designed to act as brakes not motors. This can give us a clue on how to choose the right exercises to work it correctly. This is where anti-movement exercises come in. These exercises consist of creating a disturbance on our spine which our core must counter.
These exercises are grouped into three groups:
- Anti-extension exercises like plates, ab wheel or body saw.
- Anti-rotation exercises As the press Pallof and its variants.
- Anti-lateral flexion exercises As the farmer’s walk or the waiter walk.
Also, if we are beginners or even suffer from low back pain, too it is convenient to start building the house from the foundations with the The Big Three from Stuart McGill, world leading specialist in the spine:
- Curl up
- Side plank
- Bird dog
Anti-extension exercises: stir the pot and dead bug
Stir the pot
The stir the pot o remove la olla in Spanish is an advanced variant of the traditional griddle. The instability of the fitball it is carried to the maximum expression with the movement of our forearms. It will have to be ours core the one that prevents our lumbar spine from extending, that is to say, that the pelvis collapses towards the ground.
Dead bug
At dead bug is about prevent the spine from spreading as in the previous exercise. The difference is that it will be the weight of our own legs that will cause a moment of extension in our spine being our core the one that counteracts this effect.
If it is very difficult for us to do it with both legs at the same time, we can first extend one knee and then the other.
Anti-rotation exercises: press Pallof
Press Pallof
At press Pallof must counteract the moment of rotation suffered by our spine by separating the arms from our body.
This exercise, like the others, can be modified in various ways to add complexity or to suit the demands of specific sports. In this way we can do it on our knees, in a knight position or even lying supine.
Anti-lateral flexion exercises: farmer’s walk unilateral
Farmer’s walk
Unless we want to strengthen our grip or focus on our traps, we must perform this exercise with the weight in one hand to create a lateral bending moment in our spine unilaterally.
As the video points out, we must move forward with the hips and shoulders aligned, trying that the disturbance on our spine is not perceptible.
The Big Three
Curl up
At curl up we must place the pelvis in neutral position extending one leg and flexing the other. We place our hands under the lower back to make sure we maintain the natural curvature. The exercise consists of slightly flexing our thoracic spine, separating the shoulders approximately one foot from the ground. We keep the isometric contraction some eight seconds.
Side plank or side plate
The side plank or side plank is nothing more than that, a side plank but at the first level of its progression, that is, resting your knees slightly bent on the floor, although there is no reason not to support them if we have already mastered the exercise.
It would be classified within the anti-movement exercises of anti-lateral flexion, like the farmer’s walk.
Bird dog
For him bird dog we place our knees under our hips and our wrists under our shoulders and looking at the floor. The goal in extending the leg and arm is to make us longer, that is, It is not about climbing up but about going as far as possible with our hand and foot.
Images | Unsplash
Videos | Testosterone Nation, Ariel Couceiro González, Raw Performance HEALTH & FITNESS, StrongbyScience, AbsExperiment
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