Hard Core Stability

When it comes to competing in athletics, having a strong "core" goes a long way to putting in on the road to success. When talking about the core, I'm talking about the muscles that make up the abdominals, the obliques, and last but certainly not least, the lower back, particularly the erector spinea. Your core muscles work to maintain your good posture and stabilize your upper body or trunk.

The importance of core stabilization training is no longer lost on coaches or most athletes. Core stability is what helps your muscles exert greater power. The core helps transfer energy through the body. When you jump, the energy must pass through the core to elevate the body. Without a good strong core, that energy will not be used as efficiently as it could be. Training the stabilizing muscles to hold the torso steady while introducing resistance from the arms, legs, and even gravity, is important. Without doing this, we would never be able to improve on our ability to balance ourselves, and as athletes, if your balance isn't good, you probably aren't too good either.

When training, most people are aware of the importance of making sure that their abs are fit and strong. To that, more often than not, these same people tend to neglect the lower back. People tend to forget about their backs until they have a problem and they can't straighten up. A strong flexible core that has superior balance will prove to be a big advantage over an opponent that doesn't have one. When trying to name a sport or activity that doesn't demand a decent strength index from the core, it's almost impossible to name one. As a conditioning coach, one of the things I stress the most is efficiency, and one of the ways to make sure that my athletes best utilize their energies is to make sure that the core is ready to rock and roll.