3. Focus on your Core

Core training has become a buzz word in the fitness industry in recent years, and for good reason. Your core is, briefly, all of the muscles that stabilize and control the alignment of your pelvis. This includes the Ab Rectus (the six pack muscle), the Obliques (the muscles of the flank), the deep abdominal muscle (the Transverse Abdominus or TVA, which wraps around your whole midsection and runs into your spine),  the muscles of the pelvic floor (we’ll talk about how you activate those below) and  the muscles of spinal erection (these run up and down your back next to your spine). A number of other muscles, like your Lats and Glutes affect your core as well, but are not traditionally considered core muscles.

So why all of the fuss about the core? For one thing, a strong functional core is critical to spinal posture and the health of the back. Weak or improperly trained core muscles are a huge factor in back pain, which affects tens of millions of Americans. Beyond this, the strength of your core musculature is one of the most important variables in determining the strength and power you can bring to bear in sports. Skeptical? Try this:

Stand on one leg and raise the opposite arm to the height of your chest (stand like you’re pledging allegance to the flag), then have a friend push the hand you have raised with one finger. Odds are your friend can easily push your arm back with that one finger. Now do the same thing, except pull in your belly button as hard as you can, and squeeze like you’re trying not to pee. Now have your friend push your hand. You’ll be able to push back with a lot more force. Pulling in the belly button activates the Transverse Abdominus. Squeezing like you’re trying not to urinate activates the muscles of your pelvic floor.  Together, these two muscles tense your core, which creates a firm base of support for your upper body musculature.

How hard could you push an opponent if you were standing on ice? Not very hard, right. You’d just slide away. It wouldn’t matter how strong your upper body was. You’d still need a firm base  to push from to be able to exert any real force. Well, your core is the base of support for your upper body. You can have the strongest pecs and arms in the world, and be able to bench press loads of weight, but if your core is weak, you won’t be able to bring this strength to bear while standing up on the field or court. You simply won’t have an adequate base of support.

To develop a strong functional core, you have to do more than just sit ups. Balancing exercises on the ball are a great place to start. Practice balancing on a ball on your hands and knees (see below). While balancing, keep your belly button in and your pelvic floor squeezed. Bridging exercises, in which you suspend your body horizontally in the air with your limbs on the ground, are also great core training. Ask a trainer at your gym to show you a few bridging exercises. Sit ups are OK, but should generally be done on a ball, and not on a mat, since the ball allows for a full range of motion. Extend your spine all the way around the ball during the negative phase of your sit ups (when your body is moving down towards the ground with gravity) and then curl your spine up and off the ball to the point where your abs are fully contracted. Our Core Training Tutorial goes over these, and other core exercises, in detail.