The Core of It

Several years ago, I read the book “Landmarks” by Robert MacFarlane. The book is, in part, a glossary of place-specific words in the languages and dialects of Britain and Ireland. The words from the book that stuck with me were the ‘scalpel-sharp’ words, so precise that there is no ambiguity in their meaning. An example is pirr a Shetlandic term which means a “light breath of wind such as will make a cat’s paw on the water”. 

How lovely is that? You know exactly what is meant with four letters, so close to a purr. 

I have been thinking about another four letter word that is used a lot in the health & fitness world: core. Unlike pirr, its cut is more wooden spoon than scalpel: it is a term that is bandied around in almost every fitness class on the planet, but I think many who say it and hear it would have a tough time defining it. What follows is my attempt to define it in a simple way that is useful to you.

The ‘core’ is the set of muscles in your trunk that are responsible for controlling and generating spinal movement, while at the same time also coordinating important functions such as breathing and continence. 

So no they are not just your ‘abs’: the core muscles are better thought of as a cylinder: diaphragm at the top, pelvic floor at the bottom, abdominal muscles on the front as well as muscles of the back. The core is also responsible for more than just protecting your back

I had hoped we had moved on from the 1990s sit-up dominant core class (all abs)  or the “pull your navel to your spine all the time” idea of core strength, but it turns out we have not. I have been researching UK medical advice given to postnatal women and this advice is still surprisingly prevalent. 

I am here to make the case that your core musculature is best viewed as a dynamic system.  We need suppleness through the midsection for the generation of movement as well as the ability to stiffen as needed to stabilise the spine and resist the weight of our moving limbs or gravity. 

The degree of stiffness should be responsive and in proportion to the task at hand (not a lot while you are sitting reading this, more as you go to stand up and a lot more when you are in a plank pose). Holding an arbitrary amount of tension by pulling your belly in all day is not helpful for all the other things the core is responsible for. In many cases of core injury or weakness (prolapse, hernia, diastasis recti, incontinence, back pain) the core muscles struggle to manage pressure and control spinal movement as the whole system is not as dynamic and responsive as we would want. 

If dealing with a core weakness of any type, we need to look at the whole system, but a really easy place for you to start is to observe how much tension you hold in your abdominal area all day. It should naturally contract when you go to do a challenging move, but when you are at rest so should your belly. Start checking in several times a day to see if you are pulling your belly in, for reasons of vanity, habit or because you think you should.