By Kieran Loving, ATC
Core is defined as the central or most important part of something. When it comes to the CORE of the human body what comes to mind? Most people think a rocking six pack of abs means a strong core! This is a huge misconception. The core of your body actually means the central most important part of your body and the average body space is a lot bigger than just your abdomen.
When I talk with patients about core strength, I like to talk about the importance of strengthening the body from the abdominals all the way to the knees. This would incorporate:
- Abdominals
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- Glutes
- Hip adductors/abductors
- Lower Back Muscles
These muscles are connected by nerves in the body and send and receive messages along the same channels. The muscles of your abdominals should work together with the muscles of the lower back in order to create a brace around your mid section. All these muscles not only have to be strong, but they need to be in balance with one another. If you are only doing exercises to work your abdominals but nothing to strengthen your back or your hips for example, you are going to have some aches and pain and potential for injuries in other areas of the body. The core muscles need to work effectively together and fire in the proper sequence and of course timing is everything. If you have strong hips but weak abdominals, that will lead to an imbalance and the core is considered weak. An analogy would be if the tires in your car are not inflated all the way, which will than cause your gas mileage to suffer. The car has to work harder to accomplish the same distance. The car still works, and it will drive but it’s not a top efficiency and eventually it will need to be checked out. This is the same way the body works when muscular strength and endurance are not in balance.
Physical Therapy can help by evaluating and determining where those muscle imbalances are. If you have great strength and power in the hips but the glutes and back are weak, this can cause pain and dysfunction and needs to be addressed with a properly tailored rehabilitation plan.
