Core Training That Builds Serious Strength & Stability

When people hear about core training typically drills like planks, crunches, a wide array of just trunk bending and twisting come to people’s mind. However, really good core training isn’t usually about such things and isn’t just what we do when we lay on the ground.

Don’t get me wrong, ground based core training can be helpful because it helps simplify the demands of our core exercises. When we are upright and moving in various directions, things get way more tricky and if we don’t have a good foundation and worked on progressions, we won’t have success. What is core training though? This 2005 paper in “The Journal Of The American Academy Of Orthopaedic Surgeons” describes what is actually meant by core training…

“The lumbopelvic-hip complex, or “core,” is composed of the lumbar vertebrae, the pelvis, the hip joints, and the active and passive structures that either produce or restrict movement of these segments. The stability of any system is the ability to limit displacement and maintain structural integrity. Therefore, core stability can be defined as the ability of the lumbopelvic-hip complex to prevent buckling of the vertebral column and return it to equilibrium following perturbation. Core stability is instantaneous; to maintain it, the involved anatomy must continually adapt to changing postures and loading conditions to ensure the integrity of the vertebral column and provide a stable base for movement of the extremities.”

WHEW, that’s A LOT more than most people think about when it comes to core training. What IS important to really understand are the ideas that the core isn’t one muscle, it is how 30 plus muscles work synergistically to help prevent unwanted movement when we perform actions in life and sport. Real core stability has to be able to occur quickly and just when it is needed. However, for a lot of people that need a foundation of core training they need to understand how foundations of core stability, like bracing, work in order to help us set the base for higher level core training.

Physical therapist, Dan Swinscoe shares some important cues in getting foundational core training exercises like our Ultimate Sandbag bird dog progressions executed correctly.  

The dead bug is like the bird dog but less stress on the body because we are laying on our backs.

Side planks round out our base of good core training movements, and again, Dan shows how we put a unique DVRT spin on the movement to make it more productive.

Dan shows though that we don’t live on the ground and moving to half kneeling positions sets another foundation for more dynamic core training that actually has a higher carry over to what we do in life and sport.

Most people don’t realize that power training is where we ultimately want to go with our core training because in order to perform fast movements well our core stability has to be working on all cylinders. Moving quickly, not just lifting, but decelerating as well requires all the concepts of good core training that was defined in that journal article. When you see what core training really should be about and what it can accomplish, it doesn’t become one part of your training program, it becomes a part of EVERYTHING you do in your training.

How can you apply such power training into your routines? Dan does a great job showing our power clean matrix that brings together so many great elements of strength, power, and stability. Don’t miss this week saving 25% on any Ultimate Sandbag/water bag and get our 12-week jump start program for FREE! Just use code “spring25” HERE