Developing strong core muscles is crucial, whether you’re a health and fitness enthusiast or simply trying to keep up with your children. Strengthening your abdominals and pelvis can improve your workout performance if you’re a fitness enthusiast.
“Core strength isn’t just about sculpting six-pack abs,” says Jennifer Burnham, an athletic trainer at Henry Ford Health. “In fact, a strong core can help with balance and agility, and it can make other strength-building exercises easier to do.”
What Are The Core Muscles?
Your core muscles comprise not only your abdominal muscles but also your low back, glutes and diaphragm; in fact, any muscles that attach to your pelvis and spine are part of your core. Whenever you engage in activities like running, jumping, twisting or bending, your core muscles need to work together.
According to Burnham, all the muscles that form the core operate in unison and require equilibrium for optimal functioning. If one group of these muscles is feeble, the others take over to make up for the deficiency, potentially leading to repetitive strain injuries.
The muscles that make up the core are:
- The rectus abdominus: Perhaps the most recognizable of the bunch, the rectus abdominus make up the sculpted six-pack muscles you see on swimsuit models and athletes.
- The obliques: These internal and external muscles run down the sides of your body and allow you to bend, twist and spin.
- The transverse abdominus: Settled beneath the other abdominal muscles, the transverse abdominus is a thick muscle that wraps around your torso like a girdle; it’s the set of muscles that keep your core tight and aligned.
Get acquainted with all the muscles that make up the core and focus on enhancing their strength.
How To Build Stronger Core Muscles
Both your upper and lower body rely on the core as a foundation. When your transverse abdominus is not strong enough, your back muscles will activate to compensate.
“Whether you’re pitching a baseball (which requires rotating your torso) or tossing a volleyball, you need to focus on all of the muscles in your core to avoid recruiting other muscle groups,” Burnham says. “Having a strong core allows you to engage those muscles together.”
To enhance your performance, what are some methods to utilize for developing a more robust core? Consider the following techniques:
- Keep it moving. Instead of holding a position to strengthen your abdominal muscles, try dynamic movement. Practicing a plank where you hold your body at the top of a push-up position? Try a plank saw instead, which requires you to shift your weight from your shoulders to your feet. “That type of moving plank causes you to stabilize all of your core muscles at once,” Burnham says.
- Take a breath. There’s a reason trainers warn against holding your breath during a workout. Your diaphragm is part of your core. “Breathing plays a key role in coordinating all of your core muscles,” Burnham says. Take Pilates, for example. That form of exercise strengthens the abdominal muscles, in part because it teaches you to breathe during dynamic movements.
- Pay attention to pain. If you’re feeling muscle soreness in areas that you weren’t intending to work, it could be an indication that your stronger core muscles are compensating for those that are weaker. So if you do a workout that was heavy on squats, for example, you should feel sore in your glutes, not your back.
- Use a mirror. “Doing core exercises in front of a mirror can help you hone in on the mechanics of the exercise and make sure you’re maintaining good form,” Burnham says. Not sure what the correct exercise should look like? Consider working with an athletic trainer a strength and conditioning coach for a session or two, so you can see and feel the correct form.
Protect Your Core
The foundation for daily activities is attributed to your core muscles, which are crucial for throwing a ball, sitting in a chair, and standing on your feet. However, athletes rely on their core to generate power.
“According to Burnham, your ability to jump higher and throw faster depends on the strength of your core muscles, which also helps protect you from injury. Therefore, regardless of your preferred physical activities, prioritizing the development and maintenance of a strong core is crucial.”
Core Stability Plays Key Role in Body Alignment
Discovering Your Powerhouse
The core, also known as the powerhouse, refers to the region between the lower rib cage, a line connecting the hip joints in the front, and the back’s base of the buttocks. Joseph Pilates prioritized the powerhouse, acknowledging it as the physical center of the body, responsible for propelling all Pilates movements. Numerous Pilates routines focus on boosting core strength, sustaining its engagement throughout the practice. When the powerhouse is utilized correctly, the movements of the limbs become synchronized and unified.
The area known as the core is often referred to as such by practitioners of Pilates and those in fields like dance, rehabilitation, and fitness. Maintaining proper positioning and activation during movement is known as core stability. This involves keeping the pelvis and spine in a desired position while moving limbs or the entire body without compensations or distortions. A person who fails to maintain control and arches the lower back or moves the pelvis excessively is said to have poor core control or weak core stability.
The Pilates vocabulary designates the powerhouse as the combined regions of the belly, hips, and lower back. The belly muscles and lower spinal extenders carry crucial importance in the powerhouse philosophy. Moreover, the powerhouse concept encompasses the pelvis region and all the primary muscle groups that control pelvis movement and balance.
The os coxae, commonly known as hip bones, are firmly attached to one side of the sacrum on each pair of sacroiliac joints on their posterior part. Additionally, these bones are also connected to each other through the pubic symphysis on the anterior part. These connections provide the hip bones, the interposed sacrum, and the coccyx with a unitary function known as the pelvic girdle. Comprising of three bones – ilium, ischium, and pubis – the hip bones are identifiable through their distinct anatomical landmarks.
Bony Landmarks of the Pelvis and Hip
Bony landmarks encompass specific indentations, openings, lines, and protrusions found on bones and are useful for determining core stability and alignment. The following chosen bony landmarks aid in this function.
- Iliac crest. The ilium is the large upper winglike portion of the hip bone. If you move your hands down from your waist, you will feel a large ridge of bone. This is the upper border of the ilium. This convex border is called the iliac crest.
- Anterior superior iliac spines (ASIS). If you slide your hands to the front of the iliac crests and then slightly down, you will feel a bony prominence on each side of the front of the pelvis. These paired prominences are called the anterior superior iliac spines (ASIS).
- Pubic symphysis (PS). The pubis forms the lower and front portion of each hip bone. The pubis of each hip bone join at the front to form the pubic symphysis, connected by a disc of cartilage. You can see the pubic symphysis by standing with your side to a mirror. The pubic symphysis is the portion of the lower pelvis that is the most forward.
- Ischial tuberosity. The ischium is a very strong bone in the lower and back portion of each hip bone. The lowest portion of each ischium has a roughened prominence, the forward portion on which we sit, termed the ischial tuberosity, or sit bone. You can palpate these tuberosities easily while sitting on the floor. Lean forward and place your fingertips under the bottom of the pelvis from behind. Slowly begin to rock your weight back to sit upright. The tuberosities will press down against your fingers.
- Greater trochanter. The hip joint is formed between the hollowed socket of the pelvis (acetabulum) and the rounded top (head) of the femur. A large projection toward the top of the femur faces outward. This projection is called the greater trochanter. When you are standing, the tip of the greater trochanter is at about the same level as the center of the head of the femur as it sits in the hip joint. Although not a part of the pelvis, this landmark is included because a line between the right and left greater trochanters can be used to mark the lower border of the powerhouse. You can palpate the greater trochanter by placing your thumb on the side of the crest of the ilium and reaching down the side of the thigh with the middle finger. When you internally and externally rotate the leg, you should feel the greater trochanter move beneath the middle finger.
