Impact Training BTS

Working your
core is the bedrock of Pilates and countless other workouts. But are
the effects really as beneficial as we have been led to believe?

Original article: Do back exercises work?  ( http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness... )

Engage your core” is a workout instruction that rivals “warm up” and “cool
down” for the frequency with which it is issued by trainers. Most of us know
that our core muscles wrap around our midriff like a corset and that they
are something of a work-out panacea in their ability to improve everything
from posture and back pain to stomach flatness.

The principles of core-stability training are the basis of thousands of
workouts. Pilates, aerobics classes, running and swimming are only a few of
the activities with techniques to improve abdominal strength at ... well,
their core.

Core-stability exercise is endorsed by everyone from celebrities to
physiotherapists, so there has never been cause to question its wisdom. But
the beginnings of a backlash have started to appear. A paper published
recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that the
benefits of core-stability workouts have been wildly overplayed. Professor
Garry Allison, of the school of physiotherapy at the Curtin University of
Technology in Perth, Western Australia, and Sue Morris, a physiotherapy
researcher at the University of Western Australia, claim that when it comes
to proof that core-stability workouts are helpful the “evidence is just not
there”.

They cast doubt on the notion that back pain is linked to “less than optimal
core stability” and suggest that it is linked to poor trunk rotation and
strength instead. What is more, the researchers say, the teaching of some
core stability moves to people with or without back pain “is at best
controversial” since their own review of evidence has shown that the
exercises have little beneficial effect. Since core stability became a
mantra among fitness professionals ten years ago proponents have believed
that a set of muscles in the trunk and pelvic floor work together to protect
the spine and keep it stable.

A study at the University of Queensland was the first to highlight the
concept, when a team of physiotherapists discovered that people with lower
back pain used the transversus abdominis, a deeply embedded muscle that
wraps around the lower trunk, when they were asked to perform various
physical tests. By learning to engage, or “draw in”, this muscle the
subjects found that their back pain decreased.

Experts assumed that a stable core provided people with a strong foundation
from which their limbs could move freely and efficiently.

These days core-stability work is implemented in training sessions for
everyone from professional foot-ballers to ballet dancers, and as a
treatment for back pain sufferers and people who slouch. By pulling navel to
spine (a practice called hollowing or drawing in), the aim of these often
subtle moves is to switch on the core muscles that, unlike larger muscle
groups, may otherwise remain inactive - some trainers describe them as
inherently lazy muscles - during exercise. Used often enough,it is thought,
the transversus abdominis and other core muscles will eventually work on
their own.

However, even the woman who led the Australian study, and who is responsible
for coining the term “core stability”, has expressed reservations about its
usefulness. Professor Carolyn Richardson, of the Department of Physiotherapy
at the University of Queensland, says: “I have found that for the fitness
industry it is often a poor instruction that is often misinterpreted or
carried out badly. It's easily done incorrectly by people holding their
breath or rounding their backs because they are sucking in their muscles so
far.”

Indeed, some researchers believe that attempts to strengthen the transversus
abdominis through exercise can backfire, with disastrous consequences. In
research conducted two years ago Dr Stuart McGill, a professor of spine
biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, discovered that the
muscle does not play as pivotal a role in protecting the back as is commonly
thought.

McGill suggests that efforts to strengthen the transversus abdominis could
even make back pain worse. After measuring how different loads and weights
affected his subjects' spine function, McGill demonstrated that engaging the
muscle could weaken the back.

“If you hollow in your muscles as you are instructed in these exercises, you
bring the muscles much closer to the spine and you effectively reduce the
stability of the back,” he says. “Try it yourself by getting out of a chair
with a hollowed out stomach. Not only are you weak and wobbly, it is very
difficult.”

Sammy Margo, a spokeswoman for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP),
believes that core strength is fundamental to a strong, well-functioning
body. But it is not without its limitations. “Core stability has become the
solution to world peace in the fitness arena,” she says, “but it needs to be
kept in context. It can be a factor in treating back pain and posture
problems, but it is not a solution.” Margo sees a constant stream of
patients with back pain who claim to have been doing Pilates and
core-strength work for years. “I would say that 75 per cent of people who do
these exercises don't do them properly,” she says.

Claire Small, also from the CSP, says that incorrect technique can worsen
existing back pain. “What should happen when you engage the core muscles is
that the abdominal and pelvic muscles inflate simultaneously like a balloon
inside the abdominal cavity,” she says.

“Bad technique can cause the pelvic muscles to drop, which is potentially
weakening for the back. Ligaments can tighten if people mistakenly restrict
their breathing or flex their spine while doing the moves and all of this can
cause the back pain that this sort of exercise is meant to avoid.”

Margo says that we should take an holistic approach to core training. “It
should not be about a few exercises done lying on the floor,” she says. “You
need to address your lifestyle, stress levels, fitness and diet. It's not
enough to do a few core-stability classes and think you will be OK.”

How to strengthen your core

Brace yourself Dr Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics at the
University of Waterloo, Ontario, says that when you lift something or
exercise, rather than pulling in from navel to spine you should brace all
the abdominal muscles. “Bracing is stiffening the abdominal wall,” he says.
Imagine that you are going to be hit in the stomach. The instinctive
reaction is “bracing”.

Middle way Professor Carolyn Richardson, of the University of Queensland, says
that instead of trying to contract the core muscles during a workout, people
without back pain should strengthen the middle area and protect their back
by stretching tall through the back of their head and relaxing their
shoulders.