Although many people often relate strengthening the core to abdominal training, the core refers to the center of your body in which strength, balance, and power originates. This region includes not only your deep abdominals, but also your deep back muscles, pelvic floor and buttocks, says physical therapist Gray Cook, author of "Movement." Therefore, exercise routines to strengthen your abs and core should be keeping your spine stable when you move.
Function
Your abdominal region consists of the outer unit and the inner unit. The outer unit includes muscles and connective tissues near the surface of your body that move your body and produce force, while the inner unit includes muscles and tissues near your organs and spine that stabilize your torso when you move, says Coach Vern Gambetta, author of "Athletic Development." For example, when you bend your legs and bring your arms back, your deep abdominal and spine muscles stiffen and your outer abdominal muscle contracts slightly like a compressed spring. When you jump up and swing your arms over your head, your outer abs extend while the deep abdominal muscles stay contracted to protect your spine and organs from impact when you jump and land on the ground. This mechanism applies to almost every exercise that engages your entire body to move.
Chop and Lift
The chop and lift are fundamental movement patterns that emphasize core stability by moving your arms and shoulders in a diagonal pattern across your body while keeping your torso still. The chop involves moving your arms down and across your body while the lift involves moving your arms up and across your body. These exercises work on every part of your core and can help you determine if one side of your core is stronger than the other side. You can hold a medicine ball with both hands and perform these swinging motions in different lower body positions, such as standing with your legs about shoulder-width apart, kneeling on both knees, kneeling on one knee, or standing with one foot in front of the other. To do the chop, bring the ball over one shoulder and swing it down toward your opposite hip. To do the lift, bring the ball to one hip, and swing it up toward your opposite shoulder.
Overhead Lifting
Any overhead lifting involves using your all of your core to stabilize your body and produce force to lift a heavy weight and control the movement pattern. These exercises -- including the kettlebell snatch and press, the dumbbell squat press, and the one arm shoulder press -- use your lower body to generate force and transfer it into your upper body so that you can lift the weight with less effort and less risk of injury compared to lifting with your upper body alone. For example, when you press a dumbbell over your head from a deep squat position, you must keep your torso upright and stable when you exhale, stand straight up and press the weight over your head at the same time. Your legs and hips should be doing most of the work, not your shoulder or arm. This basic framework applies to all overhead lifting exercises.
Lower Body Circuit
You can improve lower body power, endurance and stamina while improving core and abdominal stability and function with circuit training. This method involves performing a series of exercises that train different movement patterns with no rest between exercises, says Gambetta. In a lower-body circuit, you can perform three to five exercises that train different movement patterns. Your core stabilizes your body as you move your legs and hips. For example, you can perform bodyweight squats, front and side lunges, stepups and squat jumps consecutively for 20 to 30 seconds each with no rest between sets. Then, rest for no more than two minutes, and repeat the circuit one or two more times.
References
- "Athletic Development"; Vern Gambetta; 2006
- "Movement"; Gray Cook; 2010
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