By Gavin Buehler
When it comes to core work, there is no shortage of information. Everyone has their own opinion of what the best methods are to engage your core as well as how to work your core. It’s confusing, and the reality is, there’s truth to a lot of these different methods. It all depends on context. To filter through the noise and find what you need to do for your particular application, you need to understand what is happening and what you are trying to achieve when you engage your core. If you understand the basic principles, it will be easy to determine how to properly engage your core.
Why is core engagement needed?
The main reason you are engaging your core is to provide stability to your spine and pelvis as well as protect other vital organs. Your spine is a rather important conduit for communication throughout your body as well as providing a unique structural system, so naturally you want to keep it protected and minimize the chance of traumas occurring while still being able to perform the tasks of living.
When you engage your core, you are creating a support system around your torso. The level or amount of that support system you create is dependent on the demands. It is not an all or nothing system. It can be tuned to the level of activity you are trying to achieve. If you are lifting a very heavy load, you will want to create as much stiffness through your mid section as possible to prevent any unwanted movement through your spine. However, if you are performing a regular daily activity of lesser intensity such as sweeping, that still requires some movement through the core as well as some stability, the engagement will be more subtle.
What are you trying to achieve when you engage your core?
Core engagement works similarly to a can of pop. You have a sealed cylinder with some carbonation creating an appropriate amount of intra pressure inside the cylinder that gives the structure greater integrity and strength. As long as the can stays sealed and can contain the pressure being applied from the inside, the strength of the can’s structure itself is improved and has the ability withstand much greater forces. This same concept is what you are trying to achieve when you engage your core. However, if the can’s seal is compromised, it becomes a much weaker structure allowing it to handle a slim fraction of its sealed pressurized version.
How does this work?
The deep core muscles, often referred to as the “inner unit” create the “cannister” structure of your core. The top of the can is made up of your diaphragm, the bottom is your pelvic floor, the cylinder wall is your transversus abdominis (TVA), and the seam of the cylinder (we’ll call it your spine), has a series of small multifidus muscles that knit into the TVA and your spine sealing the cylinder together. When you inhale bringing air into your lungs, your diaphragm depresses (moves down) creating compression within this cannister. Now, when you engage these deep core cannister muscles against that compression, you build intraabdominal pressure creating greater structural integrity much like the can of pop. The stronger the cannister walls are, the more intraabdominal pressure you can build and contain allowing you to enhance your stability and withstand more force. Unlike the can of pop, we have the ability to control the amount of intraabdominal pressure we need by tuning the level of compression from the diaphragm through the amount of air we take in, and through our capacity to tone the cannister walls to the level needed to balance them against that compression. But, just like that can of pop, if the seal in that cannister is broken, the structure walls can collapse.
As a fun test, you’ll notice how much more strength you’ll feel through you core if you take a deep breath and brace, versus exhaling fully and trying to brace. Without the assistance of the intraabdominal pressure, your core is much weaker.
How can you be sure if you’re engaging your core properly?
The video below will help you visually with this. If you use a “C” shaped curvature with your index finger and thumbs wrapping them around the sides of your waist in the space between the bottom of your ribcage and tops of your hip bones with a relaxed core, you will be able to sink in relatively easy. Take a breath and brace your core. When you do this, you should feel the sides of your abdomen tone up and expand into your hands with an overall toning around the entire core. Note, that the expansion should only occur through the sides and not forward creating bulging. Your core must be able to contain the pressure. Forward bulging would mean that the abdominal wall is being stretched and compromised. Once you feel this tone, you should be able to maintain it while breathing shorter than normal breaths but not so short that you couldn’t speak.
Why does the expansion only occur through the sides?
The expansion should only occur through the sides
because that area of the core has the least number of reinforcements. Your posterior (back) lumbar area has the spine as well as additional layers of muscles such as the erector spinae, serratus posterior
inferior, and lower portions of the latissimus dorsi muscles. The anterior (front) of your abdomen includes the transversus abdominis along with the spiral fascial slings of the oblique muscles overlapping each other where they cross at the navel as well as the so-called “show” muscles of the rectus abdominis. The sides of your core through this region of your abdomen only have the transversus abdominis and single layer sections of your obliques, which is why you only feel the expansion there since it pales in comparison to the layers of the posterior and anterior.
As a side note, there’s a lot of influencers on the internet who would have you believe that your “show” muscles aren’t doing anything “functional” for your core. Everything in your body plays a role, and while your show muscles might not be the main muscles of the cannister, they’re certainly helping to reinforce it. Keeping them strong and healthy can only help.
As always, I hope that you found this article helpful. Please consult a health professional before attempting new suggestions or exercises as each individual presents their own unique case.
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