Anterior Core Training (no more sit-ups!)

Anterior core refers to the abdominal musculature. These muscles work to stabilize the pelvis during movement and are made to prevent the body from going into extension. Prevention of motion has been considered to be as or more important than the creation of motion in the trunk (by Canadian researcher Dr. Stuart McGill and renown Physical Therapist Shirley Sahrmann). This begs us to ask the question of why the majority of "core" training programs have been spine movement based. Repeat trunk flexion can actually cause disc damage. Crunching in a supine position is also far from functional, in an upright position the abdominal musculature fires in reverse due to gravitational forces. Try to lean backwards while standing and feel your abdominals contract; now bend forward while standing and observe the abdominal musculature relax as the low back musculature contracts. The anterior core while standing actually works to resist extension.

Most of the better exercises for the anterior core are in not included in the "macho" category. Powerlifters commonly believe squats to be a superior core exercise. But exercises like squats activate primarily back extensors (longissimus and multifidus). A shoulder-based loading pattern produces trunk flexion and stimulates the extensors. Push-ups, side bridges, and farmer carries are superior to squats for the external oblique. Squats are great for developing the posterior aspects of the core, but do little for the anterior muscles.

Stuart McGill is a Canadian researcher who has taken the next step. His books, Low Back Disordersand Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, are the current state of the art in low back health. McGill favors a technique he refers to as "bracing", a technique used to create stiffness in the core by contracting all three abdominal layers, over the Australian technique of "drawing-in" that focuses on firing the deep tissue layer of the abdominals. Gray Cook lands somewhere in between by cuing his clients to get tall and skinny. The exercises used and concepts applied are actually very similar. The difference is in how you elect to initiate stabilization in the core. McGill often speaks about "sparing the spine" while Porterfield and DeRosa, authors of Mechanical Low Back Pain, talk about training the core as anti-rotators. The concept of anti-rotation is a quantum leap in core training. The core muscles are stabilizers first. This is the reason there is such great core activity in isometric bridges.

At the end of the day I think it is important to train the muscles to do what they are intended to do: prevent movement. Let's train the core to do what it does.

Do you like this article? Share It!