Core Anatomy and What Traditional Core Workouts Are Missing
To watch the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/nH-pDBEE5so
Hey coaches and athletes, Michael Hughes here with Gymnazo Edu. When I say the word core, I bet you most likely think of this.
However, this is how the vast majority of athletes and just normal everyday people use their core.
But then there are even others who use their core to do something that looks like this. In this video, I’m gonna share with you four different things. The first is how traditional education and coaching teaches us and trains us how to use our core. And really how it’s only really about 33% of the cores, maximum capabilities, and capacity. The second thing I’m going to show you is how the core was designed to be used via physics, and the anatomical structures that we know Oh, so well, but maybe just don’t pay the most attention to. The third is how we’ve somewhat progressively trained our core over time. But really how we’ve progressively de trained it over time, often leading to lower back degeneration, poor posture with no end in sight, leaving a lot of women mostly moms frustrated, and seemingly forced to live with painful or even frustrating life situations. And number four, how to be aware of the 66% of the core that you’re relatively probably missing, and how that’s going to better your physique, how it’s going to better your sports and how it’s going to better your overall functionality throughout life. Now, in preparation for this video, I spent a lot of time just doing some general research on what the average everyday person would type in if they searched on Google on YouTube for core exercises. And I’m sad to say that I really wasn’t that disappointed. And I honestly knew that I shouldn’t have been. But I was hoping that the industry, the fitness industry, the movement industry would have gotten over gotten beyond this traditional sense of what core training is. But sadly, it hasn’t. I hope this video not only brings you some education, but also some value that you can apply to your own practice or your own life. Because it’s not just me saying it. It’s physics and anatomy saying it. Now, here’s a good but not totally exhaustive list of all the core exercises that I found, while doing my research. Now, in reality, there are so many different modalities and tools that we could use to just tweak up how we do correct sizes. But here are them in the basics, removing extra tools or pieces of equipment that we can throw in there to add even more variabilities. It’s unfortunate that with over the 50 plus different exercises that you just saw, scroll up your screen, that the vast majority of them were in the prone or supine position with the standing and kneeling position taking up the rear end. Now when we’re in the prone or supine position, for the most part doing exercises for the core, there’s an interesting thing that’s happens. And our basically our pelvis and our shoulders are laying on the ground, they’re stuck to the ground, they can’t do their primary function, which a little bit of a spoiler alert is rotation. And that causes a major problem. Now a lot of the exercises have no foot contact to the ground, meaning that the nerve endings or purpose centers in the feet are not communicating with the core on how it all should connect and make it happen. Now that’s a big issue. Because most of time when our core is in use, our feet are also in contact with the ground, or at least our knees are. Now unless you’re going to be on a stage with a spray tan and very minimal clothing on you should probably pay attention to that a lot. Because the conductivity of how our body works as one superstructure is super important on how we function and how our body maintains health and reduces injuries for the long term. Now these nerves that I was talking to you about are called proprioceptors. And these proprioceptors are essentially the communication beings of the human body in movement. And to train them in reality. And authenticity is super important to your long term. Again, health and vitality, want you to think of this. Practice doesn’t make perfect practice makes permanent. So think about what movements you want your body to make permanent or second nature. Because whatever you do, that’s where your body will get better at no questions just for fun, picture yourself running to grab, maybe a football pass. And as you’re doing so you’re running and you’re turning around to grab about ball. Well, in reality, think about laying down on the ground, and you’re in that same zone. And now you’re rotating to catch the ball. Well, the foot and the body in the whole structure says wait a minute, that’s not exactly how I operate. So try to catch the ball laying on the ground doing that the body says that’s not exactly how I operate. Now just give you a quick example think about these two exercises that I’m about to do. Think about you grabbing onto a medicine ball laying down on the ground. And as you do this medicine ball drill you rotate right As you rotate left, rotate right and rotate left, versus standing up against maybe a medicine ball wall throw, and taking this ball and just chuck it over shoulder, bouncing back, catching it, throwing a shoulder, bounce off the wall, come back and catch it. Which one of those two drills is going to make you better at catching the football that’s being passed over your head to be grabbing on? Well, in football, I’m running, both feet are in contact with the ground at some given point of time, one or the other. I’m upright, and I’m actually leaning back. To catch that ball coming over my shoulder, that looks exactly almost what I just did, with my medicine ball, throw over the wall, bounce off the wall and come back and catch it. In fact, I can go on a single leg and do that exact same motion pattern, right in the same zone of what my body is doing. It’s actually my feet are communicating to my pelvis, my pelvis and my core record my hands versus me laying on the ground, my feet aren’t touching anything. The proprioception is like, Okay, I don’t have to do anything here. No problem, my quartz has to work all by itself and just move these external extremities in the right to left motion. It’s not the same and the body trains and really memorizes movement based on exactly the input that you give it. So think about being authentic to your movements into your exercises. That’s the takeaway. Now, it is very important that I say this training the core of the traditional sagittal plane very forward and back aways is not a bad thing by any means. And, in fact, it does set a foundation for movement patterns. As we progress into more complex patterns, it’s a good way to bring ourselves back to say a ground floor, or a cornerstone and able to move off from and on that more training the core in the traditional patterns of the sagittal plane very forward and back for a prone supine aways is certainly good for building a stable, stable foundation for you to progress into side to side motions and the transverse plane motions. But we can’t stay there, we can’t just only do those patterns, because we’re only going to be good in those patterns simply stated. In fact, if we don’t leave that sagittal, plane core motion pattern, basic going to be much more primed for injury or little tweaks as we move on life because life is not going to only challenge us in the ways of forward and backwards. In fact, it’s going to challenge us way more often, in a way that’s much more, quote unquote dangerous or risky, in the other two planes of motion, this satisfy motion and the rotational motion, because the core is not all about just being this strong, rigid structure. In fact, it’s not about that at all. It’s about being immobile and stable structure, ie elastically, recoiling and dynamically moving to adjust, and to perform tasks that need to be done via the lower body and via the upper body most of the time at the exact same time. And the core is the crossroads of the body, making sure the upper body can do its details, the lower body can do its details, and they both can sync up to make it possible. And lastly, I want to state this, it’s really important that we just don’t jump right into dynamic core training, especially in the lateral and rotational planes do take the time to build up that sagittal plane forward and back core if you need to, if you’ve been D trained for several months, or years, it’s important we start a foundation, right. And that foundation is the sagittal plane. But most of us the far vast majority of us stay there way too long. The second thing I want to talk about his if we look at the anatomical structures, or the fascial lines of the core muscles, we see a totally different story of how we should be training and moving our cores. Basically, it looks a lot different than how traditional exercises are the ones you saw on the screen are typically moving the human body, the human core essentially has six different parts to it, think of it like a soda can right, the top chunk of it right right on top. Think of that as your diaphragm, the bottom chunk of it, think of it as your pelvic floor, the front part of it, well think about that as like your rectus abdominus, or you’ve sent your six pack muscles, the back of it way back here, think about that as like your spinal erectors in a sense, think about your left and your right sides as your obliques. Now let’s look at each one of these structures independently. And look at the anatomical features, the lines of movement that would be happening if the muscles are contracting, or expanding. It’s a super interesting part. So check this out. All right from the top we have the diaphragm and in this zone. It lives in this thorax lives in this ribcage, the thoracic spine, let’s add in the musculature right there as you see, the diaphragm muscular lives just in the base of the ribcage. It connects from the lower back for lumbar spine, sternum, ribs all the way to central tendon and also connects in To the abdominal structures via the connective tissue that connects into the ribcage because as we take an inhale,
that diaphragm expands, pulling the ribcage in and out and all that connective tissue that runs into the rest of the abdominal tissues also has to move. This is the powerhouse of respiration. It is the tension control that brings integrity into the abdomen, as well as maintains intra abdominal pressure as the body performs performance movements, or just basic everyday life. The big takeaway that I want coaches and athletes to understand is not to discount the influence of a full breath, the inhale and the exhale. And the lack of training these muscles or this muscle unit to the fullest can lead to things like abdominal hernias, and not healing rectus to assets and postpartum women. Now from the bottom we have the pelvic floor. It’s the base of the core that holds it all together, connecting the lower aspects of the pelvis, to the femur to the sacrum. This musculature is super important for a lot of moms who are just postpartum or want to prepare for having children. Not limited to that, but certainly, certainly those clients and athletes. The big takeaway is that when we understand the structure and the anatomy of the pelvic floor, it’s part of a greater system. And by training the body in upright rotational movements, will directly create the mobility and stability in the pelvic floor, resulting in positively treating incontinence, prolapse, dialysis, and dyspareunia. These are very common, but maybe not talked about conditions that a lot of women have that are more likely training in your facility. And if you can understand to see how that structure and how that base is super important, because it holds in all the organs that we’re talking about of those conditions, if you start to train rotationally through the femur, because that femur bone has direct connections into the base of the pelvic core, and that pelvic floor is moved in rotation, as you can see as it connects, and the connective tissue only spreads from this location. So don’t forget about the rotational plane in the base of the core. Now of the most popular core muscle, the rectus abdominus, or the six eight pack, it connects the front part of the ribs to the lower sternum. And at the base of the pelvis. It is the trunk flexor but only when against gravity to move a coach, this is one of the most overtrained muscles for an activity that it does so infrequently. For how much time is spent with various kinds of situps, or knee raises and V ups. It is the muscle that has about the least to do with every day and athletic function, and of all the core muscles. Now let’s talk about flexion, which is how these muscles get trained to do the most. Obviously, you see the striations of the tissue. It’s super up and down. But when we essentially bend forward and go into flexion, what’s really happening right now, right gravity is throwing me down. That’s not my abdominals doing that. That’s not what’s happening. I have gravitational force pulling me into this motion. And in fact, what brings me back up is my posterior muscles, which we’ll talk about next. So what are the core muscles expecially, the rectus abdominus really does phenomenal love. It takes me into an extended position, and then brings me back to neutral and carries momentum into a forward flexion. If we did that more often than I’d say, yeah, right on your training your rectus abdominus your six flex muscles appropriately and for function. Right, don’t get me wrong. It’s important. It’s really important to train the rectus abdominus. But it’s more about stabilizing. And decelerating extension as I mentioned have the upper body than anything else. We also see poor posture and things like text neck coming up a lot more and our athletes and our clients kind of looks like this right? Just me looking at this device just just right here. Will the more I train my abdominal core, the more my connectors you wants to be in this state, especially since we sit at a desk a lot more often than we’ve ever have in human history. And the Kinect issue when we sit there we’re training it literally exercising it to be in that state of flexion at the hips and flexing out the thoracic spine. And as we sit there hour after hour, the connective tissue of the course is good. This is where you want me to be awesome. I’m gonna stay there. Then we go to the gym. Are we not? Got 100 situps, boom, boom 100 New raises as we’re hanging in straps on a pull up bar, the course is awesome. You want to be here, Sweet. Thanks for training me, I’m gonna do exactly what you tell me to do. But then we’re gonna go for a run. And we need to be tall. And of course, what Wait a minute wait, but women women, I’m not, I’m not going to do that, well, because I’m so good here. Or I want to go put something overhead and reach high and the court has to extend back courses, I’m not going to do that very, very well, you start to wonder why you have lower back pain. Because the constant repetition of forward flexing the constant activity of these abdominal muscles flexing and moving forward getting them super strong at a task that they actually do, maybe more than once or twice a day. And that’s getting out of bed or getting off the ground a few times a day. The key takeaway that I want you to have right here is that when you train a movement, the proprioceptive nerve endings, right the the nerves that kind of get that muscle memory that we kind of hear talked about, it’s going to do that very, very well. So don’t overtrain a system just for physique, just for looking good. When in reality, if you want a good six pack, you got to eat better. It’s just that plain and simple. Right now we’ll go to the opposite of the core where we have the spine erectors, connecting the thoracic spine, the lumbar spine together and the pelvis. Of course, they support the head hold and move the spine into extension and lateral flexion. But also decelerate flexion of the spine under gravity and mass momentum, and upright position sitting or standing, these muscles rarely get a break, and often get too tired and start to lose their integrity and maintain a healthy tone. The desk is not a friend of these muscles, and gravity continues to pull us forward and down. And the anterior connected you also becomes less elastic, just as talked about before as we train it. And as supine extensors essentially have to fight harder and harder to stay in good alignment or posture. The key takeaway that coaches and athletes need to understand is that those core muscles in front those six pack muscles, keeping them loose, mobile, and elastic. Now let’s talk about the true power of the core, the transverse abdominus, the internal and external obliques. They connect the ribs to either side of each other, and to the pelvis, and to the lumbar connective tissue and even to other abdominal muscles themselves. These muscles do it all from lateral flexion to rotation to deceleration of extension via their fascial tension. They do help with flexion without a question. But you already know how physics and then everyday function. Were asked that question. If you look at these three different muscle units, one, two, and three, and you look at the direction at which those fibers run, you can definitely see the left to right relationship, talking about how they move in rotation, more so than anything else. And we were talking about rotational movement. That’s what you saw in the beginning of this video. That’s what you saw how powerful this core musculature is, it is the bulk of the training that the core should be in. And these muscles for one thing are the bulk of the core muscles via the size and the area that they cover. They also they do influence the vast majority of human movement and sport, the human body is the most powerful in rotation. And in fact running and walking is most efficient, because our ability to rotate or coil, the human trunk and rotation of the pelvis. Here’s an interesting fact. If you look at all the different amazing sports statues out there moving at statues out there, you’re gonna see a relationship between all of them. They’re either in a rotated position, or a coiled position. Check out these few that I pointed out. And the list is much longer than this. You see the Heisman. You see a statue called puck you see the discus throw. You see all these sports figures right in front of you right now. It’s incredible to see how many of these movements that you’re seeing are all showcasing the rotation and the coil positions.
If coaches athletes really want to maximize the potential of the human body, then you need to train these muscles. In fact, no you don’t. You need to train the movement that these muscles operate in. That’s the big takeaway. We need to start focusing on the overdoing the 33% of the core, the flexion the Pro and the supine because I want you to think about how The lower body, especially the lumbar spine, operates if we continue to flex it and flex it as most core exercises typically do, as you continue to bring that body more and more and more, as it already does that sitting in a chair sitting in the couch sitting at a car sitting eating food, it just adds on. And I want you to think about how the lower back is so prevalent in so many of our clients, some of our athletes and ourselves, we need to start thinking about how we can get it tall, how get it upright, how we can start to train and treat it with the hips, and the thoracic spine, the shoulders moving in sync and out of sync as long as they have the mobility to do so we’re going to decrease lower back pain significantly, as we start to build the base and the side structures of this abdominal core that is more than likely already fairly strong. If you’ve been doing the traditional core work. So think about it. How do we get the next level of our training? How do we get the next level of the crossroads of our body, the core, we train the other 66% to maximum, more than likely doing a long time we’ve already trained that 33% Get the other two thirds, start thinking about it and start maximizing it. The last point I want to make, I want you to think about how we all started as a baby, right? Think about how we all started as as a baby, we’re laying down more than likely on our back supine position. How do we start to move? Right, we started to move, we start moving our head. We started looking left and right, our hands moved our legs move looks kind of like a supine dead bug right? Or a few of the moves that we kind of have. Okay, sounds all right. That’s certainly a truthful move of right on no problem about that. But then what we do, we ended up starting to roll with or to go prone. Well how to how do we roll we actually had to strengthen our transverse or rotational movement patterns. Okay, rotational core, I like it but still prone. And then we see what we started to do, we started to actually move back and forth between those patterns, we started to reach a little bit more, and then we started to eventually crawl. And the crawling pattern is essentially very similar to the walking pattern, as it just is on all fours. And as you look at the crawling pattern, you see how the pelvis shifts, and the lateral motions how the shoulders shift, and the body begins to essentially coil as I was talking about, that only prepares us to get onto a higher level, a coffee table or a wall and her feet come underneath us, then we start to get this upright stance. And we’ll take a few steps and what happens we fall, no problem, we try again. And as you see as the progression of the human, little boy or little girl is is so as the progression of the course should be for you get out of the prone and supine, start getting into the rotational transverse and lateral planes to progress your body just like as you did as a little child. That is a very, very important takeaway that I want you to think about. It’s not just about how we function I get it, it’s about how our lower back is going to stay healthy for the rest of our lives, how all of the women especially moms are going to be able to get this core back by training the diaphragm and the pelvic floor. It’s about how our physique is going to be well rounded because we have everything that brings in that function. And it’s about how we move and think about the core view the anatomical structures, the physics that are present. Think about that. The next time you do a core routine, checkup the exercise below, and I hope this gave you a lot of value and a lot of things to think about the next time you train this. Take care.
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