Reasons why anterior core stability exercises are essential.

One of the biggest issues that I typically observe is a lack of anterior core control. In other words, athletes sit in an exaggerated extension pattern that usually looks like prominent back arch.

And, when they take their arms overhead, they usually can’t do so without the ribs “flaring” up like crazy.

This is really just one way an athlete will demonstrate an extension posture, though. Some athletes will stand in knee hyperextension. Others will live in a forward head posture. Others may have elbows that sit behind their body at rest because their lats are so “on” all the time.

This isn’t just about resting posture, though; most of these athletes will have faulty compensatory movement patterns, too. Once they have been educated on what better posture actually is for them, what is needed is to include drills to make these changes “stick.” Anterior core drills – ranging from prone bridges, to positional breathing, to dead bugs, to reverse crunches, to rollouts/fallouts – are a great place to start. Here’s why they’re so important:

  1. Breathing

The muscles of your anterior core are incredibly important for getting air out. Individuals can be stuck in a state of inhalation, with each faulty breath creating problematic accessory tone in muscles like scalenes, lats, sternocleidomastoid, pec minor, etc. These muscles aren’t really meant to do the bulk of the breathing work; we should be using our diaphragm. Unfortunately, when the rib cage flies up, we lose our Zone of Apposition (ZOA), a term coined to describe the region into which our diaphragm must expand to function.

Step 1 is to get the ribs down and pelvis into some posterior tilt to reestablish this good zone. Step 2 is to learn how to breathe in this position, emphasising full exhalation.

Step 3, as you may have guessed, is to strengthen these “newly rediscovered” patterns with good anterior core training.

  1. Resisting extension.

This one is the most obvious benefit, as the muscles of the anterior core directly combat too much arching of the lower back. If you aren’t controlling excessive lumbar extension, it’s only a matter of time until you wind up with lower back irritation – whether it’s just annoying tightness, a stress fracture, a disc issue, or something else.

  1. Better force transfer and lower back injury risk reduction.

The research on core function is pretty clear: its job is to transfer force between the lower and upper body. Spine expert Dr. Stuart McGill has spoken at length about how spine range of motion and power are positively correlated with injury risk. In other words, the more your spine moves (to create force, as opposed to simply transferring it), the more likely you are to get hurt. How do you prevent your spine from moving excessively? You stabilise your core.

  1. Indirect effects on rotary stability.

Control of extension used to be considered “separate” from control of rotation at the spine, with anterior core drills to manage the front of the body, and chops, lifts, side bridges, etc. to resist unwanted rotation. However, the truth is that these two approaches need to be treated as synergistic.

You can’t simply ignore coaching in one plane when you think you’re training in another one. When you do your chops and lifts, you need to prevent lumbar hyperextension (arching) . And, when you do your rollouts, you can’t allow twisting as you descend. Finally, you can add full exhales (a predominantly anterior core challenge) to increase the difficulty on rotary stability exercises.

  1. Improved lower extremity function and injury risk reduction.

Lack of anterior core control directly interferes with lower extremity function, too. If the pelvis “dumps” too far forward into anterior tilt, the front of the hip can get closed down which can lead to hip impingement.

With a squat variation, while some athletes will stop dead in their tracks with this hip “block,” others will slam into posterior tilt to continue descending. This is the “butt wink” we’ve come to see over and over again in lifting populations. When neutral core positioning is introduced and athletes also learn to manage other extension-based compensations, the squat pattern often improves dramatically. This can “artificially” be created transiently elevating the heels, turning the toes out, or by having an athlete hold a weight in front as a counterbalance.

Additionally, athletes in heavy extension patterns often carry their weight too far forward, throwing more shear stress on the knees during lunging and squatting. The more we can keep their weight back to effectively recruit the posterior chain, the better.

  1. Improved shoulder function and injury risk reduction.

The lats can be your best friend and worst enemy. On one hand, they have tremendous implications for athletic performance and aesthetics. On the other hand, if they’re “on” all the time (as we often see in extension-based postures), you can’t get to important positions with the right movement quality. Overactive lats will limit not only shoulder flexion (overhead reaching), but also upward rotation of the shoulder blades.

If you’re using your lats as an “all the time” core stabiliser, you aren’t just at risk of extension-based low back pain, but also problems at the shoulder and elbow. If you can get your anterior core control under control and normalise the length and tone of the lats, your “healthy exercise pool” for the upper body expands dramatically. Getting overhead is easier, and you’ll feel stronger in that position.

Wrap-up

These are just six benefits of training the anterior core, but the truth is that they could have been broken down in much more detail as they relate to specific injuries and functional deficits. Regardless, it is obvious that plenty of stability exercises ought to be incorporated in order to train the anterior core.