To bend the spine or not to bend the spine…that is the question.

We hear people say it’s fine, because after all, we can. And we hear others say that bending the back during exercise is likely to damage the spine rather than develop performance.

So what’s the answer? Let’s dissect the arguments. 

Spine power – what is it and why is it relevant?

It goes without saying that the different exercises we do will exert different pressures on the spine. We feel it bending and twisting as we carry out different movements.

We might choose to move fast and repeatedly, or we might include weights to try to increase the impact of our stretches. But the faster we move or the more weight we carry, the more risk there is that the movements we’re doing will be detrimental to the spine.

When I talk about spine power, I’m talking about the relationship between these different elements of movement. And it’s best described in terms of force – the weight carried, and velocity – the speed of the movem...

So often in core training programs we find lots of spine bending exercises like sit-ups, crunches or twists. But these are not the most effective exercises for training the core. In order to better understand why this is, let’s talk about the anatomy of the hips and spine. Then we’ll look at some more appropriate exercises you might want to consider instead.

Anatomy of the hips

The different joints in our body work in different ways. They are designed for the purpose they serve. The hip is a ball and socket joint. This allows for a wide range of movement – flexion, extension, both internal and external rotation, abduction and adduction. In fact, it’s classified as a freely moveable joint. Hence, designed for movement.

But it is also lined with some pretty powerful muscles, the main one being the gluteus maximus. This too is designed for power – it’s the one we should be engaging when we want to move. Of course, it also has a supporting cast of other muscles, the gluteus medius and g...

As a PT, I spend a lot of time talking about core muscles, it’s a subject that is far more important than a lot of people realise. Firstly, we’re talking about more than just your abs – a common misconception. Secondly, the core muscles are involved in some way in almost every movement you’ll do with your body. Whether it’s lifting, bending, picking something up or carrying something, understanding more about your core muscles and doing the work to strengthen and protect them will benefit you both inside and outside the gym.

So, let’s look at six things you may not know about core muscles and some of the most useful core exercises for beginners:

1.  The core works as one unit

Which are the core muscles? You’ve got the abdominals to the front, obliques to the side, around the back the erector spinal muscles, a little bit deeper the QL muscles. Then there’s the TVAs and internal obliques as well.

That’s a lot of different muscles all intrinsically linked in one big interlocking grou...

If you’re looking to improve your core strength, you’ll find plenty of experts suggesting exercises you should try. You might be surprised, therefore, when after a little while you’re not getting the results you’re after.

Here I explore the 4 stages we’ll work through in order to effectively improve your core strength and why this really is the best way to approach things:

1.  Fundamental movement and core skills

I often talk about eight fundamental movements:

• Lifting
• Carrying
• Pushing
• Pulling
• Walking
• Running
• Getting up
• Rotating

These are movements you do every day whether just going about day-to-day life or exercising inside or outside of a gym environment. By refining these movements and building the patterns or programs in your brain you’ll be able to ensure your body gets into a more effective position naturally, improving performance and reducing risk of injury.

This, alongside the training we look at in stages two, three and four will create a self-fulfilling cyc...

As a beginner to the world of core training, it is vital that you go about things in the right way.

Exercises you choose should be simple to understand and to master, they should work on the fundamental aspects of core strength and stability, and they should offer a robust foundation from which you can build.

Of course, when we’re exercising, we want to push our bodies and try out more and more complex exercises. But I believe it’s so important to get these foundations right that I’ve chosen five key exercises and made them the cornerstone of my online core strength and stability programme.

I talk you through them below, but if you prefer a more visual approach, you’ll find plenty of images as well as more detailed explanations of the muscles you’re using in the video linked above.

5 of the best core exercises for beginners

1. The Plank

How?

Yes, the pros might pride themselves on being able to hold a plank rock steady, for a minute or even more, but don’t let that put you off....

 Core training isn’t just about achieving that flat, six-pack stomach or abs. It’s far more important than that!

Strong core muscles are vital to support your body and aid even the most common of everyday movements, from running and walking to sitting, bending and carrying the shopping. If your core muscles are weak it can lead to problems with the spine as well as other parts of the body such as the hips and shoulders.

But unfortunately, many of the things we’ve been taught are good to develop core strength can actually do more harm than good. And I’ve seen these problems affect people time and again.

What are the 3 fundamental errors people make when train their core?

It’s easy to make mistakes when training, but it’s important to learn what will and won’t benefit your body so that these errors can be kept to a minimum.

1. Doing sit-ups and crunches

Just because once upon a time we were told that sit-ups and crunches were the thing to do if you wanted to strengthen your abdomi...

We’ve talked about core stability plenty of times on the blog, discussing the anatomy surrounding it as well as various exercises that can help to improve our balance and coordination. I often talk about the fact that core stability, unlike core strength, is about muscle timing and smoothness of movement. It’s not how many repetitions of an exercise you can do, but the quality of the movement that is important.

The limitations of training for core stability

When we train for core stability, we are really looking at general principles. This is because core stability is specific to the aspect of sport and fitness we’re doing. Whether we’re running, cycling or swimming, a strong core can help us to balance, maintain the correct position and support the larger muscles to generate the power and consistency we need.

One exercise to help improve core stability

If I had to recommend just one exercise to help you work on these general principles of core stability, this is the one I would go...

McGill’s ‘Big 3’

Thanks to years studying the spine, Dr McGill has identified three specific exercises that work together to effectively rehabilitate the back and build core stability. Known throughout the industry as ‘the Big 3’, these are some of the first exercises reached for by people and professionals alike when trying to overcome lower back pain.

In this tutorial, however, I want to explain why I think there’s more to it than that.

What do I know?

I’m not trying to be controversial, or to negate the work Dr McGill has done. I use it with people with lower back pain all the time, so I have a good understanding and appreciation of it. But we do have to understand the context in which we’re doing the exercises and make sure we don’t build them up to be something that they’re not.

I’ve read all four of Dr McGill’s books, I’ve completed his level one foundation course, his level two course on assessing lower back pain and his level 4 performance course. And I’ve interviewed him ...

I fundamentally believe that one of the best ways to succeed in core training is to understand, anatomically, what it is doing for you and how your body is benefiting from the exercises you choose to do. That’s why I almost always stray into the biology when I’m presenting these concepts in my YouTube tutorials.

And this one is no exception. Here we look at core stability and how and why you can take it to the next level by focusing in on the bodily systems that work so closely together to keep us balanced and moving smoothly.

What is core stability?

As we often discuss, core stability is different to core strength. Core strength is your ability to hold a posture. Whereas core stability is about the timing of muscle movements. It’s about the small adjustments our body makes almost all of the time to improve our balance and keep us moving smoothly and efficiently.

We’re not talking about the big global force-production muscles that give us the strength and power to move at speed. We...