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Many patients come to my practice having heard something about inner core stability, but the majority have a very skewed perception of the core muscles and how to exercise these.

As an example, I asked a patient of mine (a provincial rugby player) if he does core exercises. “Yes”, he replied, “I do 100 crunches every day!”

You may think that this is the ideal response, but in fact he had very poor core stability when tested, and by the end of this article you should realise that he was in fact not training his core muscles.

To understand the concept of the “core”, one first needs a basic understanding of the muscles that make it up. The core can be related to a cylindrical can.

• The lid of the can is the diaphragm
• The bottom is the pelvic floor
• The front and  sides are made up of a deep stomach muscle (you’ve probably never heard of it) called Transversus abdominis
• Lastly the back is a muscle called Multifidus

These muscles all act together to increase the pressure inside the stomach cavity, and in so doing increase stability around the mid-section. A good way of visualising this is to try imagine squeezing a new tube of toothpaste with the cap on. The tube keeps its basic shape and is quite difficult to compress. Now remove the cap or make a hole in the side of the tube and suddenly the tube collapses.

The deep stomach muscle and Multifidus also have connections to the spine itself and when contracting, prevent excessive movement at the spine during activity.

So why was the rugby player not training his core you ask?

Well, most people only train the top three layers of stomach muscles during regular stomach exercises. Crunches, sit-ups and similar exercises all involve movement of the torso and so you tend to only train the “mobilising” muscles. These may look good when your shirt is off, but do very little for your back.  The deep stomach muscle is a “stabilising” muscle, so in order to train it, you need to challenge your bodies’ stability.

This is where Physio-balls, Bozu-balls (half a physio-ball) and Pilates come in. Using this equipment under the supervision of a trained Physio or other health professional will help you train your core correctly by challenging your balance and stability. Most of the exercises that use this equipment will be static exercises (i.e. holding a certain position with as little movement as possible) and then at a more advanced stage, movement can be added. Ever seen a person doing a full squat whilst standing on a Physio-ball? These people have phenomenal core stability and its quite amazing to watch.

One last thing worth mentioning is that if you do go to Pilates, PLEASE make sure your instructor shows you how to isolate Transversus Abdominis before you commence any exercises. If you have not been shown how to do this, you could do more harm than good. For this reason, Pilates classes at the gym down the road is probably not the best place to start this form of exercise unless you can get individual attention.

There is so much more to be said about core stability and its importance, but I hope this short explanation will help you to better understand your body.

If you need more info or would like to check and train your core, give us a call and let us bulletproof your back.

Ric@PhysioPRO