Core strengthening?

One of my pet peeves when in a yoga class is hearing the teacher use the phrase “engage your core”.

Why? Simply because it is so vague. What exactly does that instruction mean? I don’t see it as being helpful to the yoga student. It would be like if instead of saying “lift up your bum and your hips to come into bridge”, I say “lift up”. Lift what? How much? Why?

There is even a debate in the movement world about whether we should be cueing for core strength at all. That having someone tell you to ‘engage your core’ is taking away the body’s natural intelligence, and you become reliant on being told when to engage your core. So when it comes to the real world, and you want to move a heavy box, or lift up your kid who has fallen, you won’t be engaging your core because there isn’t someone telling you to do this.

I don’t quite fall into this camp. But I do think that as an instruction ’engage your core’ should be thrown out. It is vague and overused.

But let’s dial it back and start with the root of the matter: what exactly is core strength?

From Collins dictionary: “The strength of the underlying muscles of the torso”.

In actuality, what does ‘core strengthening’ mean? Basically any muscles on your torso can be considered ‘core muscles’. They all have a role to play in protecting and stabilising the spine.

Most people think of core muscles as abdomen muscles. So ‘engage your core’ translates to people sucking their lower abdomen in. The cue “draw navel to spine’ focuses primarily on transverse abdominus and multifidis. But there is a lot more to ‘core strengthening and stability’ than those 2 muscles. (Also, that cue of keeping lower abdomen drawn in inhibits proper diaphragmatic breathing. But that is for another days post. 🙃)

Your abdominal muscles actually just make up part of your core .When we think of core muscles, we tend to think of the 6 pack. That someone with a strong core is someone who has a 6 pack.But someone with a 6 pack might not have a strong core. Someone with a strong core might not have a 6 pack. That 6 pack is a result of a very low percentage of body fat, and a well defined rectus abdominus.

Your functional “core” is actually made up of all of the muscles which stabilize your spine as you move - also often referred to as your “core stabilizers”. Depending on whom you talk to, this can mean up to 40 different muscles. The whole topic of ‘core work’ has undergone a huge change in recent times. We used to equate a strong core with a stable spine. So if we had back issues, we thought we needed to strengthen our core. Studies have since shown that to be an overly simplified conclusion. Yes, core strengthening will probably help with back problems, but actually, movement of nearly any kind will help. Our bodies and our pain perception is a lot more complex than simply strengthening your core to fix your bad back.

The good news with all of this is that if you hate core work (as I do), then you have other options. A lot of the work that I already do can be considered ‘core work’. All the strength practices I do help increase core stability and overall strength. You don’t have to do a thousand sit ups to get a strong core. (thankfully!). Resistance training (lifting weights) is a brilliant way to increase core strength and all over body strength. But the bad news is that more specific core work is also a good thing to do. 😭. Especially if yoga is your primary practice and you are inclined towards hyper mobility.

Oh and if you are wondering what cue to use other than ‘engage your core’, well ask yourself, do you really need to replace it? Do you need to use it, or are you just filling up space with those words?

Here is a video of some core exercises that kill me. In all of them there is strong core containment needed, front ribs drawing down, lower back flattened to the floor. When moving from then ground to the more upright position, I try and ensure that the movement is happening with this containment.