More Core

Questions about The Core came up today. We work it a lot in our HIT sessions, and this morning I asked that we move our focus lower than ever to a place regarded as the hardest to specifically target in resistance training. The lowest of the low. The first stack of cans at the bottom of the shelf holding the top four of the six pack. You of course know that there are actually eight, but that doesn't have quite the same ring (unless you drink Guinness). I think we did pretty good with this fist time visualization., and I grant you that it is a tough one to master. But as we age and as our metabolism begins to slow, we have a decision to make (yet another decision): Let the process happen and accept that 90% of us in our age demographic have, pick your term, ponch, gut, jelly belly, beer belly, flabby abbys, spare tire, love handles, or my favorite denial spin, a thyroid problem. Or we can take charge of ourselves and DO SOMETHING.

The logical question after class this morning was: What exactly do we do?

Glad you asked.

Three things.

Thing Number One: Restrict our caloric intake and especially that of saturated fat.
Thing Number Two: Work the core through high intensity training.
Thing Number Three: Stretch, twist, target thru Pilates, Physio ball or dance.

I am assuming that you understand by now the tangential fine print associated with these. Consider that two of the three will only yield at best a 66% success probability. If that isn't good enough for you, than you are going to have to add some dedicated and detailed work to the mix. You are going to need three of three. In some combination. Such as:

Lose the Krispy Kremes.
Climb out of the saddle longer.
Two days a week hanging crunches.

Replace peanut butter with grapefruit at breakfast.
Add resistance to your spin.
Pilates class twice a week.

Smaller portions.
Run stairs, or hill repeats once a week.
Brazilian dance.

And please folks, try to remember that this is a process. It will not happen overnight. Sometimes it won't happen in a year. Be patient. Enjoy the ride. Consider it a healthy life style choice. The core muscles, and for our purposes let's define the core as the superficial and deep abdominal muscles (transverse abdominus, rectus abdominus, internal obliques, external obliques, and quadratus lumborum) along with the superficial and deep muscles of the low back (multifidi, spinal erectors, etc.) all play a huge and vital role for core stabilization and strength, but are the hardest muscle groups to effectively target. Hard yes, impossible, no. We can rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. With grace and élan. Maybe even with a smile. So......

Let's start right now. Breathe, hold deep in you lower belly. Exhale and locate your lower abs, constrict them and hold. Feel an immediate improvement in your posture? Repeat.

Now log off and go run.