Two of the buzz phrases used in fitness since the 1990’s are ‘core strength’ and ‘core stability’. The two are used seemingly interchangeably, when there is in fact a big difference between the two.
Unfortunately many people (some personal trainers included) don’t understand the fundamental difference between core strength and core stability. That means they group all core exercises together, thinking that ‘any’ core exercise will cover all of the core training bases, when that’s simply not the case.
A poor core training programme can render a person without the correct physical capabilities, leaving them exposed to a much higher injury risk. Many back injuries and issues can be both prevented or cured with a comprehensive core training programme.
In this article we’re going to discuss the differences between core strength and core stability, giving you exercises to work on both and ensure you have a strong and functional core. This will improve you athletically and make you a stronger, more injury-resistant person.
Whilst I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to rid yourself of niggling back issues by including some of these exercises into your training too…
Core Strength vs Core Stability
Core strength is no different to any other kind of strength - it’s the ability to produce an amount of force through a given range of movement. For example, that might be your ability to rotate powerfully through the core on a sporting skill such as a tennis stroke or a golf swing.
Core stability is different - that’s the ability to resist unwanted motion that might force the spine out of alignment. For example during a front squat where as the spine is exposed to a load, poor core stability can allow the torso to collapse forward, forcing the lifter to take more of the load on their lower back.
Both are important abilities to have. If you lack core strength, you can’t generate force which doesn’t help you in the gym and with day to day life (lifting and carrying things, playing with your kids, playing sport). If you lack core stability, you expose your back to injuries during simple tasks such as getting in and out of cars, work injuries etc.
If you’ve ever met somebody who ‘put their back out’ doing something mundane such as gardening, picking up their kids etc, they probably lack and kind of core stability and need it improving otherwise these things will keep happening again and again. They’ll then just write themselves off as having a ‘bad back’, when that’s likely not the case - it’ll be a core issue.
If your core training isn’t working on both you core strength and your core stability, it’s not effective. Thousands of crunches are useless if you can’t resist even minor forces.
Working on core strength
Core strength is best trained like any other strength - with progressively more difficult exercises that replicate your needs and the planes of movement you’ll need to work in. For the vast majority of us, we need to work on three movements…
Core flexion
Core extension
Core rotation
Here's an exercise I like for each of them…
The Hollow Body Rock
This is a fundamental exercise in gymnastics. It flexes the core, but doesn’t repeatedly perform the movement so is safe for people with lower back issues. It’s an excellent way to engage the core and maintain a flexed position.
Swiss Ball Roll Out from Plank
I like this exercise because it combines the stability element of the Swiss ball plank with the extension element of the roll out. It’s an excellent, yet challenging exercise. This is an advanced exercise - if it’s too much, work with an ab roller and shorten your range of motion first.
Side Plank Thread the Needle
This exercise combines both side plank stability and rotational strength. It’s a challenging exercise, so only do this if you can hold a side plank. If you can’t hold a side plank, work on that first until you can manage 30 seconds of side plank holds alone.
Working on Core Stability
The Don of all things core is Dr Stuart McGill and his approach includes the ‘Big 3’ - these are core exercises he believes we should all be doing in order to protect out spine and improve core stability. There’s no need to improve on any of these, so here’s a short video explaining them all
Curl Ups
Side Planks
Bird Dog
That’s not where core strength/stability ends…
I couldn’t possibly go into all core exercises in a blog post - literally hundreds of books have been written on the subject, so it’d be silly of me to try to explain them all here.
The exercises I’ve shared here will be a solid core programme for the vast majority of us. These exercises should be complimented with lots of compound exercises such as front squats, kettlebell swing variations, presses, pulls, lunges, farmers walks etc. I’d also suggest you do single-sided work as well, because that is known to help core strength and stability.
Core strength and stability training - concluded
As a minimum, I’d make sure that you’re doing every exercise I’ve shared here every single week. You shouldn’t do them all in a single session (that would be super hard work for your core), but do a couple of them in each session, making sure you’ve done them all across the week.
If you train 4 times per week, maybe do the McGill Big 3 in two of those workouts, then the other exercises in the other two. That way you will have covered all of your core training bases across the week.
If you ever need our help with your core training, the AdMac Fitness team are always on hand!
If you’re in East London and would the AdMac Fitness personal trainers to train you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
AdMac Fitness: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA
AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD