Core Coordination?

While there is no shortage of "core" exercises, there is a shortage of common sense. I still find many patients doing outdated exercises and still injuring themselves in the process. This effectively sabotoges their health and exercise ambitions, and sends them back to the drawing board. Frustration builds until they just give up, and quit exercising altogether. They hurt because they are out of shape and don't exercise, but if they do exercise they hurt even more.

So, for the record, I am suggesting that the "sit-up" or "crunch" are not a good exercises for most people. One big problem is that the body's "core" is designed to RESIST motion, not CREATE motion. This goes back to my previous post about firing a canon from a canoe. It just doesn't work. The canoe moves just as much as the cannonball. Strengthening your core muscles to resist motion effectively locks down your cannon to dry ground.

But there is another problem with the typical person doing a "core exercise". That problem is core coordination. Not only are the core muscles meant to stabilize the spine and resist motion, they are also inherently involved with breathing. The external and internal oblique muscles, the abdominus rectus, and the quadratus lumborum muscle are all involved with forced expiration. That is considered exhaling when you are NOT "at rest".

If you watch the average person doing the crunch or sit-up or any core exercise for that matter, you will likely see this person holding their breath. You also may have noticed this pattern in yourself when you bend down to tie your shoes. This is because your body senses that it should be firing up the core muscles, but these muscles are weak, so you just hold your breath to achieve the same effect of stiffening the spine. This is called the "Valsalva maneuver", and is often used by powerlifters to lift maximum weight. Whereas it may be useful in stiffening the spine during a maximum lift, it should be avoided in other situations. It is known to cause an unhealthy spike in the blood pressure. I feel that it is cheating (except in heavy lifts) as it allows you to avoid full activation of the core muscles when completing simple movements of daily life.

So to teach the body to coordinate the activation of the core muscles with active breathing is the goal. The more you can coordinate these the more you can exercise. Obviously if you are continuously holding your breath (Valsalva maneuver), then you will not able to accomplish much. You will be too out of breath. An example of this is holding a "plank". Count your breaths instead of seconds. This is the only way some of us will actually breathe. Yoga is another good way to go, but then again I have seen many people nearly pass out in class because they were not breathing properly. Make breathing the primary consideration when choosing ANY core exercise. As much as I would like to think we would just naturally breathe through them, I am not holding my breath.