You’ve probably heard the phrase “engage your core” at least once in your life, even if you’ve never seen an exercise program, read a fitness magazine, or set foot in a gym. Sometimes it’s gently encouraged, while at other times it’s yelled while you’re sweating out your last rep.
However, you may wonder what your core is, what it means to engage it, and how to do so.
Your core consists of the muscles surrounding your trunk, including your abdominals, obliques, diaphragm, pelvic floor, trunk extensors, and hip flexors.
Your core provides stability to your trunk for balance and for movements like lifting weights and standing up from a chair. It also provides mobility to allow your torso to move as needed, such as when you reach for your seatbelt or swing a golf club.
Furthermore, your core muscles are involved in everyday activities such as breathing, posture control, urination, and defecation
Every time you exhale and inhale, your diaphragm plays a large part in allowing air to flow into and out of your lungs. When you sit up straight, your core muscles contract to keep your trunk upright. When you use the bathroom, they’re there to start and stop your business.
This article discusses core muscles, describes their role in trunk mobility and stability, and reviews core exercises that you can incorporate into your workout regimen.
Engaging your core muscles can mean many things, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. For instance, if you’re doing situps, the muscles recruited and the order in which they fire will be different than if you’re trying to hold your balance while standing on one leg.
What’s more, the way your muscles feel when you engage them will differ depending on several factors, such as whether you’re trying to move your spine or stabilize it, whether you’re pushing or pulling weight, and whether you’re standing, or sitting, or lying down.
Regardless of how, when, or why you engage your core, it’s important to realize that in movement these muscles all function in harmony with each other. They don’t work in isolation.
For a truly strong and functional core, it’s important to be able to engage your core in any situation and in every way, providing dynamic stability and spinal support for your moving body. For this article, we will discuss four primary ways to engage your core.
People learn from their errors, so understanding what not to do may make learning how to activate your core simpler. Some frequent examples of failing to activate the core are provided below.
1. When you do shoulder presses or push-ups, your back arches.
2. While sitting, your back sags.
3. When you try to "hollow" your body, your lower back rises off the ground.
4. When executing a single-arm shoulder press, you lean heavily to one side.
5. When practicing single-leg workouts, you lose your balance.
All of the cases above demonstrate a weak core in various ways. The first example is the simplest to dissect: back arching while completing shoulder presses. When performing a shoulder press, you should be able to raise your arms fully above while maintaining a neutral spine. If you can't, it's because your core muscles are weak, you haven't learned how to activate and brace them, or you have another mobility difficulty (discuss this with a doctor or physical therapist).
It All Begins With Your Breath
Breathing is possibly the most critical aspect of activating your core since you must know how to breathe normally while maintaining core tightness. Every time you breathe, you have another opportunity to activate your core muscles and build that powerful cylinder of muscles that runs from your ribcage to your hips.
Consider Olympic weightlifters and professional powerlifters. When these athletes use weightlifting belts to assist with their lifts, their tummies frequently protrude over the top of the belt. This isn't because they're bloated or overweight; rather, they're utilizing their breath to press on the belt, which provides an extra layer of support for the spine.
Lift Weights with Your Core Engaged
Weightlifting may be the most important moment to engage your core. There is a chance for spinal mobility when you bend at any of your main joints, notably your shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. The last example was arching your back during an overhead press. Engaging your core can help avoid excessive spine arching.
The deadlift is another excellent illustration of when you should engage your core. Your back may curve and your shoulders may fall forward if you do not support your core before lifting the weight off the ground.
Taking a deep breath and squeezing your belly might help you maintain a straight back and retracted shoulder blades.