In Crossfit we exercise several of different muscles to do several of different things. One set of muscles that sometimes gets ignored or sometimes undervalued is the core muscles. That’s right your abs are for more than just looking sweet with your shirt off.Your core also consists of more than just your abs, it consists of all the muscles all the way around your midsection from your sternum to your pelvic region, including your back and sides. You use your core muscles in just about every movement we do, from back squat to pull-ups, you just may not realize it. In movements such as the power lifts your core supports your upper body and keeps you in a good tight position as you squat, deadlift, ?and press. If you’ve ever done a heavy squat and suddenly noticed that your leaning forward more than you should its probably because your core was loose. powerlifting with a weak or loose core is taking the combined weight of your upper body and the barbell and trying to support with a column that shifts like sand or jello. In addition to being a support column, Your core muscles also act as a transmission in essentially every movement we do.This is because they are incredibly powerful and effective.As Crossfitters you use your hips to get an incredible amount of work done. Your hips power everything from kipping pull-ups to wall balls to snatches. However have you ever considered how that power travels your hips to the medicine ball or the barbell. The power that you create when snap your hips in a heavy snatch must travel through your core. Once again trying get enough hip pop to throw a 1rm overhead with a loose or weak core is like trying to translate that force through sand or jello. That means that a pretty good bit of the power will dissipate before it reaches where it needs to go. So what does all this talk of core stability and sand jello have to do with you guys? Its simple everyday when you guys are going through your warm up knees-to-elbows are in it. They should be high on the list of priorities of to do’s not avoided because they aren’t super fun and they may not be your favorite movement. Also in workouts that have some sort of core movement such as toes to bar or GHD sit-ups if you know that your toes didn’t actually hit the bar or you could have actually touched your knees to you elbows but you didn’t, do it right!! Proper movement will lead to quicker,better results. If you feel like your core is abnormally weak, or you feel like you need extra work talk to a coach. Don’t just jump on the GHD and go until you can no longer move your midsection. What is your favorite direct core movement? Least favorite? Did you realize how much you used your core before reading this article?
