The Root of Athleticism: Core Training for Transfer

“You can’t shoot a cannon out of a rowboat”

Think about this statement for a second. Think about the power of the cannon, a weapon of war a century ago, powerful enough to take out anything in its path. Take that same weapon and put it in a rowboat and it is rendered useless. What is the takeaway? Stability (the ability to maintain control of movement) must be present in order for power to be expressed in the way in which it is intended!

Core training is a fan favorite at every local gym in town. Every 30 seconds a new article comes out titled something like “how to get that summer 6-pack fast!”. While the benefits of core improvement definitely can be aesthetically pleasing, the main reason why all athletes should understand how to properly train their center is to increase their stability and maximize their transfer of athletic power.

Our bodies, while having many sub groups of separate musculature, as a whole are one piece of connected myofascial, or muscle tissue. The center of our body is comprised of the muscles that are commonly known as the “6-pack” or abdominals (rectus & transverse abdominis), but it doesn’t stop there. The side of our mid section is included (obliques) as well as the back (erector spinae) and glutes.

At Performance Course we refer to the core as the “Root” or the “Power Zone”. Since our bodies, as mentioned above, are one big piece of muscle tissue, than understanding the importance of the root is as simple as thinking of it as the bridge between our upper and lower halves, thus allowing for the transfer of power between the two. The purpose being to stabilize and thus transfer/express power. Having a general understanding of what exactly the core is and what it functions for will serve as the foundation to jumping on board with the importance of properly training it.

When thinking about how to best train our athlete’s power zone we use a principle that we apply to every area of planning our exercise selection: Train for the demands of the sport. If our athletes are going to encounter a specific stress on their body upon competition, they had better be prepared and have an answer for it! Here at PC, all of our core training can be broken down into 3 categories: Anti-Extension, Anti-Rotation and Anti-Lateral Flexion

The movements in these categories are called “anti” because in each one of them we are applying a demand on to the athlete that would be a) similar to that in competition b) putting them in a poor position c) developing the stability and strength to stay in a good position despite the force.

Anti-Extension

Extension merely means that the particular muscle group is as erect as possible, or straight. In all sports, the importance of keeping the upper half of the body upright is of the utmost importance. Imagine a linebacker in football having his back rounded as he tried to tackle a running back in the hole. Or how about a volleyball player rising to the net to end the game with a kill with slumped shoulders and an arch in her back. Probably wouldn’t end well for them! In these exercises, we put the transverse abdominis and the erector spinae into a loaded position and coach our athletes to keep their spine stiff and ridged throughout the movement.

What are the movements?

Middle Pillar — Variations, Weighted

Middle Plank — Variations, Weighted

Through our progressions, the movements start out relatively simple (although what is simple for one athlete is not necessarily simple for another) and linearly increase in difficulty, ensuring that the strength/stability our target muscle group is improved. Start out with body weight as you see in the video above and progress in either time or by adding resistance (weight) on the athletes back.

Anti-Rotation

Rotation is an incredibly important characteristic for all athletes, specifically baseball players and quarterbacks just to name a few. These movements are targeting the side of the root (internal and external obliques, transverse abdominis) and forcing them to stabilize or fail as a result of the external load.

What is the movement?

Pallof Press

We can progress this by using an isometric hold and increasing the time, increasing the thickness of the band or by adding reps. This exercise is definitely more difficult than it looks so make sure to start out simple, coach the position of your athlete, keeping UAP (universal athletic position) always as the goal.

Anti-Lateral Flexion

Flexion occurs when the particular muscle is bending, in this case lateral flexion is when your body is leaning over to the side. These movements are tasked for the purpose of having a lateral force on the body attempting to bend the athlete over to the side (obviously this would be a position that is not ideal for optimal performance) and developing the strength and stability necessary to assume UAP.

What are the movements?

Farmers Carries

Suitcase Carries

Waiters Carries

The progression is as listed above, in a 6–8 week program starting with farmer carries and ending with waiters carries usually spending about 2–3 weeks with each movement manipulating volume/intensity (sets/reps/time) before progressing to the next. In these movements the athletes shoulders will tell the story of their position. If the shoulders are not level than we know that either they are too fatigued and need to back off the weight or they need to focus on stiffening their center and fighting more! Know your athletes, read them and coach them as necessary.

Other Considerations

1) Time
We know most coaches are limited with time and have to sometimes sacrifice supplemental movements for bigger more important movements, but if we as coaches can understand how vital training the power zone is, we will make time for it! A good idea is to pair these movements with an emphasis lift. For example: Deadlift paired with pallof press.

2) When/How to Implement
Let’s assume that we were running a program that was lifting 3 days a week for simplicity sake. On day 1 we would work on anti-extension, day 2 anti-rotation and then day 3 anti-lateral flexion. Simple, but extremely functional and will make a huge difference on the field/court! Each week, simply progress the movement slowly working your athletes up to the most taxing progressions at the end of the program.

We all want to either be the athlete or have the athlete that squats 500 pounds or bench presses 350. Those things are great in developing force! We love to set goals for ourselves in power movements like hang clean and power clean in order to recruit musculature power, again fantastic! If we truly want to utilize that force and express that power in the most functional and advantageous way possible during competition, than we have got to make power zone work an emphasis in our daily training regiment. And hey, if none of that sold you on core training, you’ll be the talk of town when that shirt comes off at the beach after a 6 week implementation of root work done the right way! Win — Win!