Core stability in athletes of any sport is paramount to success and injury prevention. Even if you aren’t an athlete, core stability can help you maintain posture and keep you active well into old age. Unfortunately, when people think of core exercises or “AB WORK” they think of crunches, sit ups, Russian twists, and so on and so on. These are great if you are trying to create a less functioning spine, tight hip flexors, and the posture of the old witch in about any fairy tale you look at. (Insert Picture)
Core work should be done for functionality based on the sport or activity. One really strong point I want to make here is that the core is 360 degrees around. It isn’t just the anterior side of the body. We want to work the core to function for us through our everyday. One really good way to do that is find exercises that elongate the hip flexors while stabilizing the spine. Planks and side pillars are just a couple very basic exercises I recommend for any population.
The Anti-Extension Overhead Walkout is one I prefer over those for my overhead athletes that really does a good job to make the core resist anti-extension, turn off the hip flexors, and turn on the muscles around the spine to create a stable/neutral spine position. By keeping the hands overhead, it really forces the core to work to control extension of the lumbar spine. The arm position also creates an unstable position at the shoulders which will have to be controlled as well:
Key notes:
Start out with light resistance and work your way up.
Keep elbows in line with ears.
Do not lean forward to counteract the resistance.
Keep glutes tight (no hip hinge)
Cue yourself to take the rib cage toward the pelvis
Keep eyes looking straight ahead.
Reps and Sets: 3 X 8
Progress to adding slight rotation to both sides at the end of the walkout.
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