How to
strengthen abdominal muscles and increase your core performance.
This guest article shows the importance of building the strength of
your abdominal muscles, the core of all movement and power.
The Foundation:
Building Your Pillar of Strength
By Mark Verstegen and Pete Williams
We have a tendency to think of movement as starting from the limbs.
If we reach out to grab something or step forward, we think of those
motions as originating with the end result -- we've reached out; therefore,
we've used our arms. We've stepped forward, so we've worked our legs.
Uncountable exercise programs promise bigger arms or sexier legs as
a primary benefit.
Movement, however, starts from the very center of the body, the core
area of the torso. Amputees still can function and have fulfilling lives
because their cores remain intact. Frost-bite begins at the fingers
and toes, areas farthest from the core, because the body wants to protect
what's most important and concentrates its lifesaving heat around the
vital organs at the center of the body.
That's why we refer to the torso as the pillar -- it's the structural
center of movement and life. The way we maintain that pillar and its
alignment and function directly correlate to the health of our organs
and the rest of our bodies. Everything is interrelated.
Pillar strength, thus, is the foundation of movement. More specifically,
it consists of core, hip, and shoulder stability. Those three areas
give us a center axis from which to move. If you think of the body as
a wheel, the pillar is the hub, and the limbs, the spokes.
We want to have the hub perfectly aligned so we can draw energy from
it and effectively transfer energy throughout the body. It's impossible
to move the limbs efficiently and with force if they're not attached
to something solid and stable.
The better you can transfer energy through your body, the more efficiently
you will move, and the less wear and tear there will be. If you have
good pillar strength and take a step, force will pass evenly through
your foot, calf, and hip -- right up the pillar and through the top
of your head.
If you lack pillar strength, specifically hip stability, the energy
"leaks out" at the hip, and the body must compensate. More
pressure is placed down toward the knees and up toward the lower back,
which over time can cause degenerative problems.
Parents are always telling their children to sit or stand up straight.
There's a reason for that. Without pillar strength, without what I call
perfect posture, you will significantly increase the potential for injury
in a chain that starts with your lower back, descends all the way to
your knees and ankles, and rises up to your shoulders and elbows.
Everything in your body is connected and related through this pillar
of strength. Your shoulders and spine are related to the core and gluteus
maximus (or glutes), and they're interwoven in cross patterns that need
to be tuned for maximum efficiency.
Think of a rubber band wrapped around your body. If one end is not
attached, you will not develop enough tension. The band is fine, but
unless both ends are attached solidly, there's no way to store, release,
and transfer energy throughout your body.
For every action, there's a reaction. If I fire and move one muscle,
it causes another muscle to react. The muscles stretch and snap back.
This dynamic, multiplanar transfer of energy from front to back, side
to side, and top to bottom creates fluid movement for people with the
greatest pillar strength.
Marion Jones, the world-class sprinter, has tremendous pillar strength.
As she sprints 100 meters, there's a smooth transfer of energy through
her stable pillar that allows her to run at such great speed. There's
perfect harmony between coordination, muscular strength, stability,
balance, elasticity, and flexibility.
All movement starts from a remarkable muscle called the transverse
abdominis. Think of the TA as nature's weight belt. It originates from
the lower spine and wraps around and attaches to the ribs, abdominals,
and pelvis. When we draw the belly button in toward the spine and up
toward the ribs, we're essentially tightening a belt, ensuring the protection
of the pelvis and lower back. Your natural weight belt stabilizes the
pelvis and supports the torso.
Whenever movement begins, the TA is the first muscle that fires --
or, at least, it should be. For many people, that ability is lost over
time on account of injuries or sedentary lifestyles. We spend so much
time in front of computers and televisions that we develop bad posture.
Injuries are a result and exacerbate the problem further.
Workers at home-improvement stores are required to wear snug belts
around their backs and abdominals when lifting or moving objects for
safety reasons. They need to wear such devices because their bodies
no longer activate their natural weight belts.
If we can learn (or relearn) how to activate the TA, we can rely on
nature's weight belt and not wear additional support. We'll be able
to stabilize the pelvis so that the leg and torso muscles can turn to
it for support. That, in turn, prevents back problems. The body will
be able to transfer force efficiently through the muscles rather than
through the back and joints.
You'll relearn how to activate your TA early in this program, and though
it's an easy process, you'll have to make a conscious effort at the
beginning. Soon you'll find that it's second nature, and you will no
longer have to think about it.
Now that you are conscious of the role of the transverse abdominis
in core stability, we need to address your shoulders, another key element
of perfect posture. Think of a skeleton hanging in a classroom. Its
shoulders are naturally hanging back and down, giving it perfect posture
and alignment.
Unfortunately, most people have a tendency to slump forward, with their
shoulder blades sliding forward and up. If you spend much of your day
in front of a computer, as many working Americans do, you're probably
slumping over, even if you're not conscious of it. Unless you make some
changes, you're going to end up hunched over like so many of our elderly
friends who, sadly, never were exposed to a program like this years
ago, when they most needed it.
I want you to keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down toward
your waist, as if thrusting your chest up. You'll hear me reiterate
it ("SBD") during the instructions for many exercises. It's
important to keep your shoulders in this position throughout the program
and throughout life.
Another key concept to understand about pillar strength is the fascial
planes that wrap around the body. Think of these planes as the ropes
that tie your muscles together. They ultimately tie a glute into your
opposite shoulder and your hip muscles to your lower back.
Let's say you were standing on an observation deck looking directly
down upon golfer Tiger Woods at the tee. As his club comes back, his
shoulders turn, and his lower body remains stable, if only for a moment.
At that instant, from your vantage point, his body would form the letter
X. He's able to disassociate his shoulders and hips as he moves across
the transverse plane to generate incredible power. Why? Because he's
developed incredible mobility and pillar strength.
(Reprinted from:
Core Performance: The Revolutionary Workout Program to Transform Your
Body and Your Life
by Mark Verstegen and Pete Williams
© 2004 by Mark Verstegen
(January 2004; Hardcover;
$29.95US/$44.95CAN; 1-57954-908-X)
Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098.
Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by
calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.)
About the authors:
Mark Verstegen directs a 25-person team of performance specialists
and nutritionists to train some of the biggest names in sports, including
soccer star Mia Hamm; baseball's Nomar Garciaparra, Roberto Alomar,
and Vernon Wells; WTA tennis players Meghann Shaughnessy and Mary Pierce;
golfers Jim Carter and Billy Mayfair; NFL veteran Trace Armstrong; hockey
goalie Nikolai Khabibulin; and NBA forward Rick Fox. He serves as director
of performance for the NFL Players Association, is an advisor to Adidas,
and serves as a consultant to numerous athletic governing bodies, including
the U.S. Tennis Association. Verstegen and his wife, Amy, a former Washington
State University soccer player, live in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Pete Williams is a contributing writer to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness
Journal and USA Today Sports Weekly. He has written about fitness and
performance for numerous publications and is the author of two books
on the sports-memorabilia business: Card Sharks and Sports Memorabilia
for Dummies. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he lives in Florida
with his wife, Suzy, and son, Luke.
For more information, please visit the author's website at www.athletesperformance.com
or www.writtenvoices.com
