For as long as I can remember the major part of abdominal training was sit-ups, crunches….and lots of them. Some would profess to doing 500 a day….wonder which chiropractor they are seeing now. They would take up a good chunk of a routine, in some cases that would be the routine be it to get fit or lose weight.
Haven’t times changed - I hope they have for you!
Then we realised that we didn’t just have abdominals but a few other muscles around that vicinity as well that helped our posture, our performance and our waistline. We used new versions of space hoppers to load up more…and we stopped doing lots of crunches.
We were told to perform these exercises at the end of a routine. The core is used for so many movements that predominantly isolated exercises need only be performed at the end of a session. We did not want a fatigue to be responsible for not being able to do other “larger movement” exercises.
There is a case though for doing more “prep” core work at the start of your routine.
The reasoning is to get them warmed up!
If you are doing a proper warm up then all muscles in the body should be prepared for harder exercise to come as well as being “warm”.
By doing this the other movements should be handled better under resistance because the core can help stabilise you as you proceed through that movement.
If you are also relatively new to programmed exercise and resistance training then it also make sense to go this route because you are telling your body what should be working.
Take a squat - If that gets done incorrectly and the back starts to curve inwards then the core is not activated and the spine is taking a hammering to be avoided.
When done correctly, the back will be straight and the core primed.
Where do we say stop to core training at the beginning of a workout?
When we over fatigue and prevent us from facing the challenges that lay ahead.
From now on develop your core training at the beginning of your workout, choose exercises that further work it and do some isolated stuff at the end only if you feel the need.
Look after your core!
Mike
