Good core, good back !
by Xavier Decup.
We used to say: strengthen your core to protect your back. That
is true, but what is the core, and what is the function of this group of
muscles?
Most of us think the core includes only the abdominal and pelvic
muscles, and more specifically the front and lateral (outer) part of those
muscles. Actually the core includes every muscle from the pelvis to the shoulders,
that runs in the front, lateral or back part of the body.
It means that crunch exercises are not efficient enough to
strengthen the whole core unit. (Crunches are actually quite bad for the lumbar
spine!) The core is made up of two different muscular units –
the deep and superficial units. Both work together in a complementary way. The
deep unit stabilises the spine and the pelvis, and the superficial unit enables
movement.
Both units are involved in movement via different muscular chains.
When you run, your deep unit will stabilise the spine and make it quite rigid, to
offer the best fixed point for the muscles of the leg and pelvis (the
superficial unit) which are making the movement. This stabilisation protects the
spinal joints and especially the lumbar discs between the vertebrae. The
superficial unit actually also helps the deep unit in providing some
stabilisation during movement.
So we need to strengthen all the muscles along the spine and
also the lateral abdominal muscles from the deep unit. But we should also
strengthen the muscles from the superficial unit which run at the front and outer
part of the body, including the pectoral and shoulders muscles, and the muscles
of the mid back and legs. Pilates, yoga or any exercise including the whole
body (body weight exercise) are really efficient and will provide your body and
your nervous system with the best muscular functioning.
Not only will your back benefit from this, but your viscera,
breathing, blood circulation and digestive functions, all of which are housed
in this part of the body, will also improve.
