A common mistake practiced throughout the fitness community is improper activation of core muscles when performing various exercises. Improper activation occurs when an individual pushes out their belly during the concentric phase of a lift (when the muscles are contracting) while holding their breath in. This can lead to many problems. Such as, lack of strength and stability resulting in injury, sports hernia from excessive force placed on the abdominals and increased thoracic pressure (affecting respiration), which can also lead to blood vessels in the eyes and head bursting (if pressure is great enough for long enough).

You might ask, “What does your core do and what muscles make up your core?”.

Well first off, core stability is a synergistic function of many muscles working together to maintain the integrity of the spine and visceral (internal) organs while aiding in maximal force production. These muscles include your abdominals (rectus abdominus, external/internal obliques, and transverse abdominus), back muscles (erector spinae, latissimus dorsi, and lower trapezius), and glutes (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius). As you can start to see your ‘core’ goes far beyound just your abs, it involves a full 360 muscular system.

What is proper technique for activating core muscles?

First, core muscles are contracted (tightened) rather than pushed out. Second, a person must exhale during the contraction phase, to decrease thoracic pressure. Lastly, a neutral spine should always be maintained to ensure muscles are at optimal lengths and to decrease the pressure on the vetebral column.

How does core stability increase my performance? Automatically there will be a greater ability to produce more force, ie, lift heavier weights. Having more muscles activated will allow for them to aid in the exercise being performed. This is true for all major core lifts (bench, squat, deadlift, powerclean. Shoulder press etc). It also drastically reduces the chance of injury and fatigue on the working muscles.

Core workouts will be posted later on and will show the best ways to strengthen that region. I hope this was helpful, if anyone has any questions please ask or comment. Feel free to spread the word.

Thank you.

CB