“Get Your Core Tight”

What the hell does that actually mean?

It seems to mean different things to different people.

The old school powerlifter means,

“Push your belly out into your belt”

The functional fitness, physioball, guru means,

“Pull your belly button to your spine”

The “I don’t really know what that means” weekend warrior means,

“Round over, perform a half crunch and try to flex your 6 pack abs”

So  What the Hell Does “Get Your Core Tight” Actually Mean? 

To me, it means create, and maintain a neutral hip/ spine/ ribcage alignment regardless of the magnitude and direction of forces applied to you.

ie. Maintain the Pillar.

Your Core As a Coke Can

Take an unblemished coke can, place it on a table upright, and press down vertically.

Probably doesn’t budge.

If it does, it takes a hella amount of downward pressure.

Now take the same can and put a slight crease or dent in it.

Press down again, with the same amount of force.

It collapsed right?

That’s How the Core Works.  

Maintaining that alignment (or as close to it as possible) allows for the best force transfer from the ground through to the upper body and vice versa.

But in the real world we don’t only encounter vertical or axial forces.

In real life and sport, we deal with multidirectional forces across every force vector.

This means the “core” must resist motion and transfer force in the same multidirectional fashion. 

Or not, and you break at the torso, lose force and get run over…

Meaning while all hell is breaking out around you and the forces generated and encountered are constantly changing in direction and magnitude, you must be able to maintain your pillar position

Half Kneeling Chaos Pallof

Checklist:

• 90/ 90 stance half kneeling stance. 
  • No hip crease on the down knee leg.
  • Front shin vertical to slightly flexed (knee over toe) front side ankle.
• Shoulders down, lats on tight <—-lats are core.
• Band perpendicular to the torso (some variation is fine, just not too much, close enough is good enough).
• Front foot ROOTED (actively gripping the ground) and STOMPING the floor
• Back ankle flexed and big toe pressed into the ground
• Rotation and flexion happen in the back side hip joint, NOT THE LOW BACK.
• Ribcage stays down.

Bro Tips:

• Don’t “balance”, against any real tension, you can’t. Get that front foot active and PRESSING into the floor..
• Think about a steel rod going through your torso/ hips/ taint into the floor.
• If your arms are moving with the band/ weight pull your shoulders down, externally rotate your humerus (pinkies rotate down) and GET YOUR LATS ON (armpits tight).
• Breath into the pelvis and keep it.
• When do you breath out? You dont. Cycle breaths while rotating towards the anchor point.

Bro Tip of All Bro Tips:

DO NOT YANK ON THE BAND WITH YOUR ARMS. 

Use the inside hip and shoulders/ribcage to move the band.

NOT YOUR HANDS or ARMS.

And on that point, don’t just move the band……

SNAP and STOP