WHAT IS THE CORE? DEFINITION AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Nowadays, in lots of publications in sport magazines, newspapers or even the news, you can hear information about the importance of the core in our health, but sometimes its definition is still unclear, so let's explain what the core really means!

According to all recent publications and studies, core training and stability appear as the key component of all the training programs, from beginners to high level athletes. In this post we’re going to talk about the importance of the core and how are we going to train it. But maybe some of you don’t know what the core is, so let’s start by the definition.

“Core” is an English word which means centre, nucleus. It is composed by a group of muscles, which we will describe later, and placed in the gravity centre of the body. It’s the point from where the majority of body movements start. The core muscles help to generate and transfer the needed strength from the big to the little body segments during their movements, and plays a fundamental role in terms of lumbopelvic stability.

Anatomically, the core is compounded by the group of muscles which surround the lumbopelvic region. It includes: the abdominals (from inner to superficial: transversus, internal oblique, external oblique, rectus abdominis), the gluteals (piriformis, gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, gluteus maximus), the quadratus lumborum, the paraspinal muscles, the pelvic floor muscles, the hip abductors and rotators and the diaphragm.

Now it’s clear the great importance of the core muscles, so let’s define some benefits of its training:

-        The core is the fundamental key in our stability. If we strengthen it, we will notice our daily life is improved: we get more agile and functional.

-        It is proved by scientific studies that core strengthening helps to minimize low back pain, and also helps to improve the posture.

-        Core training is essential in the injuries’ prevention. If we’re able to stabilize and strengthen our core muscles, we will be able to prevent injuries or at least shorten their recovery periods, both in sport and daily life activities. 

-        Furthermore, core training will help you to define your figure, one of the main goals of lots of people when they start a training program.

Since many years, core training has been reduced to “abdominals”, like crunches and similar exercises, and it has been proved that most of that exercises are contraindicated, because they increase the intravertebral pression and the risk of suffering a vertebral disc prolapse. Furthermore, this kind of training misses a huge part of the movements the core is involved in, so it’s not a functional option. Core muscles act in combination with others, in complex actions, so we need to train them in a more global way.

We propose a core training based on isometric and slow dynamic exercises that challenge as more muscles as it is possible, and maintaining a neutral position of the spine most of the time. In the next post we will show you some exercises you can use to start strengthening your CORE.

Here we leave you a presentation which summarizes all the content above mentioned, and it could be useful to teach people about the core in a few minutes:

You can find more information at:

Akuthota V, Nadler SF (2004). Core strengthening. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 85:S86– S92

Bliss, L. S., & Teeple, P. (2005). Core Stability. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 4(3), 179–183. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CSMR.0000306203.26444.4e

López Barbeta, S. (n.d.). Concepto core: Estabilización lumbopélvica. Fisioterapia online. Extraído de: https://www.fisioterapia-online.com/articulos/concepto-core-estabilizacion-lumbopelvica

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