Core Stability
To run as well as you possibly can you need strength in your 'core' muscles.
Your core muscles - the abdominal and lower back muscles - provide the body with energy and support, and form the foundation for an enhanced athletic performance.
When you work on developing your core muscles, your leg muscles will have a stronger anchor point and consequently it will enable you to run at full strength. All force generated by upper and lower body musculature either originates, is
stabilised by or is transferred through the trunk and low torso.
So the stronger you can make your core muscles, the less energy you will waste and the more power you will be able to generate from your legs.
I personally dedicate 2-3 sessions a week to developing my elite athlete's core stability. I have been doing this for over a year and believe it is one of the main reasons why they can run over 160 km a week and stay injury free.
But developing your core muscles is not as easy as just doing a few hundred ab crunches. Your centre of power consists of the abdominal, back and pelvic muscles. Each part of the centre of power must be trained from a variety of angles to ensure that the whole becomes more powerful.
There are a great deal of exercises that you can do to strengthen your core. Swiss Ball (or Fit Ball) are a great apparatus upon which you can perform most trunk stabilisation, flexibility and strengthening exercises.
Your goal when doing these exercises is to transport the tremendous power potential of the core toward the extremities. this will not only help you run faster, but will decrease the likelihood and severity of injury and encourage more efficient movement.
Rather than give you specific exercises at this stage (everyone is different after all), I will list a few guidelines to follow to ensure maximum centre of power development.
1. Always fatigue the weaker areas first.
Train your abdominals in the following order:
a) Oblique's
b) Lower abs
c) Upper abs
2. Remember to keep your breathing rhythmic and natural. Exhale during the contraction (lifting phase) and inhale during the relaxation (lowering phase).
3. Always focus your mind on your abdominal region when performing any exercise. Keep strong and switched on and always maintain good posture throughout.
4. Technique is everything. Maintain a tight contraction throughout and limit the range of motion of the abdominals to 45 degrees or less.
5. Learn to develop a 'feel' for the muscles involved. Focus on tightening your buttocks, contracting your abdominals and curl your pelvis under!
© Old Mutual Virtual Coach Dave Spence and Old Mutual