Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

112 Elite Physique
athleticism.” That approach to core training increases your training capacity, limb
speed, and power (McGill 2015). To be clear, many athletes need to not only twist
and flex their spines but also do so at a high velocity. And often in one motion.
Just picture a pro golfer hitting her tee shot or a baseball slugger knocking one
out of the park. A rotational athlete’s spine has the resiliency to perform a career’s
worth of powerful spinal movements, if injury risk outside of sport is minimized.
Trainers will sometimes assume that having rotational athletes perform twists,
turns, and side bends with a heavy medicine ball will make them stronger. But
adding those compression forces usually spells trouble. Your discs are already
susceptible to injury during flexion and rotation, and that risk increases exponentially
when compression forces are added (Desmoulin, Pradhan, and Milner
2020). There is a time and place to program high-velocity rotational exercises with
very light loads, such as a six-pound (2.5 kg) medicine ball. But as a general rule,
spend your time in the gym developing your core’s ability to resist motion, and
let most of your rotational training come from your sport.
This chapter goes deep into the core—to the muscles and the best exercises
for appearance, performance, and prevention of low back injuries. I also clear up
some mythology about what core training can’t do: reduce the stubborn fat that
keeps your abdominals hidden.
Development of Core Musculature
It is easy to understand the benefits of building strength in your midsection.
Stronger midsection muscles support your spine and allow you to squat or deadlift
heavier loads. What’s less understood is the benefit of building more endurance
in the muscles that surround your spine and pelvis (McGill 2015). Those muscles
must be able to maintain their activation for extended periods of time, which
is why you’ll see 30-second holds, and similar durations, programmed later in
this book.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s first talk about your abdominal
muscles, and then expand on that to include the entire core (see figure 6.1). Your
abdominals include four interconnected muscles:
• The rectus abdominis is the “six-pack” muscle that flexes your spine when
you bend forward and protects your internal organs.
• The external obliques are fingerlike muscles on the sides of your abdomen
that assist the rectus abdominis in its functions. But more important, they
rotate your spine while also preventing rotation.
• The internal obliques, as their name suggests, are beneath the external
obliques, with fibers running in the opposite direction. Their main role is
to provide stability during mundane, low-effort activities like sitting and
standing.
• The transversus abdominis is the innermost layer of the abdomen. It helps
control abdominal pressure to protect your organs and works synergistically
with your other midsection muscles.
Those are the four main muscles that make up your midsection—the muscles
you think of when you refer to your abs. But those muscles don’t work in isolation,
no matter how hard you try. Your abdominals are synergistically linked with five