Your core strength, I mean?
Everyone seems to need to work on their core, all the time. Certainly, if you look at the internet, and see ‘influencers’ who are only happy to tell you how weak you are and who will flaunt the 6-pack at every opportunity.
But are you ‘weak’?
Let us think. What is it, and what does your core do?,
The core muscles are everything around the mid-section of your body, and your core protects your spine as you move.
It has to be pretty strong and actually, despite the dearth of people telling you it isn’t, it really is. Or you’d fall over. Or be unable to walk. Or run. And a few other things.
I hope you get the drift.
We are constantly told that we need to strengthen our core, and we see many, many images like the one above, with people doing ab crunches or planks, or something like that.
All these people have nice, flat tummies and muscles you can see. Problem is, they will mostly, if not exclusively, be fitness models who use clever lighting or don’t eat much ahead of the photoshoot to make sure they’re foto is ‘right’.
Normal folks, like me, especially when we get older, don’t have those flat tummies and muscles to the fore. That does not mean that our core is ‘weak’ however.
I can do ab crunches, and I can do planks, and so could anyone with a bit of practice.
Another we get told is we need to ‘brace’ the core. Now that means different things to different people.
To me, it means pushing my stomach muscles out in anticipation of being punched.
To other people it means pulling your belly button in towards your spine.
Which is correct? Depends on who you ask!
Option A, for me, as when I did it the other way (pulling my belly button in) it still winded me when I got punched !.
The thing is, we have something that actually sorts all that out for us quietly in the background. That wonderful brain we have.
When we were tots, it helped us to work out what we need to do to stand up. To walk. To run. It did it without our intervention. Let’s face it, as babies we didn’t know anything. We discovered it.
If we accept that that is the case-happy to hear a counter to that argument- then we’ve gone through life bracing our core, making and keeping it strong as we moved more and more, without any intervention from us. Why would we? We learned how to do it just the same as we learned how to speak.
There is nothing wrong with working to strengthen the core, just as there is nothing wrong with strengthening the rest of your muscles. ‘You can’t go wrong getting strong’ as mentioned by Adam Meakins (The Sports Physio).
There is no need to over emphasise the core, however. Or to continually brace it (in whichever way you have been told).
If you keep moving then you will be grand. And you will not need to take over from that marvellous brain which is already taking care of business.
