The “experts” won’t admit that the human body is still more intelligent than our current understanding.  The human body is an excellent mathemetician.  Its smarter than your trainer, doctor or PT and even Studio T Pro.   The body is a genius.  It LOVES solving new problems.  The core stabilizes, executes and enables problem solving – but it has to train the practice patterns of optimal core execution strategies to write them to muscle memory.  It then executes movement based on these stored muscle memory patterns.  Training exercises that train torsion will then store torsion patterns in the body.  These can creep into everything from picking up a box off the floor to dangerous execution patterns in athletics.

If you have weak spots in the core –  remedial core training, especially after injury, is highly effective from plank or using the safe pilates reformer – and *immediately* get onto training the mind and body with solid execution patterns in standing or kneeling or lunge stances.   You’ll know your core is firing well because your moves will be stronger and smoother.  Developing and using body awareness is the key for effective training.  All the anatomy charts and diagrams cannot do the work our own bodies can manage easily.  But it takes practice and focus.

The companion article to this post – focuses training the core to do what it likes – generate quality movements.   It was the Studio T original answer to the simple question:  “What Do You Think of Crunches”.   Let’s get off the ground and train for an intelligent, powerful core.  Here’s the post: Smart Core Means Smart Training

Massive Crunch and Core Myths

1. The “Core” is just abs.  Wrong.  The “Core” is not just the front abdominal wall.  We exist with gravity on all four sides – like a tube.  So the core is the entire musculature that connects the rib cage to the pelvis.  Its the front, sides and back of your torso.  Like a “core”.  Not a pancake.  It is literally a flexible cylinder that can calculate on the fly the appropriate level of “stiffness” or force to resist gravity.
2. Core is just strength.  Wrong.  It runs everything that happens with the extremities by establishing a solid base of support.  It is an incredible engineer of dynamic force against gravity – on the fly.  It started its calculations when you learned to walk.  It is literally amazing and so far, we have engineered nothing as sophisticated as our own body.  The core, as a unit, integrates bone, tissue and muscles in complex layers to drive every move we make.  As our base of support, it stabilizes the hips so you don’t wobble when you run or walk (if you see a runner with hips wobbling – it’s probably weak core musculature around the hips).  It is constantly analyzing, calculating and refining strategies to effectively move the human body relative to gravity.
3. Core is not in the back.  Wrong.  At the center of your body is the spine.  Expand out in 360 degrees from that, and you have a tube.  At the core, we are pretty much a tube.  A fantastic tube of awesome.  Not convinced?  Just squeeze me.  Awesome comes out.
4. Just focus on plank.  Wrong.   As far as athletics go, the obliques are really the smarties.  They like challenging tasks and learning new skills.  In terms of the core musculature, by land mass, we are mostly obliques.  (Lats are the broadest muscle of the back, and they can assist with stabilization when the arms are fixed, but technically, the lats are considered a Prime Mover.  And they can do their job best when the core is effective at stabilization.)  If you want to really increase strength, skill and fitness level – for *any* physical activity – think about the obliques.  They mobilize and stabilize on every movement.  They like to play.  So punch, kick, rotate, twist, run at random angles, have fun.
5. Don’t worry about the deep low abdominals.  Wrong.   The importance of strength here cannot be overstated.  And worse, we tend to get weak there –  and the lumbar lacks support and there is a cascade failure of compensation by other muscles to kick in – our thoraco-pelvic canister, aka tube, gets wobbly and our base of support unstable – eventually we can expect the shoulders to give out along with the rest.  Deep low abdominal strength & control is usually the FIRST THING I fix in big strong guys.  This is such a common issue that Studio T developed a generalized synergistic routine and nicknamed: The Hit It & Quit.   First run some basic exercises to activate the deep low abs –  fatigue them a bit so there is enough direct feedback in subsequent moves (pain and grunting, ha!) – then proceed through a series basic training forms with a solid lumbar that is supported by the deep low abs and gluts.  With practice, the stronger form is written to muscle memory.  Now we have an improved core by integrated strength training.  Now the core is more effective at doing its job: dynamically generating a sturdy canister as a base of support.   In short, lack of deep low abs throws off the lumbar and this cascades into all movements.  It ruins a push-up, allows wobble in any athletic stance, compromises weight lifting form and leaves shoulders vulnerable to injury on every rep.

Bonus Round of Myths

And last but by no means the least Myth, a Myth that Towers above all other Myths: 30 Minute Abs.  If there ever was a commercialized fitness marketing load of Hoo, this is it.  The core is meant to constantly dynamically calculate and control the body in space.  Ground based crunches and fire hydrants for 30 minutes are nothing short of an insult.  If the move truly is pure abdominals, we couldn’t do it for more than six minutes tops.  Test it with a gymnastics hollow ab hold – arms overhead – and for a minute.  Try it for two minutes.  Even gymnastics ring competition routines, the apex of Abs, only last a few minutes.

This works best at the *end* of a workout – or as a short set in the beginning for muscle activation, depending on current strength levels – the core is needed for every training movement.  Wearing it out early can impact core control for the rest of the workout and risk injury.

Mythbusted – Let’s Get Dynamic

And if you’re sick of planks (who isn’t), beyond oblique canoes, the general fitness industry won’t have much to offer by way of true oblique integration.  Or core integration for that matter.

So where can we look for better core training alternatives? The martial arts and boxing disciplines are masters of core integration.  Their training is designed to build a dynamic core capable of great strength, speed, precision, Vo2 Max and focus.