The knowledge and mysteries of core training and stability were the topic of Assistant Exercise Science Professor Dr. Blain Harrison’s Blackwell Talk, "Death to Crunches: Why You Should Change Your Core Routine, But it Still Won’t Make You a Superstar Athlete," on Feb. 18.
Harrison’s talk was part of a research seminar the College of Graduate and Professional Studies hosts in Blackwell Hall each Monday.
“Within the world of strength conditioning and physical fitness, this whole idea that core stability training has to be part of what you’re doing and a part of your exercise program has become pretty much dogma,” Harrison began.
However, Harrison went on to explain that experts are not quite sure exactly what core training does to help people or how much it aids people either.
Harrison said while a popular idea of core training is the abdominal muscles people see on the cover of a fitness magazine, this is only one superficial layer of core stability.
“When we’re looking at people on the covers of magazines, we’re basically looking at this covering muscle called rectus abdominus,” Harrison explained. “There are muscles underneath this, there are muscles on the side of it ... ”
Attention is often focused on one or two muscles, said Harrison, and exercises such as crunches, but core training is more complex than that.
“The truth is, we don’t even really have a complete handle on how many muscles constitute the core,” Harrison said.
Harrison told the audience that the muscles that originate on the lumbar spine and pelvis and affect activity around that area are typically considered part of the core. Harrison said the common number
of muscles people attribute to the core are 29 and 35, as it “depends on which textbook you read, who you talk to.” He said there are disputes about how many muscles there are because there are “pseudo muscles” that experts have recently identified.
According to Harrison, the focus on core training basically began in the ‘90s when physical therapists were trying to help patients with back pain. These therapists focused on teaching patients how to use the transversus abdominis because of the theory that those with back pain do not have the ability to use the muscle as they should.
Harrison said personal trainers and others involved in physical fitness caught on to this type of training later in the ‘90s to see what kind of effect it would have on athletes who were well, and so the focus on core training beyond the typical crunches began.
The core could be viewed as a barrel, or a keg, Harrison joked. He said there are top and bottom muscles and planks, or muscles, that wrap around it that “should stabilize the spine during activity.”
The diaphragm forms the top of the barrel and the transversus abdominis wraps around the side. If the muscles contract the way they should, Harrison said, there should be an extra layer of support.
“To add another layer of complication to all this anatomy stuff, now there are folks who are starting to say, ‘Wait, let’s look even broader than just the trunk,’ and are starting to look at how muscles come together,” said Harrison.
Harrison said there are arguments about how many core muscles there are because “we’re starting to look sort of outside the box, if you will, and wonder, ‘What is the role of everything connected together?’”
“I wish I could tell you it’s just one muscle or something that’s black and white, but it’s not,” Harrison said.
Harrison said the first peer review article that examined the complex role of core stability was published 21 years ago.
He decided to fill in some of the holes in core stability by looking at how to measure the concept of core stability.
“There are many layers to it, so we don’t really have ... a sort of gold standard way of testing this idea,” said Harrison.
Harrison said strength is a way of measuring core stability, and while there is not a concrete number, there are different levels one can achieve through practices such as placing a balloon “bladder” between one’s legs and resisting pressure change.
Power, or seeing how fast one can generate force, is still difficult to measure, Harrison said.
There is also the method of proprioception, or having a sense of where one’s arms or legs are.
However, Harrison said, passing these kinds of tests does not mean one can run or jump faster than others and be a “superstar athlete” just because one’s core is strong.
In fact, experts conducted a study on Division I university football players in 2008, and it concluded that core training does not necessarily improve one’s ability to run or jump. In some cases, their ability to run or jump was worse.
Core training is not the only method these athletes should focus on, said Harrison.
As for methods the average person going to the gym should take, said Harrison, pilates is an effective form of training and has even shown to improve one’s quality of life.
Next Monday, Feb. 25, Dr. Pam Aerni, Dr. Rachel Mathews, Dr. Ruth Meese and Dr. Peggy Tarpley will present a Blackwell Talk entitled, “Factors Promoting and Inhibiting Minority Student Enrollment at Longwood University” in the Virginia Room of Blackwell Hall at 12 p.m.
Dr. Blain Harrison gives his speech "Fit To The Core: What We Do and Don't Know About How Core Exercises Impact Our Performance" at The Blackwell Talk on Monday February 18, 2013.
