First of all: What is the core?
Abdominal, gluteal, hip girdle, lower spinal and several other muscles work together connect to provide this needed spinal stability. These muscles spare the spine (especially the lumbar spine,) the hip, knee and ankles from excessive load. They are thus very important for not only general health and well-being (good posture) but also for good athletic performance. They are often called the connective muscles as they help connect the load transfer between the upper and lower body. I like to refer to them as the “control” muscles as they are essential for all movement that involves both lower and upper body.
The stabilizers are normally dominated by slow twitch fibres and are normally shorter in length with the main function being stabilization. The movers on the other hand are usually longer and dominated by fast twitch fibres.
Basically we are going to concentrate on the exercises that target the posterior chain, the glutes and the anterior chain, the abs. With the aid of some short videos I will demonstrate my favourite glute and ab exercises and go through a few do’s and don’ts when doing them.
We have 3 gluteal muscles:
- Gluteus Maximus
- Gluteus Medius
- Gluteus Minimus
Gluteus Maximus – The largest and most dominate of the glute group. Its main function is hip extension and is a completed antagonist muscle to both the hip flexor and abdominals.
Gluteus Medius – A deep glute muscle located in the lateral aspect of the upper buttocks or hip. It plays a crucial role in hip abduction, pelvic stabilization and internal/external rotation of the hip. * Exceptionally important in balance control.
Gluteus Miniumus – The smallest of the glute muscles its primarily acts as a hip stabilizer and abductor. It is critical for walking properly and maintaining balance.
Practical Demonstrations:
- Glute Bridging (with bands, balls, isometric and isolation)
- Glute Push Outs
- Clams
- Glute/Monster Walking
- Other Standing Glute Exercises
- Single Leg Squats
Abdominals are a bit more complicated and involve more muscles. The abdominal stabilizers include the muscles of the pelvic floor including, transverse abs, the internal obliques, multifidus and diaphragm.
The movers (where we will spend most of our time) are the rectus abdominals the external obliques. The rectus abdominus’s main function is to provide hip flexion or the flexing of the torso. I like to divide the rather large muscle groups into upper, middle and lower. The latter, the lower, get neglected in most workouts and Ill endeavour to show you through several exercises how to isolate and work on this group.
The other function of this muscle group is the support of the spine (keeping it erect as the name suggests)and stabilizing the pelvis.
The external obliques also assist with all the above functions as well as rotations.
Practical Demonstrations:
- KBPT (Knees Bent Pidgeon Toed)
- Butterflies
- Hands to Feet
- Ab Roller
- Abdominal Plank (with varieties)
- Toe Touches
- Russian Twists
- Crunches