By Jonny Parr

With summer upon us, so is the inevitable rush to get beach-body ready. Whether you’re a gym-junkie or have treadmill-phobia, the desire to trim down and tone up wins out and pushes us to the limits. This month the pros at Absolute Fitness explore the best approach to core training.

Training The Core

When it comes to the fitness industry, everybody is obsessed with core or abdominal training! Why is this the

case? The most popular reason is due to the pressures of society, and in particular celebrity culture. They would have us believe we should all have or at least seek to have ‘iron board’ abs or a carefully crafted six-pack.

Now, while aesthetics are important, the core has far more important functions that often go

unnoticed or unaccounted for. Its primary role is to stabilize and protect your spine. It also performs actions such as flexion, lateral flexion, rotation and extension.

A strong, powerful core is also vital given any fitness-related goal. Whether you’re in the gym, playing a sport, or carrying shopping bags, they all involve a degree of activation from your core. Therefore, the core is the foundation of everything! Anything else you do is known as ‘external loading’ which, put simply, cannot be improved if your core is in need of strengthening.

With the importance of a strong core being clear from a performance and aesthetic perspective, how should we train the area itself?

1. Lower Body Fat No amount of core or ab-specific training will lower body fat in the abdomen region (spot reduction). It will simply contribute to overall energy expenditure. From a training point of view, you’ll need to engage in activities that significantly elevate metabolism such as full-body strength training and intense conditioning.

Back extensions also help to strengthen your spine and improve mobility

What’s more and most importantly, no amount of exercise can out-train a poor diet. If you want to see your ‘abs’, you will have to eat clean!

2. Stabilization & Anti-Extension Exercises At Absolute Fitness (AF) we favour core exercises like wheel roll-outs, TRX jack-knifes or basic planks ahead of flexion exercises such as sit-ups or crunches – both of which involve flexion at the spine. Why? Anti-extension exercises put less stress on the back and help develop a rock-solid mid-section making you far stronger and safer doing any physical task. At AF we don’t disregard flexion exercises altogether, but find anti-extension/stabilization methods far more productive.

3. Bracing & Breathing You will need to learn to breathe and brace your core correctly to reap the benefits of core training. Doing so will lead to you creating abdominal pressure which will help protect your spine, improve your posture and again, make all physical tasks easier.

Putting It All Together! While the above may seem complicated it

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Jonny Parr is founder and CEO of Absolute Fitness. For more information visit www.absolutefitness.me.

Wheel roll-outs combine balance with intense abdominal contractions

Use a portable TRX harness to practice jack-knife crunches

really isn’t! A good fitness program will ideally include compound movements such as squats and dead-lifts which require and develop a good level of core strength. However it’s also important to instill core-specific movements into your program. Here’s a routine to get you started.

A1: Wheel Roll-Outs (intermediate/advanced) or Walkouts (beginner)

A2: Back Extensions

A3: Side Plank (30-60 seconds per side)

Simply perform each exercise in order for 10 repetitions, resting approximately 30 seconds between each exercise. That’s one set. After this, rest for approximately 60 seconds before repeating the routine for a total of three to four sets.

Remember, the purpose of the routine is to get your core stronger and not significantly raise your heart rate. Therefore rest periods may be longer than what you’re used to but these serve a purpose of adequate recovery. Give the routine a go, get your core strong, be consistent, eat clean and that impressive six pack may be on the horizon! n

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