Core muscles

Most of us spend the majority of our time everyday in a forward flexed position. We hunch over our cars' steering wheel, computer or just washing the dishes. This forward flexed position leads to poor posture and a weak, inefficient core. As physical therapists, we see so many injuries that could have been prevented if the core just had a little training everyday. The core is a complex group of muscles but the core is pretty easy to train with a little bit of instruction and understanding.

In our practice of physical therapy, we get to train the trunks' core everyday. We specialize in knowing and understanding the muscles of the core and the normal sequencing patterns that should occur with basic things like rolling to get out of bed, getting in and out of the car and transitioning from sitting to the standing position. We often see core weakness in our Achilles tendonitis patients, our total hip patients, in our ACL reconstruction patients, in our rotator cuff repairs and as you would guess, in our back patients. Sometimes we might assume that everyone understands what we mean when we talk about the core, but just to clarify the core is the container that stabilizes your trunk. It is what cinches your waist like a corset and it is what we need to maintain our body posture and its dynamic function.

You can start with the basic plank exercise. Your first goal is to learn to hold the position for at least 60-90 seconds for push-up position plank and for a side plank position you needs to be able to hold for 45 seconds. Than once you get that down you can move to the next step where you add in the dynamic activities for stabilization and the integrated stabilization activities necessary for us as we do all kinds of athletic activities.

Sheree DiBiase, PT, and her staff can be reached at Lake City Physical Therapy (208) 667-1988 to learn more about the core muscles and their training to make your physical health the best it can be.