I have a real “love/hate” relationship with the CrossFit Journal. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a daily email newsletter sort of thing that is free for anyone to subscribe to for the “basic” emails. While they are often packed with a lot of good information on all things fitness, they also use a whole lot of really big words that simple people like me don’t always understand. The Journal recently put out a two part release expanding the meaning of “midline stabilization” and what exactly we are referring when we talk about “bracing the core”. Stay with me here, I’ll try to put it plainly for you (and me) to understand.
When coaching, i throw out the quick reference of “bracing” or “tightening” the core quite a bit. It doesn’t really matter what we are trying to do for a movement, it will always require core engagement. Our training philosophy in CrossFit is based largely around the “core to extremity” principal. Meaning that power can be best generated from the center of our body moving out away to our extremities. We need to be able to generate that force from a rigid platform. If we aren’t braced, the structure simply wobbles and fails instead of transferring power out from the core.
Seems simple enough but what is it we are actually trying to achieve and how do we best do that “bracing”? In the fitness world, the word “core” has a lot of different definitions. Dependant on discipline, you are going to get different answers. Your abs, obliques and spinal erectors are the three big ones that most are familiar with. Once we go beyond that, you have me lost in a maze of Latin names for a whole bunch of muscles that are involved with the spine, rib cage and hips; continuing on to the bones upstream and downstream from there. So to keep it very simple so I can at least follow along with my own blog, I’m going to say the “core” is everything from the bottom of your chest to the bottom side of your hip bones. Front, back and sides. All of it.
Source: The CrossFit Journal
If we are to effectively “brace the core” we need to understand that we are trying to engage all of that. We want the front, the back and the sides all engaged and activated - or “flexed”. There are numerous ways that I typically cue athletes to do this. One is the “imagine I’m going to punch you in the gut, you saw it coming, and braced hard for it”. The other is “imagine your trying to take a big poop” (sorry for that visualization but it’s true). We want to take a deep breath in and then instead of filling the chest cavity, we push it down into our gut. Hard!
You have probably seen people use lifting belts in the gym from time to time. They are an effective tool in cuing the brace throughout the midline. However, they in themselves do nothing to provide any extra stabilization. The belt simply gives us something to push back against when we take that deep breath in and push deep down into the gut. I have often told people who are new to using a belt to simply think about trying to blow the belt off your gut. If you are using a Velcro belt correctly, you should be able to hear the Velcro “loading up” or “tearing” when you’re bracing. While belts are an effective tool, they should not become a crutch. I would most definitely rather see an athlete lift less weight and develop the midline stabilization (not just “the core”) so they can brace the load themselves than be dependant on a belt. Unless you are an advanced athlete pushing the limits of a movement, I always encourage people to stay away from them. You should be able to brace the midline on your own.
So, the next time a coach talks to you about “bracing the core”, take it a step further. We aren’t simply trying to flex the abs. We are taking that deep breath in, pushing it down into the gut and holding it there. Creating as much tension and pressure inside there to brace and stabilize the load we are moving. I’ll leave it at that for today. In the next one, I’ll go a little further into the breathing that goes behind bracing. Since holding your breath while working out doesn’t work the best, we have to be able to do it fatigued as well. Stay tuned!