First things first; if you haven’t read the last blog post on the website (“Midline Stabilization Part 1”), take a look back at that one and give it a quick read first. This post continues on where that one left off so it wont be nearly as effective without it.
In part one, I addressed the larger concept of “bracing the core”. I expanded on what exactly we are trying to brace and how we should go about doing that. Remember, we aren’t just trying to flex the abs. We are trying to squeeze and flex the entire abdominal cavity. This then helps stabilize the back and hips giving us a braced, solid and stabilized midline.
Doing all of that for a one rep max lift presents itself as difficult enough task. Creating as much pressure as possible while essentially “holding your breath” to do so. That’s completely doable when we are exerting ourself for a couple seconds at most. What happens then when we need to do a set of 9 deadlifts in the middle of a workout then? You could try to hold your breath for 9 reps. You might get away with it for the first round even. I assure you though, if there is more than one round, the next one isn’t going to be so pretty. We need to be able to stabilize our midline while still being able to breath.
Because I can’t possibly address all the movements specifically in a blog, lets go with the example of a deadlift. While I know every athlete who specializes in the lifts has their own routine that works for them, I’ll throw out a simple recipe for the rest of us. If you were going for a one rep max deadlift, your best bet is to brace hard and solid before you bend over to grab the bar. Unless you can get into and then maintain perfect form when “bent over”, you are in a compromised position in the bottom and not able to best brace. Standing tall, inhale a huge breath and push it down into your gut. We talked more about that in the last blog. Now, lets throw 9 deadlifts into the middle of a five round workout with some running before them and box jumps after them. Holding our breath isn’t going to work if we want to run on the next round or perform box jumps after them. Before we grab onto the bar, take a breath in and brace as talked about in part 1. Grab the bar and stand it up. Exhale slowly as we stand (like blowing up a really hard balloon). Then pause at the top. That’s the part where most people go wrong, in my opinion. They try to rush for the next rep. Pause at the top to inhale a big breath and push it back into the gut. Lower the bar while holding your braced position, touch it to the ground and as you begin to ascend with the next rep, “blow up the balloon” (exhale) again. Repeat. Do not rep faster than you can breath and do not breath faster than your rep. Or also think, do not let the breathing control you, you control the breathing.
That last part there is something can be applied to any movement that we are trying to work through. If we simply let the breathing go - let it do it’s own thing, it’s going to shut us down sooner than later. If we are purposeful with our breathing and force ourselves to be in control of it, we can manage our heart rate, our profusion (the distribution of the oxygen we breath in throughout out body) and our workout to a much higher degree.
We need our midline to be stabilized as we move. It’s the bases of what we do in any functional movement. The midline stabilizes so we can perform those core to extremity movements. Now that we know how to do (in part 1), and then how to do it while exerting ourselves, apply it to your workout and don’t let that midline breakdown. You just might surprise yourself with what you can accomplish with a little bit of mindfulness to that stabilization process.
If all else fails, breath in and breath out. It’s got you this far! ;)