Core Stability Training Principles

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Have you read this comprehensive list of articles? If not, that is the place to start. I drew some examples from the articles, and refer to page numbers for expansion.

Let's take a closer look.

RESPONSE:

The industry buzz-word, "Core Training" is commonly spoken among health & fitness professionals and consumers alike. Yet, with all this awareness, much confusion exists on how to best utilize exercise to achieve core stability - and why it's even important in the first place. Please initiate the debate and provide some examples of how you apply these principles, examples of how your training approach has modified since starting to review the available literature.

There is evidence to suggest that core stability is important to overall health and for peak performance, agility and especially important in injury prevention.

Therefore, the deep trunk muscles, Transversus Abdominis (TA), multifidus (MF), Internal Oblique (IO), paraspinal, pelvic floor, are key to the active support of the lumbar spine. The co-contraction of these muscles produce forces via the "theracolumbar fascia" (TLF) and the "intra-abdominal pressure" (IAP) mechanism which stabilize the lumbar spine, and the paraspinal and MF muscles act directly to resist the forces acting on the lumbar spine.

However, it is not just the recruitment of these deep-trunk muscles, but how they are recruited that is important. Hodges and Richardson (1996) showed that the co-contraction of the TA and MF muscles occurred prior to any movement of the limbs. This suggests that these muscles anticipate dynamic forces that may act on the lumbar spine and stabilize the area prior to any movement. Hodges and Richardson showed that the timing of co-ordination of these muscles was very significant. Thus, core strength is considered to be the muscular support about the lumbar spine necessary to achieve and maintain functional stability. More recently this includes muscles of the hips and even the scapulothoracic musculature s well (Heiderscheit & Sherry's article who investigated the effects of core stability on rehabilitation and injury prevention). Hodges and Richardson, for example, found a relationship between core muscle weakness and increased injury rate (see details of the study on page 60 of Heiderscheit & Sherry's article). The author's point out the problem of equating muscular stability with muscular strength (see p.61), which adds to the confusion discussed in this question. They therefore suggest continued testing of procedures utilized to measure core strength and stability in relation to dynamic movements and sports positions. There are mixed results. Nadler et al, for example, found no relationship between core strengthening training and a reduction in injuries in college student's athletes, for both genders. However, Heiderscheit and Sherry point out some serious methodological problems of the study. Please refer to the article for the other 14 studies reviewed.

Also, the Scapula plays a role in athletic shoulder function (Kibler). However, "the exact role and the function of the scapula are misunderstood in many clinical situations. This lack of awareness often translates into incomplete evaluation and diagnosis of shoulder problems. In addition, ...