Jon reacts to his article, "Real Core Training".

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REAL CORE TRAINING
Jonathan Messner, MS, CSCS

10,000 years of evolution have turned the human body into an engineering masterpiece. Each movement affects hundreds of thousands of systems within the body and each system is dependent on hundreds of thousands of systems all working in unison. This balance is extremely remarkable, and delicate. Musculoskeletal dysfunction occurs when this balance is disturbed, most noticeably by societal stresses.
Natural stresses occur when the body is in a survival state; hunting for food and running from predators cause stress on the mind and the body. Because these stresses are naturalistic in nature, the body is able to recover from them. Societal stresses are not caused by the “fight or flight” response and therefore, the body is not able to recover from them as well. Societal stresses are caused by repetitive tasks such as exercising too much, sitting too much, and having one too many at the bar after work.
When it comes to improving performance of the human body all too often we place emphasis on strength training, stretching, or both. I feel as though we are missing a crucial first step, and that is restoration of balance. Strength training and stretching without restoring balance will potentially magnify muscular imbalances and lead to injury.
For example: An accountant with chronic back pain tests short for hamstring length. Logic dictates that stretching the hamstrings will alleviate back pain. However, careful analysis reveals that the client has excessive flexibility in their lumbar spine and atrophied glutes, probably from sitting eight hours a day. Even if stretching eliminates some of the back pain, it is only a bandage to the wound; focus needs to be placed on restoring balance of the hip region by limiting the flexibility of the lumbar spine and improving gluteul function.
In my previous writings I compared movement of the body to a switchboard. For movement to be ideal and the body balanced, the right muscles need to fire at the right time, #1, #2, #3. Training muscles to fire at the right time is called activation.
My favorite activation exercises focus on the gluteuls. Contrary to popular belief, the gluteuls are probably the most important part of the core. A healthy, functioning core involves movement at the hips and stability in the midsection. These exercises will appear to be laughably easy to most people. However, if you do not feel these exercises in your glutes, then your core might not be as strong as you think it is.

Supine Brace

• Lay down on your back
• Bend both knees at 90 degrees
• Place a ball between your thighs
• Squeeze the ball, squeeze your glutes, and stiffen all the muscles around your midsection
  without lifting your lower back off the floor
• Perform 5 to 10 reps, 5 seconds each, 3 sets

Bilateral Bridge

• Begin in supine with bent knees
• Place a towel roll in-between your knees
• Squeeze your glutes
• Lift your hips as high as possible
• Goal is to increase ROM of the hip and feel your glutes fire
• Perform 5 to 10 reps, 5 seconds each, 3 sets

Quadruped Brace

• Position yourself on you hands and knees
• Maintain a good posture with your chest pushed out and your shoulders back
• Place a ball between your thighs
• Squeeze the ball, squeeze your glutes, and stiffen all the muscles around your midsection without rounding your lower back
• Perform 5 to 10 reps, 5 seconds each, 3 sets

Quadruped Hip Extension

• Begin in four-point stance
• Place one knee slight elevated over the other knee
• Maintain a 90 degree bend in both knees the whole time
• Extend the hip without extending the lumbar spine
• Goal is to increase the ROM of the hip and to feel your glutes fire
• Perform 5 to 10 reps, 5 seconds each, 3 sets