Thursday, February 12, 2009

All Training is Core Training

When I first heard this from Vern Gambetta I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. "The Core" is a very vague term to begin with. So I always find it surprising to find it in many scientific journals. This time in this month's JOSPT- "Shoulder Injuries in the Overhead Athlete". Don't get me wrong, there's lots of good stuff here by top notch researchers/practitioners Wilk, Andrews et al. It was a combination of this article, plus seeing the "tea cup" exercise on the Iron Maven's website that got my wheels spinning. As you watch Steve Cotter go through the exercise, it is interesting to watch his torso adapt to the various shoulder positions. Not something you would think of as core training, but it definitely fits.
I found it well, kind of annoying that the importance of "lumbopelvic" & "core" training was only given lip service. What did they mean by "core stabilization training"? Does this mean they choose to train this region isolated from the rest of the body? After all, the isolated, uniplanar, unidirectional stuff had lots of pictures- even online videos. Upon watching them it is obvious the core is used isometrically to splint the body's extraneous motions. But is this what happens in vivo?
My buddy Pat Donahue & I prefer, and have had good success with an integrated approach using specific combos of lunges with arm drivers. I think some of the new myofascial research backs up the efficacy of this approach. So, I really don't see this as "outside the box"thinking at all. Baseball season is coming up, so you will see me posting on more shoulder/elbow stuff in the coming months.

2 comments:

Pat Donovan said...

Some of my favorite "core" exercises are my favorite shoulder and Lower Body exercises as well. Try doing some Posterior Lunges with an Opposite Arm Posterior Rotational Reach with a 10# Dumbbell or Power Ball in hand. Just watching the exercise you can see how by using these simple drives the core is loaded from one shoulder to the opposite him. The same can be said for a Posterior Lunge with Bilateral Posterior Arm Reach at Over Head Height. Again Throw a Med Ball in their hands and you'll feel the "core" eccentrically lengthening to stabilize...

The more you "play" with simple motions like a lunge and a squat and then add in arm drives the more you realize that core training is meant to be VERTICAL to steal a term from Joe and my buddy Todd Wright--If you get a chance to ever hear him speak you better do it...Great guy, and really understands Strength and Conditioning from a Functional Perspective.

Love what you're doing Joe, keep up the good work...I'll try to chime in when I think I can add something :)

Take care...

PAT

JH said...

Joe,
I just listened to Dr. Stuart McGill on a teleconference via another website and he had some interesting things to say about, "Bracing". I haven't read any of his research concerning this topic but what he said actually prompted more questions about bracing.

What's your perspective about bracing? Good, bad, and/or depends?