Things have changed in the five years since we opened the doors of BSP NOVA back in 2011.  It used to be that we had to explain to almost everyone that walked through these doors WHY we don’t do traditional sit-ups, crunches, and other common exercises for “targeting the abs.”  But, for the most part, we’ve noticed that people get it now.  And as we progress into our sixth year of business,  our training for “abs” has progressed right along with us…

What does the core do?

First, our core will make sure that we can breathe.  If we progress onto movements that we are not ready for, too soon, our body will probably get it done- but at what cost?  We’ll pay for it somewhere down the road.  So we start with the question,

“Can you breathe there?”

And “there” doesn’t need to look like a traditional “abs” exercise.  It’s in everything that we do, starting from the ground, and working our way up.  Can you breathe, getting into a truly exhaled position, and inhale from there, through the following positions, starting static (no movement)?

• Prone/Supine
• Quadruped
• Half and Tall-Kneeling
• Standing

How about dynamically (with movement)?

• Rolling
• Crawling
• Reaching
• Rowing
• Turning
• Squatting
• Hinging
• Walking
• …

We start static and progress to dynamic

Can you hold basic positions throughout the neurodevelopmental sequence (how you learned to move as an infant/toddler), and still breathe- comfortably?

If not, we start here.

But if you can, let’s progress to dynamic…

We start soft, progress to tension

Can you roll over?

Try those four movements- seriously, right now.  We’ll wait.

Easy?  Good!  You’d probably watch someone struggle with this and not be able to fathom how they can struggle so much.  But, understand that you’re one of the few that can just do this, cold, in your adult years.

Not so easy?  We start here, after addressing the static positions we just went over.

Once you’ve gotten “soft” down, we progress to tension

Static > Dynamic, again.

Can you hold a plank, with integrity, and still breathe?

Can you breathe throughout dead bugs, while still controlling your middle?

We build, and build, and build…

Once we reach high tension movements, we can try cycling breaths in different positions of high tension movements.

But, this comes with a big caveat.  We don’t cycle breaths under intense loads (throughout a heavy squat, deadlift, bench press, etc…) as this gives up the very tension that keeps us in the best position to be successful.  There’s a difference between can and should.

Once we get down these fundamental positions, both soft and with tension, we can progress to some pretty high level stuff:

But, if we went there first, before ensuring we can handle the above, we’re just asking for issues.

So why does this matter, you ask?

Our job involves a few principles:

1. No injuries in the weight room.
2. Minimize the risk of injury in everyday life.
3. Get to the goal(s).

Making sure that we have a solid (see what we did there?), high functioning core keeps us honest to all three of our principles.

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Core Training Checklist

• Can you breathe, getting into a truly exhaled position, and inhale properly from the fundamental static positions of the neurodevelopmental sequence?
• Then, can you maintain integrity as you add movement?  Start small (i.e. one limb) and progress complexity.
• Can you move softly before adding tension?
• Finally can you bring that core strength and integrity to your speed and strength end of the continuum?