The Core: What is it?

Core. Trunk. Root. Power Zone. Abs. These are just a few terms used to describe the complex series of muscles in your midsection covering many of your vital organs. These terms are used interchangeably. However, their meaning can be vastly different depending on who is using it. So what is it really? Is it that coveted 6 pack everyone wants? Is it just your abdominals? How about anything on your backside? With so many opinions and definitions out there, things can get pretty confusing. Let’s clear up what muscles make up “the core” and how they function.

Your core extends from your sternum down to your pubic bone, including every muscle both front and back. This means that your glutes, hips and low back are all included in your core as well as tons of tiny muscles in your pelvis. We will go further in depth on the muscles in the pelvic floor and how they function in a later post. For now, we will just focus on the big muscle groups.

Abdominals

The abs are the most well know muscle group in the body and undoubtedly the least neglected in the gym. There are four main muscle groups in your abdominals: the rectus abdominis, which make up your “6-pack”, the external and internal obliques, and the transverse abdominis. These muscles help to rotate the trunk as well as flex it forward and laterally. They also protect your vital organs and spine.

Glutes and Hips

At the most basic level, the main muscles of the glutes & hips include the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. As you can see in this diagram, the main muscles connect to the bones in your pelvis as well as your sacrum and lower vertebrae.

There are countless smaller muscles deep within the hip and pelvic region, but as previously stated, those will be touched on in a later post.

Lower Back

The last muscle group that makes up the core is the low back. Like your abdominals and hips, the low back contains many layers of muscles, however, we will focus on the main muscle groups. The erector spinae make up a majority of the lower back and consist of a bundle of muscles and tendons that run vertically up the spine starting from the sacrum and extending all the way up to the cervical spine (upper back). Deep to that lies the multifidus, which is a long, thin muscle that runs along the spine from the sacrum all the way up to the base of the neck. Finally, the quadratus lumborum muscle, which is the deepest abdominal muscle and often considered part of the back, attaches the top of the hip to all five vertebrae in the lumbar spine. Together these muscles work to extend the trunk as well as protect and stabilize the spine.

Now that we have covered the anatomy of the core and cleared up just exactly what it is, we will look at some of the best exercises we use while training our athletes.

Talk to most Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting coaches and you will hear some variation of this: “we never train our abs, our core training comes from bracing during our squats, deadlifts and cleans.” While this is very true that your core is activated during full body exercises such as squats, deadlifts and Olympic lift variations, many younger athletes don’t have the same control over their core as these high-level lifters. They must learn to control and strengthen their core with specific core exercises. At Performance Course, these exercises will never be in the form of crunches. We strive to make every exercise, from the warm-up to auxiliary movements, functional and purposeful. Instead, we use bridging, weighted carries, anti-rotation, and resisted rotation to name a few. Here are examples from the aforementioned categories:

Middle Plank

Suitcase Carry

Band Anti-Rotation Press

Plate Rainbows

Plate Digs

There are many variations of these movements, however, if you notice, a majority of our core training takes place on our feet. Our athletes compete on their feet so we want to train them the same way.

At this point you might be thinking “but didn’t you say the core involves more than just your abs? You only gave examples of abdominal work.” Bravo! You have been paying attention! The glutes, hips and low back are often specifically targeted in our warm-up and strengthened in our supplemental work after our major movements have been completed. These movements are often compound movements that target the entire posterior chain. Exercises like the partner glute-ham and RDL variations provide the best opportunity to load the athlete and are the easiest to perform with minimal equipment.

Partner Glute Ham

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

Single Leg RDL

We also target the posterior core with auxiliary movements that are meant to work the smaller stabilizing muscles with bodyweight or banded movements. These include the glute bridge and its variations such as marches and walkouts, and banded lateral walk variations, some of which are shown below.

Glute Bridge Walkout

Lateral Band X-Walks

Lateral Band Walk with Band at Knees

Many of our supplemental lower body movements will work the low back, hips and glutes as well but are not included because their main purpose is to strengthen the legs, with posterior chain development being secondary. For that reason, we have only focused on exercises that primarily focus on the muscles of the core we have discussed.

Hopefully this has given you a little better understanding of what your core is, its basic functions and a few ideas on how to functionally train it. There are numerous exercises that can be used depending on the equipment that your facility has and the size of the group. If you have the resources, feel free to utilize them. If not, master the basics! Your athletes will see great benefits either way.