The core of fitness

With favorable weather, long days, and abundant forest trails, many recreational athletes in the Sisters community flock to the outdoors. Whether swinging a club, navigating a trail, or paddling across a lake, preparing oneself to take on the endeavors of these athletics ensures one's enjoyment and resilience to injury. Endurance is key, but fundamental core strength will help get you through the summer without injury - and increases performance.

Recreational athletes use a variety of movements across many planes, and include many unpredicted variables. Thus, the strength of the core is paramount. Jason Gulley, of Green Ridge Physical Therapy, summed it up: "Core strength is essential for all movement and is even more important for those pursuing an athletic endeavor. Without this foundation, athletes tend to overcompensate with the use of their extremities, resulting in common injuries such as tendonitis or strain."

He noted that he sees a lot of injury resulting from these over-compensations as the weather gets nice.

"The summer weather is motivating; people want to enjoy the nice weather and our awesome recreational opportunities," he said.

What is the "core" and how does someone strengthen it? The core is the musculature around the middle body, the pillar of stability, which all other movement runs through. The core comprises the hip girdle, lower back, abdominal, and thoracic area. It is common to believe that core training is sit-ups, crunching and twisting, but this is not the case.

Exercises that challenge stability, engage the hips, and spinal stabilizers are important. Seth Wilkie of Step & Spine Physical Therapy championed weight-training as a way to improve the core indirectly because of the stability needed to perform common lifts.

"The demands of weight-lifting force the core muscles to be engaged, holding the body in proper alignment, stabilizing through the movement," he said.

Wilkie pointed to research on recreational runners with increased core strength resulting in increased running efficiency. This led to better performance over 5k and 10k distances. The method they used was weight-training. He reckoned this their increased core stability and function of the hip muscles adding efficiency to their stride. A runner with a stronger core will hold tight as the racer progresses, whereas a weak core will allow for unnecessary movement to take place.

Sound form while weight-training is paramount. If the core is not engaged correctly, holding the body through the right position, there is a risk of injury. Wilkie cautioned athletes with the example of a cyclist's tight hips: "Compensation with tight hips causes the lower back to be overactive, this can result in injury and low back pain."

Common weight-training exercises like squats, rows, pressing, and lunges can all work the core effectively because as the appendages move the weights, the core must be held in a stable and unforgiving posture. This promotes the same stability as a person moves about through their day-to-day activity. Weight-training can be an addition to proper core exercises, planks, chops (transferring a weight across one's body from low to high), hip extensions (pushing one's hips up off the floor from a lying position) and leg lifts are all good examples.

As our local experts noted, core training will effectively reduce your injury risk, it will improve balance and stability, and performance can be expected to improve.

The days of crunches and sit-ups are over, but the training isn't nuanced. A core program should be simple and direct. Give your core a leg up and experience an improved summer recreational season.