Functional Strengthening
Josh gives the best starter exercise to activate your back, hip and core muscles that you can start doing right away to help low back pain.
Learn about the latest Physiotherapy advice for how to better manage your low back pain. Use these tips starting from today and get on top of your pain.
How to Carry/Lift Objects with a Strong Core
Core is one of those terms that more and more people have become aware of over the past couple decades. There is vagueness about the term however, and although many understand that it is desirable to have a good core, they are not quite sure what a good core is.
A not uncommon statement/question I hear in the clinic is something like “I know I need to work on my core” swiftly followed by, “what exactly is my core and how do I strengthen it?”
This is a good place to start. Firstly, “strengthening” core is a little too simplistic.
Although the process of improving your core does not have to be difficult, there are more factors involved in developing a good core than just strengthening some muscles.
Put in a simplified way, the core literally involves the area around the centre of your body.
It encompasses your pelvis, vertebrae, ribs, muscles and all the associated connective tissue.
In relation to the muscles, generally speaking the deeper layers should be good at working at a low intensity, over long periods, helping to stabilise your joints and internal organs via your connective tissue.
The superficial layers of muscle around your centre are more concerned with moving your centre, but also stabilising it for short durations when greater forces are involved.
Therefore the muscle part of your core works best when you have the right combination of muscles working and relaxing at the right time and with the right amount of strength and endurance to do the movements you want to do.
It is important to consider the ‘overactive core’, we don’t want to be bracing and tensing everything all the time, this is where we train and build control of the deeper core, and allow the superficial layers to relax when they are not needed.
Back to our question of how having a good core makes it easier to lift and carry things.
By having a good core, it allows you to be able to lift things using your arms to leverage this stability.
Similarly when you are carrying things, the dynamic stability offered by using the right muscles with the correct timing, allow you to move the load in the most efficient way.
A bit like the counter weight of a crane allowing the arm of the crane the stability it needs to move.
Having sufficiently stable and flexible vertebrae, pelvis and ribs and their associated joints will give you the capacity to stack your frame in the most efficient postures before and during your lifting and carrying.
This essentially makes a given task easier to work on the rest of your core system. Of course the huge benefit of this more efficient system is that it is easier on your joints and soft tissues.
The best way to improve your core in a word is exercise.
Generally the best kind of exercise to do is the one you are most likely to enjoy and therefore consistently do.
However as you see from the description above the core is multifactorial. We tend to have a really good core as kids and many adults naturally retain a good core.
Unfortunately as we age and go through certain repetitive movements, postures, traumas and episodes of pain, different parts of the core system can become sub optimal.
The parts affected are individual.
Consequently if exercise alone has not helped you to do the things you want to do, the way you want to do them, or if you just want to get there more quickly then book an appointment with us at myPhysioSA.
We can find out which elements of your core system need improving and help you improve it in a more targeted and efficient way.
Anthony Sheridan, myPhysioSA Associate Physiotherapist Mount Barker Adelaide
