Daily Maestroism

DM #422

Wednesday, July 19th, 2017

DM #422: I don’t care if you have a six pack, I don’t care if you do 1000 crunches a day, I don’t care if you can hold a plan for 12 minutes…if your back hurts, you’re not bracing properly. If you can’t touch your toes, you’re not bracing properly. If you have to hold your breath to do basic movements, you’re not bracing properly.
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I’ve gone over this a bunch, but to summarize, your core is more than just your six pack. It’s a three dimensional canister extending from your diaphragm down to your pelvic floor, and encompassing the muscles and soft tissue both in the front and back of your torso/abdomen. Some folks would even take it down to the glutes, and I wouldn’t disagree, but we’ll save that for another discussion.
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My point here is that that core of yours serves to protect your spine and transmit force from your bottom half to your top half and vice versa. While it can absolutely rotate, it serves us very nicely in an anti-rotation, anti-extension capacity, allowing us to sprint, hit home runs, throw knock-out punches, and all that other stuff that people like to make movies about.
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Given this 3-d, multipurpose nature, simply squeezing one part of it ain’t gonna do the trick. Not even if it’s those sexy abs of yours (this holds true for your diaphragm and pelvic floor too!). Bracing should be reflexive and APPROPRIATE for the demands of the task. Doing a continuous max effort ab squeeze is probably the least functional way to go about protecting your back.
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Oh, and for the life of me, can we PUHLEASE stop using the cue ‘pull your belly-button to your spine’?!?! Honestly. It’s terrible. You want a cue? Pretend like someone is about to punch you in the stomach. Too aggressive? Cough. There! Now you’re braced. Perhaps over-braced, but braced nonetheless.
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Alrighty, time for dinner. Would love to hear your thoughts.
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