Complete Core Training
The core is much more than just the 6-pack muscles; here's how to fully develop the muscles of the core for performance and fitness
In this edition of Momentum you’ll learn how to attack core training for complete development of all the muscles of the abs, obliques, and lower back.
Ahh, the core.
Strengthen your core they say… It’ll solve all your problems they say…
Like with most things in health and fitness, the conversation around core exercise is nuanced.
Some folks ask “do I even need to do core work? don’t I get enough with squats and deadlifts?”
I covered that in detail in this article but in summary, yes I would say that some direct core strengthening would benefit most people.
Other folks say “well, I do sit-ups, so yes I train my core.” To that I say that’s great, but the abdominals are one of several muscles and trunk flexion is one of several movements that your core can do.
So, let’s first talk about all the muscles of the core and how to train it completely if you want to be strong in every range of motion, reduce the risk of injury, and maybe improve your shitty golf swing.
Anatomy of the Core Muscles
When most people think of the core they think of the abdominal muscles; namely the rectus abdominis (shown here) aka the 6-pack.
This is one of many muscles responsible for a strong mid-section. The rectus abdominis produces that sit-up motion; bringing the rib cage towards the pelvis or the opposite motion of bringing the pelvis to the rib cage like when doing hanging leg raises.
Of course - there's a little more to our mid-section musculature than that. On our flanks we have internal and external obliques both produce and resist rotation twisting and rotating movements like swinging a golf club or when doing landmine windmills.
The transversus abdominis forms a full ring around the mid-section and functions to compress around us in a circular motion serving as an “internal weight belt.” While this isn’t a muscle we can isolate it will be trained heavily with compound lifts as we brace our abs and back.
The spinal erectors in our low back together produce lumbar extension but on their own produce lateral flexion, and resist it the other way. These muscles get trained a lot with compound lifts like squats and deadlifts and in isolation with movements like Jefferson curls.
Sometimes forgotten are the the quadratus lumborum. This muscle runs from ribs to the top of the pelvis producing and resisting lateral flexion and lumbopelvic extension.
We have more musculature in the spine like the multifidi and pelvic floor is certainly important but for the sake of this article this is where our anatomy lesson concludes!
Now, let’s talk about training.
Complete Core Development
So, as I discuss in depth in this article there are reasons why you should add in some direct core work for some of the muscles of the core.
The spinal erectors seem to get worked plenty with squat and deadlift variations and even bent over rows. But the abs, the obliques, and the QLs don’t get much action with compound movements. So, these are the muscles worth targeting with additional movement.
Additionally, our spine is meant to bend, twist, rotate, and move in all different directions. If it wasn’t it would be one solid bone like our femur not 24 articulating vertebrae in the neck, mid back, and lower back.
So, to train the mid-section best for performance, aesthetics, and injury resiliency I say we do all kinds of movements.
Here is how I think about and program core training:
These images represent the 3 cardinal planes of movement.
The pink square is the sagittal plane and exercises in that plane include sit-ups and hanging leg raises.
The green square is the transverse, or horizontal, plane and exercises in that plane include cable chops or Russian twists.
The blue square is the frontal plane and exercises in that plane include DB side bends.
There is overlap in what muscles work in each plane of movement and some movements that are a combination of planes so instead of trying to isolate individual muscles, I take a 360-degree approach arranged by planes of movement to make sure we catch all of these muscles.
Exercises for Every Core Muscles
Here are a few exercises to work in the sagittal plane.
Here are a few exercises to work in the frontal plane.
Here are a few exercises to work in the transverse plane.
Programming Reps, Sets, etc…
When most people do core exercises do way too many reps and go way too light.
Some ab workouts wind up being hundreds of reps of very very low effort exercise which is kind of just junk volume.
With these core exercises you can just do 1 or 2 exercises per category and perform just 2 sets of between 10-20 reps 1 or 2 times per week, given that they are done at a sufficient intensity.
The core muscles are like any other muscle, they should be challenged and taken to close proximity to failure.
I do strict hanging leg raises to failure, ab wheel roll-outs, heavy weighted sit-ups, etc in the 10-20 rep range and get close to muscular failure easily. No need to do hundreds of crunches!
Most of my programs have some direct core work peppered in for well rounded fitness. Train with me here:
Quick Thoughts on Core Strength and Lower Back Pain
While no exercise can entirely prevent injury or pain; strength training is one of the only interventions that has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of injury.
By specifically targeting the muscles around the midsection with varying stimuli you can increase your resiliency to injury by preparing to move against load and produce force in a wide variety of ways.
For more information on lower back pain, read this.
Wrapping Up
While the compound lifts can develop some core strength and function you may want to add in specific exercises to fully develop the core muscles for aesthetic purposes, injury risk reduction, and overall fitness.