Our core has three-dimensional depth and functional movement in all three planes of motion. Many of the muscles are hidden beneath the exterior musculature people typically train. The deeper muscles include the transverse abdominals, multifidus, diaphragm, pelvic floor, and many other deeper muscles.

What the Core Does

Your core most often acts as a stabilizer and force transfer centre rather than a prime mover. Yet consistently people focus on training their core as a prime mover and in isolation. This would be doing crunches or back extensions versus functional move-ments like dead-lifts, overhead squats, and push-ups, among many other functional exercises. By training that way, not only are you missing out on a major function of the core, but also better strength gains, more efficient movement, and longevity of health.

We must look at core strength as the ability to produce force with respect to core stability, which is the ability to control the force we produce like in the golf swing for example. As far as I know there are five different components of core stability. They are strength, endurance, flexibility, motor control, and function. Without motor control and function, the other three components are useless.

It is important to first achieve core stability to protect the spine and surrounding musculature from injury in static and then dynamic movements. Second, we want to effectively and efficiently transfer and produce force during dynamic movements while maintaining core stability. (The golf swing is again a typical example of this.) This also includes running, or picking up a jug of milk far back in the fridge while keeping your back safe. Research has shown that athletes with higher core stability have a lower risk of injury. For KeNako students who play golf and other sports like tennis, core strengthening is therefore absolutely vital for their future sporting careers. ‪#‎SkillsforLife ‪#‎Golf