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Core Stability 101
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 What is this thing ‘core stability’, that is bandied around like there’s no tomorrow?
We got the great team at AllSports Pilates on board to help us answer this question to help us sort out our core stability (or lack of it!)
Core stability is very much a term that seems in vogue, yet upon clinical testing (using the coolest of gadgets called a Biofeedback), we at the studio would fail 95% of all clients when asked one simple question: “please turn on what you perceive to be your deeper abdominals”.
Why? Because in reality it is actually a very complex thing to do, and unless you have been taught 100% correctly how to fire these deeper muscles, then chances are you won’t be.
So what is core stability? The million dollar question. From a clinical perspective, core stability is the ability to fire the deeper abdominal muscles (transversus abdominus) in a working relationship with your pelvic floor and deeper spinal muscles in order to control the position of the lumbar spine and pelvis during dynamic movements. What the….? Ok, test yourself to see what on earth all that meant:
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the ground (a). Place a pen under your lower back so that your spine is just touching it (roughly this is neutral spine - we’ll get to that later). Bring both legs up to a tabletop position as shown
Test: Can you, keeping your knee bent to 90 degrees, lower your toe down towards the ground without (b)...
Your back arching up off the pen (fail)
Your six-pack (rectus abdominus) bulging outwards – gripping
Feeling pain in your back or hip?
If you can, you are genuinely in the minority and a great multitasker. What this is showing you if you fail is that you most likely are relying on your six-pack to try and stabilise the spine (keep it stable under load) and/or overusing your hipflexors - both of which are bad for helping to stabilise the spine.
So what really, really is core stability? From a very basic perspective it is the increasing in pressure in the abdominal cavity. If you looked at your torso in the mirror, what you have is two fixed spaces (i.e. they can’t change in volume). The big one for us is from the bottom half: the diaphragm down to the base of the pelvis (pelvic floor). So very simply, when you fire the deeper abdominals and lift the pelvic floor, in combination with your breathing, the pressure inside that cavity increases, creating greater stability around the spine.
Lacking in awareness of the pelvic floor is a major downfall of clients learning core stability. If you are standing upright you want to imagine that you have an elevator sitting in the bottom of your pelvis. Ground floor is 0% pelvic floor contraction, 10th floor is 100%. Gently, see if you can walk around, with that elevator lifted up to the 3rd floor, breathing normally, without straining. Then, add to that the sensation that, if say you are a size 12 jeans, you are wearing a pair that is a size too small (10), and you are half way there.
This is the basic core contraction - next article, we get much tougher!
Greg
AllSports Pilates
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