Welcome back to this mini blog series all about how and why you should train your core muscles.
This is part 2 of a 3 part series in which we’ll be focussing on core strength. If you missed part 1 on core stability click here to have a read.
The muscles I’m going to talk about in this post are part of what’s known as the Global Stabilisation System. This type of core muscle attach between your spine and your pelvis and include: the Quadratus Lumborum, Psoas Major, External Obliques, parts of the Internal Obliques, the Rectus Abdominis, the Gluteus Medius and the Adductor Complex (1).
What do these muscles do?
The core muscles of the Global Stabilisation System are responsible for the transfer of loads between the upper body and the lower body; they help to balance your upper body over a single leg and; produce rotation around your spine (1,2). Let’s look at each of these jobs individually and how they relate to skiing:
· Load Transfer – in order to not fall when skiing we need to manage our upper body position in relation to what our legs are doing. Our core helps to do this by providing a ‘stiff mass’ that the legs can stabilise against (2). In context, think about a high-speed, carved turn. In the middle of your turn you will have your outside leg stretched out away from you and you’ll feel the force from the ground pushing back. Keeping a strong core against which your leg can stabilise during this helps you to increase the force you put back through the ski, enabling you to bend the ski more and increase your performance.
· Balance – the glute muscles help to maintain your position and stability over your base of support (2). When skiing this is often, essentially, over one leg (the outside leg) as we transfer our weight from foot to foot in order to turn. In the example above, of a fast, carved turn, the base of support can be far away from the trunk meaning control and strength in the glutes is super important to keep our hips level so we don’t fall inside the turn.
· Rotation – now in general when skiing we want to keep our hips and shoulders aligned, but if for some reason you get knocked off balance or spun about – as can happen a lot on, for example, a powder day in the afternoon when everything is pretty chopped up but there are a few patches of deep snow left waiting to grab at one of your skis. At this point we need strength in our external obliques and other core muscles to rotate our body back into the optimal skiing position.
In addition it has been shown that core strength is a major factor in prevention of knee injuries, particularly ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injuries in women (3) – illustrated by the fact the Austrian Alpine coaching program includes core strength testing as a key part of their development programs for all levels of athletes (4).
How are we going to train these muscles?
Now you know the why, here are 3 exercises to increase core strength, with a variety of levels as always:
1) Russian Twists
The rotation involved in this exercise works your external obliques, whilst also requiring you to maintain spinal and pelvic stability. Keep the movements slow and controlled to get the most out of it.
Feet Down
Start sitting on the floor with your knees bent, feet flat on the ground. Draw yourself up tall, shoulders back and tummy drawn in. Then lean back to about 45 degrees. Clasp your hands in front of you. Slowly move your hands towards the floor on your righthand side, allowing your shoulders to rotate round too. Then return through the middle and rotate to the left. Keep repeating.
Feet Raised
Set up in the same way as above, but this time as you lean back lift your feet up off the ground, keeping your legs squeezed together. Perform the exercise in the same way without letting your feet drop.
With Weight
Exactly as above but now with a weight in your hands – it can be a dumbbell or a disc weight, or any household item you can fit in your hands (eg. Large drink bottle). Start with around 2-3kg and build up as you get stronger.
2) Leg Raises
In this exercise we’re focussing on the abdominals and hip flexors. It’s really important to keep you core braced and your glutes engaged (squeeze your bum basically!) to avoid over-arching through your lower back.
Knees Bent
Lie on the floor, legs out straight. You can place your arms by your sides or put your hands palm down under your bum cheeks for a bit more support. Draw your tummy in and squeeze your glutes. Lift your feet off the ground and draw your knees up towards your chest. Then slowly re-straighten your legs and lower your feet back towards the floor but keep them hovering just off it. Keep repeating.
Legs Straight
As above, but this time stead of bending your knees into your chest, keep your legs straight and lift your feet into the air so you make an ‘L’ shape with your body.
With Arms
Set up in the same way as before but this time extend your arms behind your head. As your lift your legs lift your arms as well, and then reach up towards your toes, lifting your shoulders off the floor. Lower everything slowly back until just off the floor then repeat.
3) Supermans
The key muscles working here are in your back and glutes – so it’s a particularly important exercise if you spend a lot of time sitting at a desk as that leads to weakening and lengthening of these muscles (5).
Half Superman
Lie on your front with your arms stretched out in front of you. Look down to the floor to keep your neck in a neutral position. Squeeze your glutes and legs to stay anchored then engage your upper back to lift your arms and chest off the floor by pulling your shoulders back towards your feet. Lower back down with control and repeat.
Full Superman
Set up as above. This time you are going to lift your legs up as well. As you start to lift your chest and arms as before, engage your glutes even more to lift your feet and legs up too. It should feel like you are drawing your shoulders and bum together. Lower slowly back down and repeat.
Swimming Superman
Lift your chest, arms and legs like in the full superman, but this time don’t lower back down. From this position slowly raise and lower one arm and one leg alternating from side to side (so left arm and left leg then right arm and right leg). Keep your chest and thighs as high off the ground as you can.
To put these into a core routine, choose one variation of each exercise and perform as a circuit. To start try 10 reps of each exercise for 3 sets. See if you can build up to 3 sets of 20!
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References:
1. Clark, Micheal, Brian G. Sutton, and Scott Lucett. Nasm Essentials of Personal Fitness Training. , 2014: Chapter 9, 224-230.
2. Kibler, W. Ben, Joel Press, and Aaron Sciascia. "The role of core stability in athletic function." Sports medicine 36.3 (2006): 189-198.
3. Raschner, C., et al. "Current performance testing trends in junior and elite Austrian alpine ski, snowboard and ski cross racers." Sport-Orthopädie-Sport-Traumatologie-Sports Orthopaedics and Traumatology 29.3 (2013): 193-202.
4. Akuthota, Venu, and Scott F. Nadler. "Core strengthening." Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation 85 (2004): 86-92.
5. Clark, Micheal, Scott Lucett, and NASM. NASM Essentials of Corrective Exercise Training. 2010: Chapter 4, 85-93.
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