I was poking fun at a noted health writer the other day for saying you should strengthen your abs to protect your back, and then saying "but you should also strengthen your core." This could just have been an oversight or an editor's blight on the lady's writing, but it was funny to me that a fitness writer might not think of the abs as part of the core.
I view most of this sort of thinking as a result of the body building world's focus on one question: "How can I look better naked?" That gets boiled down in many a body builder's mind to "How can I make the front of myself look better naked?" Big "guns", big pecs, ripped abs, and huge quads - that's the name of that game. I walked this route for many years, thinking that bigger was stronger, and stronger meant "better athletic performance." Perhaps luckily for me, I don't have the genetics for muscles that are ready to explode with sarcoplasmic hypertrophy - that's the bulky, soft musculature that body builders cultivate. I also noticed that even with hard training, my athletic performance did not noticeably change. The training I was doing didn't translate into a useful body. So I kept looking for something different and better.
It turns out that the world of human performance is very broad and deep and provides an opportunity for nearly endless learning.
One of the more fun things I have learned was a BFO - blinding flash of the obvious. The "core", the pop word that means the musculature of the torso in combination with the spine, rib cage and pelvis, is a compromise structure. Our "core" will allow a human to bend and flex in a remarkable variety of ways, or the core can be held rigid to allow for weight bearing and force transmission. Compared to snakes, we might be considered inflexible. Compared to ants, we might be considered too flexible and therefore not strong (for our size). Looking at gymnastics, it is easy to see the extremes of both of these functions of the core, as they blend seamlessly into beautiful, powerful human movement. There would be no jumping or tumbling without the ability to make the core perfectly rigid, nor would there be any flipping, swinging or beam work without the ability to twist and contort the core this way and that. With a bit more effort, one finds the same extremes in fighting, dancing, baseball, football, and for that matter, all of your daily movement.
If you don't have the strength to hold your core rigid, your life is diminished. If you don't have the strength to bend and flex, your life is diminished.
Tomorrow, we'll talk about why strength is necessary for flexibility, and why you don't need to flex your trunk (situps and crunches and such) to "strengthen your core."
I view most of this sort of thinking as a result of the body building world's focus on one question: "How can I look better naked?" That gets boiled down in many a body builder's mind to "How can I make the front of myself look better naked?" Big "guns", big pecs, ripped abs, and huge quads - that's the name of that game. I walked this route for many years, thinking that bigger was stronger, and stronger meant "better athletic performance." Perhaps luckily for me, I don't have the genetics for muscles that are ready to explode with sarcoplasmic hypertrophy - that's the bulky, soft musculature that body builders cultivate. I also noticed that even with hard training, my athletic performance did not noticeably change. The training I was doing didn't translate into a useful body. So I kept looking for something different and better.
It turns out that the world of human performance is very broad and deep and provides an opportunity for nearly endless learning.
One of the more fun things I have learned was a BFO - blinding flash of the obvious. The "core", the pop word that means the musculature of the torso in combination with the spine, rib cage and pelvis, is a compromise structure. Our "core" will allow a human to bend and flex in a remarkable variety of ways, or the core can be held rigid to allow for weight bearing and force transmission. Compared to snakes, we might be considered inflexible. Compared to ants, we might be considered too flexible and therefore not strong (for our size). Looking at gymnastics, it is easy to see the extremes of both of these functions of the core, as they blend seamlessly into beautiful, powerful human movement. There would be no jumping or tumbling without the ability to make the core perfectly rigid, nor would there be any flipping, swinging or beam work without the ability to twist and contort the core this way and that. With a bit more effort, one finds the same extremes in fighting, dancing, baseball, football, and for that matter, all of your daily movement.
If you don't have the strength to hold your core rigid, your life is diminished. If you don't have the strength to bend and flex, your life is diminished.
Tomorrow, we'll talk about why strength is necessary for flexibility, and why you don't need to flex your trunk (situps and crunches and such) to "strengthen your core."
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