Did you know the limbs will only get as strong as the core will let them..🧠 read that again

What is it?

The core is all the muscles around your torso, from your ribcage to your pelvic region, wrapping right around your mid section.

It has 3 layers, the deep inner layer of muscles is what we need to focus on for better performance in and out the gym.

The main roles of the core is stability, posture and transferring force between the upper and lower body.

The 4 key movements of the core are rotation (think twisting), flexion (think situp), lateral flexion (think side bend) and bracing (think plank or bracing for impact).

Although bracing may not be much of a ‘movement’ it is in my opinion the most important. This is what will protect our organs/lower backs on impact.

The 3 ‘main’ muscles of the core are,

The Diaphragm – Very important for breathing, deep belly breathing  , (or breathing into your balls for the guys) properly is a great way to toughen the core.

Transverse Abdominis – These are the deep muscles that wrap around front and sides of the body. Thinking about drawing that belly button to spine is a great way to help activate them.

Mulltifidis – These are the little muscles that run up and fill in the little grooves along your spine, they help stabilise the vertebrate as the spine moves.

Some exercises I use frequently to train all the above are obviously the big compound lifts, (squats, deadlifts, push/pull variations).

The Palloff press and other anti rotation variations.

Plank variations

Rollouts

I love these as you can manipulate the variables to target more than 1 or all 4 key movements at once.

A strong core and a strong butt work synergistically to maximise your performance in and out the gym, remember this and you’ll go far!