The Guide to Engaging Your Core: Beyond Six-Pack Abs
Discover how to properly activate the muscles of your core for better strength, stability, and injury prevention in everyday life and exercise
What Does It Mean to Engage Your Core?
You may have heard people say “use your core” or “engage your core” but what does that mean? You might think your core is about getting those six-pack abs, but there's so much more to it. One of the main responsibilities of your core is creating pressure inside your body to keep your spine safe and strong. Think of inflating your core in a 360-degree manner, making it a big sturdy barrel surrounding your lower stomach, keeping your spine rigid, and taking all the force instead of your spine. That's not all your core is, it is also a bridge between your upper and lower body, transferring energy from your legs to your arms and back again. This is how we generate the power into a throw, a golf swing, or any movement you can imagine. We will be diving into the purpose of your core, to help dispel the idea that your core is just for your six-pack but how it is a huge functional piece of your everyday movement.
Understanding Your Core: More Than Just Six-Pack Abs
Let’s first understand the purpose of your core that I had alluded to and what makes up your core. Your core is made up of more than just your six-pack abs. It is made up of three additional muscles. Those are your internal oblique, external oblique, and your horizontal abs. These are all too commonly forgotten when we are thinking about working our abs yet they are just as important if not more important for accomplishing the goal of using your abs in the method that we want to be doing. From now on, when you think of your core I want you to not just think of your abs but your whole lower torso wrapping from one side of your spine all the way around to the other side. Each muscle is in a different location serving a different purpose but all work together to make sure that your spine is being stabilized and supported with any movement that you are doing.
Now let’s dive into some of the functions since it is a bit strange to conceptualize the movements themselves without hearing how they work in action. The main purpose of your six-pack muscles is going to be to bring your chest toward your pelvis or your pelvis up to your chest. That is the main purpose of that muscle which is great when we are bending over but you can already begin to see how that leaves your spine less supported when you’re picking something up. The good thing is that is where the other muscles come into play, specifically your horizontal abs which as the name implies runs horizontally underneath all of your other ab musculature going from one side of your spine to the other. This is going to be the muscle that forms the brace that we desire. When this muscle contracts it takes a lot of the load that would be going up your spine and disperses it throughout the musculature so the transfer of energy isn’t localized in one area but spread out through a much larger area. Going further into your internal and external obliques, these are going to be the main drivers of performing any rotation or fighting against rotational movements in your body. The other thing that this does is aid your horizontal abs in generating more intra-abdominal pressure, creating more rigidity and support for your spine itself.
Now you may be asking yourself what is intra-abdominal pressure? Intra-abdominal pressure is just the amount of pressure that is able to be generated within your abdomen. Now being able to generate this amount of pressure is important since that pressure and rigidity is what makes up your abdominal brace. Just like “bracing for impact” your muscles will tense up to try and take the blow over structural pieces of your body, your abdominal brace is aiming to do the same thing. Think of when you’re bending over and picking something up off the ground, if your back isn’t flat and protected then you’re going to be feeling the pain in your lower back as you lift it off the ground. Now contrast it to a position where you keep your lower back flat, and then horizontally brace to create that large intra-abdominal pressure stabilizing your spine and allowing your legs to have that transfer of energy through your whole core into your arms as opposed to your spine taking the brunt of that force.
The Bridge Between Upper and Lower Body
Now I want to expand a bit more on the idea that your core is the connection between your upper and lower body. It is obvious that it is the physical connection between your upper and lower body since it sits right between them. I want to go a bit deeper than that into the energy-transferring piece of your core. It seems a bit weird to think that the movement that is from your legs is eventually brought through your arms. This is why we see baseball players and golfers emphasize the energy generation from their legs and then essentially let their arms just be elastics to receive that energy and propel it forward. This idea is called a kinetic chain, think of a chain, as you move one end of it the rest of the chain will react and respond. This is exactly the way that our body works but just like a chain, if there is any weak part in the chain then that will be what breaks or loses the energy transfer. The core is typically where we see this energy breakdown as there is the inefficient transfer of that energy from the lower to the upper body and when your core is weak we have that energy leak out of the system not even making it to the upper body.
Now, if you aren’t a golfer or a baseball player that may not sound like it applies to you but I want to bring it back to something that affects many people in their day to day. This idea of the weak link being your core is readily visible when you’re picking up a big bag of groceries and you start to feel it a bit more in your low back. It is felt if you’re squatting down to pick up something heavy and you’re feeling it in your lower back. A lot of this comes down to the low back as the inefficiency of your core to transfer the energy from moving the weight with your legs into the thing that is holding the object like your arms, is going to fall on your spine to send that force up. That is how you know you have that weak link in your chain being your abs.
Strengthening Your Core: Practical Solutions
Now that I have struck some fear that your core is weak and your back is going to fall off. I want to do as I usually do and give you actionable ways that we can help improve this chain and make sure that you’re properly using your core in your day-to-day life. We have found ourselves in this situation all too commonly by sitting too much and letting our core get weak, or not picking things up properly so our core isn’t getting strengthened all while putting even more stress through our back. Either way, it comes down to a weak core that isn’t being used properly. We are going to want to approach this from two different angles, one of them being getting your core stronger, and the other being properly utilizing your core in making it do what you want it to do.
First, let’s chat about how we can get your core stronger. This is going to be an easy one to understand but more difficult to implement. Your core with all the different functions that it does, means that we are going to ideally want to stress it in the different ways that it acts to force it to adapt and get stronger. These methods are going to be forcing it to rotate or fight something trying to rotate you. These could be something like a Russian Twist or a Woodchopper. To fight against rotation, something like a Suitcase Carry or a Paloff Press where we don’t want to let the weight pull us over and we are fighting against that rotation. These are going to help you get those obliques stronger which will help with that intra-abdominal pressure and thus help our brace. The next thing that we will want to incorporate is training that forces your horizontal abs to get stronger. On top of these focused movements, getting your six-pack abs stronger will also add that additional layer to helping your brace, where you can do Crunches, Sit-Ups, and any movement that you enjoy that you feel in that area.
Now you may be thinking, how do I utilize this and how do I even contract the muscle that runs horizontally across my body? That is a good question, one of the best ways that I have found to engage the horizontal abdomen is to think about inflating your belly in a big 360-degree manner. Going back to the barrel idea, think of your belly as that barrel, and you want to inflate completely around that barrel. Inflate that barrel, hold that inflation, and then squeeze your abs against that barrel. That will create a strong and rigid core completely around your body. Now that we have that utilization you are going to want to incorporate that into each movement that you can. Ideally the heavier you go the more that you’re going to be challenging that brace. Which will then in turn get your horizontal abs a lot stronger. This is also what is going to allow you to utilize your core and make sure that it isn’t going to become the weak link shifting all the pressure into your lower back.
Embracing a Stronger, More Functional Core
Understanding and properly engaging your core is essential for overall body function and injury prevention. Your core isn't just about visible abs; it's a complex system that stabilizes your spine, generates intra-abdominal pressure, and transfers energy between your upper and lower body. By strengthening your core through targeted exercises and learning to engage it correctly, thinking of it as a 360-degree barrel you inflate and brace, you can improve performance and reduce the risk of back pain in both athletic activities and daily tasks. Remember, a strong, properly engaged core is the foundation for efficient, safe movement in everything you do. The next time you hear "use your core," you'll know exactly what it means and how to do it effectively, supporting your body in all its movements.
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Sidney Bartlett, CSCS