Train Your Core For Life

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(Cont.) Train Your Core For Life

SPEAKER_00 0:03

My name is Ron Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist in personal connections. I made other Maxwell's Fitness Programs and have been in business since 1994. The focus of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really worked and most importantly why things work. Hence the name there is a method to the magnetic. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilded of the Gilding Group ELT Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Whatever time you are listening to this. Hope everybody's getting their fitness in this week. I don't think there is a more valuable thing you can do for yourself. I didn't say the most viable. I think it might be the most valuable, but I don't think you're going to find a more valuable thing you can do for yourself, for your health, for your fitness, for your wellness, for your life. So that got me thinking today on a couple different things. What is something that you should do, but not necessarily for the reason you think you should do it. In fitness, there's all kinds of things like that. There's like two major ones, and one I'm gonna briefly kind of go over because I've done it before. I'm sure I'll do it again. But this one's on my mind a little more. The more major one, I think. So one of those things is you should do more cardio, but not for the reason you think you should do it. Now I'm thinking of that one because of a ridiculous argument that I saw on social media the other day, and somebody was saying, Oh, you shouldn't do cardio. There's better ways to lose weight. And he's arguing with this other guy, and naturally, he doesn't even really have a real profile, and he's got like, you know, a hundred followers or something like that. But he's very loud, you know, as the loud minority can be. So, you know, I was looking at that. I don't know why I should just like completely gloss over these things and keep moving. But sometimes I like to go through the comments just to see if somebody else is going to say the truth. And they really didn't. So, yeah, there's better ways to lose weight. I mean, I wrote a book about it. It's called You Can't Outrun a Poor Diet, but that's not really why we should be doing cardio. We should be doing cardio because we need to exercise our heart. Plain and simple. Improving our VO2 max, which is our cardio respiratories measurement of how healthy it is, is one of the things we should be doing to have a more quality life, a healthier life. So we need to be doing more cardio because it's good for our heart. The side benefits are that it helps us lose weight simply because it really helps us burn more calories than just sitting around. But you don't have to tell me, I mean, I agree 100% that the people that use cardio as their only means to lose weight and then don't adjust their diet and don't strength train or off base totally agree. But does that mean does that mean that we don't do cardio? No, we should do it for the benefit of helping our cardiorespiratory system, period. But the one I really want to focus on today is so similar. Everybody brings all fitness stuff back to weight loss. And look, weight loss is important. I mean, you're not going to get an argument out of me if you need to lose weight, if you need to lose weight, then losing weight can be one of the best things you can do for yourself. Not everybody needs to. So, yeah, if you need to lose weight, it's it's an important thing to do. And eating right and basically keeping up the high level of activity no matter what type of exercise, is an important thing. So don't get me wrong. But the second one is related to that. That's the one I'm gonna spend more time on. You should be working your core more to like your abdominal muscles, but not for the reason many people work them. You should be working your core more because it's very important to have a strong core, not because you're trying to flatten your stomach. I mean, that doesn't work. I hate to break it to you, but get this. And now, especially uh some of my weight conscious folks out there are going to like never dir d'un because actually doing a lot of abdominal exercises could potentially make your abdominals look bigger. I mean, they go through hypertrophy like every other muscle. The uh rectus abdominals, which are the which are the muscles that get worked when you do a crunch, they're the muscles that are responsible for spinal flexion, they don't necessarily grow that much outward. They kind of like grow more thicker in between. So they don't really hypertrophy outward, but they do hypertrophy. So really, really working your abdominal muscles to the point of overload along with your obliques will actually make your midsection potentially look a little bigger. I mean, it just does. That's why you'll see some of the world-class bodybuilders who tend to have blockier frames, which is, you know, just their skeletal predisposition, not do as much. So it it and most importantly, though, doing crunches, doing your abdominal work doesn't flatten your midsection, it doesn't make fat go away. Spot reduction is a myth. It's not true. You can't work an area out and make it smaller. You just can't. That is not the way it works. So a lot of people do these ab exercises. I mean, there's all these different silly classes out there, like guts and butts, and you know, we're just hammering an area, like the butts and the abs to try to make them smaller. Or there's eight-minute abs. I don't know if any of you remember that back in the old uh, you know, more in the TV days, those commercials, and it would give you an abdominal workout to do for eight minutes, and you would just smoke your abs for eight minutes, doing all these different exercises with the uh the sales pitch that you're making your abs smaller. I mean, none of that is true. Doing your 200 sit-ups a day isn't going to flatten your stomach, your 1,000 crunches a day. I can remember 20 years ago when Usher, the singer, was all the rage, and maybe he still is, I don't know. And I'm sure he's a very talented guy. But so many people were like talking about his abdominals because he was on billboards and magazines and covers and magazines with his shirt off. And yeah, the dude was shredded. He had a great six-pack of abs and everybody. And then he was talking about how he did his 2,000 crunches a day or whatever it was. It was a large amount. And uh, you know, I mean, did did he do his abs? And is that a good thing? Yeah, and it's not his fault that he was talking about his abdominal routine. He did he's a singer, he's he's a he's an artist, he's you know, he works out, that's great. So he wasn't misleading anybody because he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to physical fitness. So it's not his fault, but other people took that and said, Well, you know, if Usher does this, we better do this for our apps. And he's just one of thousands, if not millions, of examples that have happened this way through the years. So we need to work our core, but we need to work our core because it is so important to have a strong core, not because we're trying to flatten our stomach. I do a lot of core because I know it's important. I don't want to get injured. One of the main reasons why I strength train, I strength train for multi, multi reasons. I love it. I think it's the best thing I can do for my health. But one of the main reasons I do it is to protect myself from injuries. I like to call it prehab so I don't have to rehab. If we have a stronger core, we're going to be able to absorb so much more energy. That's what it does. It's like everything kind of goes through your core. I mean, gosh, at least five times a day, like with five different clients, I'll tell them to push their heels into the ground to really absorb the shock, even on a chest press, because you're going to find so much energy coming out through your heels. So basically, what you're doing then is you're pushing your heels down into the ground. So you're not creating what we call an open chain. You're keeping the kinetic chain closed. You're keeping your feet on the ground, you're keeping your butt on the bench, and you're keeping your hands on the handles in the case of a chest press. So that's what we call a closed kinetic chain. If you lift your foot, you're losing energy, right? I mean, just picture that in your mind. You're gonna say, oh, well, that's true. Like literally, you can feel energy going out of your body. It's gonna be a lot harder to complete the lift. It amazes me how people are so counterintuitive that that's exactly what they do when they start to struggle. They lift their feet in the air and I'll say, keep your feet down. It's almost like they're falling off something and they're flailing their legs. You know, I don't know. I mean, I probably have done it until I basically created muscle memory to not do it because once we do something enough times, we don't do it anymore, hopefully. So I say it all the time. So the feet are on the ground, the butt is on the bench, the hands are on the handles. You got a closed kinetic chain. Well, what's in the middle of all that? What's between your hands pushing the bar up or the bench or the handles and your feet keeping your heels on the ground? Well, what's in between? Your core. Your core is in the dead center, right? So it's going to absorb so much energy. And as you're pushing through your heels, if you're doing that right, you're going to feel your core contract. And now you're going to create energy that goes up through your arms and push through. So, yes, the chest press is primarily a pectoralis major exercise, a pec exercise, a chest exercise, but really you're working your whole body when you do things correctly. If you don't have a strong core, you're not going to have that energy to do that. So it is so, so important. What about when you're squatting? Think about when you're squatting. I mean, a lot of people can't squat because they have a weak core. Now, I'm going to get into like why in a second, but they have a weak core. Now, that could be weak obliques, that could be weak transverse abdominals. It's usually not weak rectus abdominals. They're usually overdeveloped because why? People do silly crunches all day long instead of doing other aspects of their core. Or very commonly, it could be weak erector spinae muscles, the lower back muscles. And so they can't keep their chest up. And then couple that with tight hip flexors, and man oh man, you've got some problems going on. You're going to be bending straight forward when you do any kind of a squat. Now, when I say squat, I need to be very clear here. Like back in my younger days, I was big on barbell squats. And there's nothing wrong with barbell squats, putting the bar up on your shoulders and squatting. I mean, I used to be one of those, you know, guys in my teens and 20s, you know, squatting 300 and something pounds for reps and all that. That was great. Probably when I was young, my form absolutely sucked, but I was doing it. So I'm not opposed to it. But when I say squat, I'm really talking about better versions of squats. Like I think a goblet squat is far better because you're holding a dumbbell in front of you. You don't have the compression on your spine, you still have an adequate load to strengthen those muscles. So I'm really talking that. But you can use it for any type of squat that you do smith squat, regular squat, front squat, goblet squat, dumbbell squat, machine squat, whatever. When you have tight hip flexors and a weak core, you're gonna fall forward. And so now you're really training the wrong pass. You're getting some gluten quad activation, but you're also getting a lot of lower back activation, which you don't want because you're almost doing like a hyperextension, because the muscles that stabilize you are weaker, and those muscles are part of your core. So the core is everything in exercises we do. And then the sports we play. I remember a month ago, or maybe a little bit longer, I started playing in a men's league softball and I hadn't played softball in years. So, you know, I was swinging the bat really hard and I noticed I pulled my oblique. Nothing serious, it's already all better. Like, oh man, you know, I've been neglecting that area, you know. We forget that when we play softball or tennis or golf, when we're swinging, we're using so much wind up strength in our spine. How are we going to protect our spine if we don't strengthen our core? The answer is we're not. So it is so important to train that core. All right, so how do we do that? First off, we need to understand that the core isn't just your rectus abdominal muscles. Okay, that's the six-pack. That's what you see. Whereas Ellen always says the eight pack, because it actually is a little bit deeper down into the groin area. So there is more attachments down there. All right. That's the one you see. That's the one people obsess over. So they do sit-ups, they do crunches. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you're weaker weekend and haven't been training in a while, you need to get them back up to snuff. But a lot of people who are already serious exercises, exercisers, tend to do too much of that and not enough of the other. All right. So doing your crunches and all that is fine. But they're like any other muscle group. You don't have to do too much. One to three sets when you work out, when you work them, is all you need to do. You don't need to add in a million and one different varieties of exercises for the rectus abdominals, like sit-ups and then crunches, then reverse crunches, and then this, and then that. No, it should all equal a couple one to three sets, and then you are good to go. But we have to make sure that we're training our transverse abdominals as well. Very important because they are the isoabdominals. They're the muscles that keep your spine aligned. So when they're not strong, you tend to fall forward and you have really crappy posture. All right. So, how do we do that? Well, we do that with plank type exercises. But you know what? Not just planks, anything that puts you in the plank position. So if you're doing your push-ups correctly, you're doing a plank. If you're squatting correctly and making yourself engage your core and keep your chest up, you're doing a plank. If you're doing a standing row or seated row and making sure you're engaging your core, you're doing a plank. So if you don't want to do planks, don't. Sometimes I don't like to do planks, but I'm doing planks in all those other exercises I just named. So the bottom line is yes, we have to or probably need to do some form of crunch, but we need to do some form of plank, which can come in the form of doing a plank or doing our main exercises properly, engaging our core. Then we're doing that. Next, we need to train our obliques. All right. Our obliques are responsible for rotation. Think swinging a bat, think swinging a golf club, thinks, you know, just basically twisting your spine. And they're also responsible for lateral spinal flexion. That means bending from one side to the next. They're critical for that. That's what the obliques do. Man, the obliques are like your superpower for a strong core. It's your superpower for a really hard-hit softball or golf ball. Like you've got to be able to wind up and let those babies rip. I mean, it is so important for a strong core to have strong obliques. Most people neglect it. Doing things like bicycle crunches and things like that or side crunches, I mean, all that's great. That is definitely going to strengthen your obliques, but they have to be loaded too. I mean, the obliques and abs and low back, of course, are like any other muscle. They need overload to get stronger. So when we're doing nothing but body weight exercises and we can do crunch after crunch or sidebend after sidebend, we're probably not getting any better. So they need to be overloaded with some load. So doing some form of rotations on a machine or holding a dumbbell and do what we call like TikToks at the gym. I mean, some of my clients love it. Like they'll they're they're not gonna skip it. It's so important to them. And they'll go to the cable machine, they'll grab the handle, they'll put one hand on the side of their head, and it's like doing a side crunch on the cable machine. And it that's called lateral spinal flexion. And it works the obliques. And guess what? They have a strong back, they're healthy, they're doing everything right. So we have to do them. Now, you know, they have a benefit because they've been training with us for years, so they know all the things we have to do for a strong core, so we've ingrained that into them. All right, and then finally, the fourth part, you have to train your lower back. The lower back is the most neglected muscle in the gym. The erector spinae's are the most neglected muscles in the gym. I kind of joke around a lot with people, and I'll say, well, you know what? Guys or gals don't go into the gym and go, oh man, I want my lower back swolled today, or I want a ripped lower back. I want a nice low back, right? They don't do that, but you know who does do it is people who have injured their lower back, been through some form of physical therapy, and then they're like, oh man, yeah, I know how important that low back is. So 80% of Americans will suffer a back injury at some point in their life. I mean, probably most of that's minor, but if you've ever hurt your lower back, there really is no minor lower back injury. You can't do anything. And guess what? The number one reason for it is a weak low back. You're not weak, a weak low back, weak erector spinase. The more time you spend doing crunches and sit-ups without balancing it out, the more muscle imbalance you create, and you're actually making your lower back weaker. Everything has to be done in proportion. So if you do a set of crunch, you need to do a set of hyperextension or low back. I mean, that's a simple formula, but basically that's what it means. Everything has to be in proportion, and it is so neglected. One of the reasons why it's neglected, it's so counterintuitive, and I understand the fear, but it's just false. People are like, oh, I don't want to do that exercise. I don't want to hurt my back. It's like, no, no, no, man. Like doing that exercise is what's gonna keep you from hurting your back. It is so hard for people to get. I get people who have had really serious lower back or upper back diagnosis. I mean, you know, stuff that most of the time medical intervention is going to have to come in one day. But by strengthening their lower back, they're making their lives so much better and postponing that maybe forever, you know, maybe indefinitely, but definitely longer. And they end up saying to me, man, I wish I would have done this so long ago. I I mean, it's one of my favorite things to work with anyway, that is prehab or even rehab, you know, but it's one of my favorite things to do when people say to me that they've been hurt and now they're better and they're back to enjoying their lives. I mean, I love that. I see that with knees, I see it with hips, I see with ankles, and probably lower back has been number one. I mean, I could sit here and just name people, you know, name drop these people. Oh, so-and-so came in, but that's not the point. I mean, you wouldn't be listening to this if you didn't trust what I had to say. So just take my word for it. I've had countless people over and over and over come in to get on a program. And the first thing we do is we isolate the lower back. We do other things. I mean, they're not gonna pay for personal training to do three exercises. I mean, you know, I mean, maybe they would. I mean, some people might be, yeah, it's worth it. But obviously, we're gonna fill up the time doing other things to balance out their body, but they really, really, really tell me that they're better. And that's the key. I mean, if it works, you keep doing it. And it does work. I mean, when I have people in fear mode, I had, you know, and anytime we've been injured or had pain, we're going to have fear. So I get that. And I Have a longtime client, you know. I will I will kind of tell a little bit of who he is, not his name, just because it's such an important story. And he started with me probably a little over 10 years ago or so. And he's a physician, he's a psychiatrist, to be specific. And he was referred to me by our chiropractor because of his lower back, and it was really impeding his life. So he told me his, you know, story and you know what he wanted to do and his, you know, where he's had success. It's it was better after seeing the chiropractor for sure. Now he wanted to take it to even more uh lengths to basically get even more active again. Because he was an athletic guy. He's a very athletic guy now. And um I said, okay, so I got him on a program. And every time we'd go to do something, this was very early on, like he turned the corner within a couple weeks. But early on, I'd say, let's do this. And he'd say, Oh, you know, I don't know. You know, when I did that once, I left wherever in pain, or when I did this. And these this wasn't really risky things at all in my mind. Like I'm I'm not an advocate of that. These were just normal things I know to strengthen the lower back, like low back machine or prone cobras and things like that. And so he kept telling me, and I finally said to him, I said, All right, so you're a psychiatrist. Yes. Okay, so when you get a patient in there who has really struggled with mental illness of sorts, you know, whatever it might be, because of the, you know, reputation or or whatever of certain drugs, they might be really fearful of taking the medication because of, you know, whatever side effects or things they've heard or things people tell them, you know. And he goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're very afraid. I said, but in your mind, you're going, if they would just do this, they would feel better. Like you're saying it with authority. Like you know, you understand their fear, you have empathy, but you know, it's not like you're guessing, it's not like you're winging it. Like you know, if they just take this medication after a month, they're gonna be like, why didn't I do that before? And he goes, Yeah, that happens to what? He's a smart guy. So, you know, a light went on in his head. He goes, Oh, okay, I see what you're saying. I just gotta like let go of this and just totally trust that you know what you're doing and you're not gonna have me do this exercise if it's not good for me. I said, right. So he was able to jump into the program with trust. You know, I mean, if you had pain, you back off, but it wasn't even because he was having pain, it was just it looked scary to him, right? But he jumped into the program and he started doing it. I mean, that was over 10 years ago. We don't even talk about his back anymore. I mean, he's gone on, he's running 5K's, he's doing strength competitions, he plays basketball in the in the senior Olympics, he does all these sports. I mean, he's incredibly active, incredibly fit, and an incredible athlete. And he's back to all that, like totally enjoying what he wants to do because he let go and he started doing the prescription. All right. So that's a big reason, and I get it. Some people don't train their lower back because of the things they've been told, and that's just not true. All right, so we have to train our core, all right. So, just to summarize again, I've said it a million times, we have to train our core, not because we want a flat stomach, because that is not going to happen from that, but because we want to prevent injuries, we want to continue to do all the things we want to do, and we want to train that core in a balanced way. Very hard for me in an audio podcast to talk about all these different ways we need to do it. And I know I put a lot of information out there. So if you have any questions about what you need to be doing for your core, do not hesitate to reach out. Thanks everybody for listening to today's show. I want to ask you to please hit automatic download from wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps me and it really helps the show. Now I'd like to take a second to thank our sponsors. 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