Concepts such as the ‘core’ and ‘core training’  to many people, are like algebra to me. I know of it but have no idea about any of the specifics or what the hell it does in the real world. I hope this article can elucidate what the core is, but I know I may also cloudy the water a little further, which is typically my way.

So what is the core?

The core is basically a ‘team’ of muscles and connective tissue located around the pelvis, lower back and abdominals. The primary functions of this team are:

• To provide stability and protection for the lower back, and the all important spinal cord which is housed inside the spine.
• Connect the lower body to the upper body to allow us to move in the complex, coordinated fashion that we do.

Who are the big players in this team?

The main players in ‘Team Core’ are:

Side view of the TA

The way this team should work (emphasis on should) is that our marathoners hold a low amount of tone whenever you are resisting gravity and moving, regardless of the direction of the movement or force developed; and our sprinters come on in short, powerful bursts when required (direction specific) and switch off again when not needed.

What we know from a fantastic chain of research papers (mostly from the University of Queensland) is that in almost all cases of low back pain, a common feature is a simple dysfunction in team play. Specifically some of our marathoners, usually the TA and MU throw the towel in and stop playing leaving the sprinters to pick up the slack and start running marathons which is obviously not a recipe for success. The sprinters get tight, sore and angry as you would expect and this is a primary driver behind most of the low back pain that I see in clients.

So what do we do now?

When a team isn’t playing the game the right way, who do we look at first? The coach of course! And who is the coach of this team? Unfortunately, you. The good news is though, that this dysfunctional team can be steered in the right direction with some good quality training. And the sort of training that is required is of course, core training!

iNform’s philosophy and practice of core training with their clients can be summed up simply as an attempt to get all the players in the team back to doing what they do best. Awaken the marathoners through simple yet specific activation exercises and then get them working in their proper context (activating with low level contractions prior to movement of the limbs). Then teach the sprinters to switch on when they are required (direction specific), and switch off when they aren’t. Pretty simple stuff. Training the core in this way has been shown through research, and in our clinical experience to help reduce the severity, duration and frequency of low back pain and in many clients, eradicate it altogether.

Core training should evolve to incorporate more complex whole body movements, and how that is done sounds like a great idea for another blog…..