Core Training Myths: The

truth about core training in

fitness and sports
Around the turn of the century, a new buzzword began to circulate among
experts in the fitness and sports industryCore was the buzzword and a
new revolution was born in sports and fitness training. Article after article
appeared in journals and magazines touting the core as the area we need
to focus on the most to lead healthier, pain-free lives. The media picked
up on the buzzword. With so much exposure, just about every issue or
injury from low back pain to poor sports performance, which we had
previously attributed to other issues, were now believed to be miraculously
cured by targeting the core.
In the 1990s, the industry claimed low back pain was primarily afected by
the hamstrings. Today, the industry and the media blame back pain and
everything else on a weak core. This was and is 100% incorrect. Back
pain can be caused by any one of hundreds functional issues. Experts in
sports training, fitness, and even physical medicine (yes this includes highly
respected doctors) also blamed many injuries and poor sports
performances on poor core strength. With so much exposure and demand
for improvement, every fitness and medical expert began creating
exercises and programs targeting the core. The physical ailments and
sports performances people seek to improve are also afected by many
factors including learned behaviors or techniques which create imbalances
(but thats another post all to itself).
It is my belief that because the hundreds of thousands of professionals who
work with people on their sports, fitness, and health goals placed too much

emphasis on this one particular area of the body, we are now seeing the
results of the failure of the industry to properly educate consumers on how
to truly balance their bodies and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Many experts, and as a result, fitness seekers and athletes all around the
world have over done it with core training. It was believed by some socalled experts that almost every problem in the body stemmed from weak
core muscles. And according to those experts, if you could just strengthen
your core all your problems would be solved and fitness goals attained.
Well I call BS!. And over the next 1,000 words or so, I intend to explain
why.

THE BODY IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PLANES. SAGITTAL, CORONAL, AND TRANSVERSE.

The core muscles and what it takes to train them has begun to cause an
epidemic that needs to be undone. Why is it that while the industry has
focused on the core, the number of people sufering from back pain
around the world has increased. In addition, we have seen a rise in other
core related injuries?
The core muscles have been incorrectly identified by the average
person. In fact, Ive searched the web, and most experts define the core
as the abdominal and lower back muscles. Most people believe the core
can be trained by performance exercises on a stability ball; adding
resistance to abdominal exercises; and by performing numerous other

activities we now call functional training. In truth, the core muscles are
made up of all the muscles which meet in the center of the bodys planes.
In reality, the best way to define the core muscles is all muscles which
afect the position of the pelvis. This includes muscles originating and
inserting at the pelvis and all of those muscles which afect pelvis position.
This also includes some muscles of the lower body which are neglected
when training the core. The pelvis moves in multiple directions and is
essentially the first indicator of true stability (which is what we are trying to
accomplish with core training). Now keep in mind, pelvis movements can
be and are afected by movements of all the segments and muscles around
it. This means, the core is afected by both feet, both legs, the spine, and
the arms (because the arms are attached to the spine via the trunk).
The ideal pelvis forward tilt is 7 and 10 degrees in men and women. some
experts would say that a desirable forward pelvic tilt is 0-5 degrees in men
and 7-10 degrees in women. Those are desired averages, but we are not
striving for average, we should be working towards ideal. Based upon my
research of thousands of people from all walks of life, the actual average is
greater than 17-20 degrees of forward pelvic tilt. This is more than twice the
ideal. And the majority of participants in my research are athletes who
supposedly have the best fitness levels and training.
While I do want to make it clear that training the core is important, I want to
clarify that core muscles previously targeted through isolation and
functional training are no less important than any other muscle in our body.
In fact, what has happened as a result of the over emphasis on the core
muscles is the following:
1) Any muscle when focused on as the muscle group to target can be
OVER-trained and as a result, OVER developed.
2) Any muscle group when targeted can be exercised improperly, negating
any real benefits that would have been gained had the exercises been
performed properly.

3) Compensation injuries can occur as a result of over-training or over

emphasizing any muscle group.
In truth the core is the center of the body where forces cross the mid-point
of the body splitting the into multiple planes.
For simplicity, the body is split into halves from upper body to lower body
(Transverse plane); Front side to back side (Coronal Plane); and left side to
right side (Sagittal plane). In order for the body to become balanced,
exercises must target all areas of the planes in some cases through multiplanar exercises (Functional and rotational movements in all directions).

THE X-PLANE DIVIDES THE BODY DIAGONALLY FROM LEFT HAND TO RIGHT FOOT AND FROM
RIGHT HAND TO LEFT FOOT.

One aspect of multi-planar training that is rarely taken into consideration is

the fact that in an efort to seek balance, those planes are afected by work
that is done diagonally from left to right and right to left, from upper body to
lower body. What does that mean? The body is divided into the three (but
really four) planes. However, the left arm does its job in conjunction with the
right leg. The right arm, works with the left leg. So the new, X-Plane has
to be trained as well.
A muscle is over trained and over developed when it is targeted more than
its opposing muscle group (in all planes). If I only work on my right bicep
and not my left, its obvious that my right arm would be stronger, more
dense, and heavier than my left when doing activities that require both

arms. If we spend time isolating the low back and abdominal (which the
average person defines as the core), we end up with abs/low back that are
significantly stronger than our feet, lower leg muscles, glutes, hamstrings,
possibly even quads.
As a result, instead of strengthening the bodys ability to transfer energy
and have support from the core to perform functional movements, we are
actually weakening, the core and its ability to perform true functional
movements. What is an indicator that the core has been over-trained or
improperly trained? Thats the easy part. We will see people sufer more
injuries to hamstrings, the groin, chronic low back pain, and a the presence
of a severely forward tilted pelvis (anterior pelvic tilt).
This negative pelvis posture can lead to an increase in ACL/meniscus knee
injuries, plantar fascia injuries, patella tendonitis, groin pulls, hamstring
strains, shoulder injuries, low back/spine injuries and pain, abdominal
strains, neck pain/discomfort leading to surgeries of the cervical spine, and
hundreds of other physical issues.
So lets stop isolating the core and begin to work on developing
balance in the body, in all planes, not just at the core. Fitness
should be achieved by working to develop the entire bodyFrom the
Ground Up!
In future writings, I will address some key exercises, which if done properly
will provide more true benefit to the core than the road the industry is
currently taking to a healthy core.
Follow Zig Ziegler, the Sports Kinesiologist on Twitter @zigsports. Zig is the
author of he soon to be released book, Absolute Kinetix: Fitness From the
Ground Up.