Core Muscles and stronger Abs

                     Hard core abs by Andy Ellis January 2003

• Stabilising abdominals the last time you used these muscles you were six years old. They lie deep undercover and are the roots that support your spine. Want a perfect body? Forget crunches and concentrate on your core
  
  Want to know why the Aussies have been kicking our butts at just about everything recently? One of their many long-term plans is paying off. Around fifteen years ago, Australian sports scientists bought into a mindset that has its roots in Taoist philosophy. Ancient Taoists first identified the benefits of rhythmic energy, which they referred to as stoking the fire of the lower chamber' activating the muscles in the perineal area, basically your pelvic floor.
  
  We instinctively use our core stabilising muscles until around age six, and then it all begins to go a little pear-shaped. A variety of lifestyle influences, like sitting at a desk all day, affects the posture and position of our spines. With time, our stabilisers switch off' and eventually begin to atrophy. A world obsessed with the aesthetics of washboard abs has driven the use of core stabilisers even further south. Not the case for you forget everything you know about sit-ups, crunches and leg raisers. It's time to work from the bottom up. Improve your muscle endurance, lung volume, prevent injury and attain the bonus prize those elusive little grooves between the hip bones that only cover models appear to possess symbols of a hard core.
  
  I had heard the babblings of core stability before, but it wasn't for me. I was a crunches man, the more the burn, the better the reward. As Mother Nature, the nasty cow, would have it the bulletproof years (my 20s), have given way to the niggling injury years (my 30s).
  
  The crest of every athletic challenge since clubbing the big 3-0 has been acknowledged by a now familiar training partner a skewed pelvis. I've lost count of the times it's been panel beaten back into shape. The usual trickle-down injuries affecting my lower back, glutes and shoulder eventually led me to the physiotherapy table of sport injury guru Bruce McLoughlin.
  
  I knew the drill whip off your shirt, put someone else's shorts on, tell the guy what's wrong, lie about how much you are exercising, get on your stomach, cry while he pushes buttons that shoot shards of burning embers into your body, endure a bit of that orbital sander rubbing thing, maybe a few electric impulses and it's sorted.
  
  He interrupted me mid-way through telling him how he should be treating me for my injury. What's going on with those obliques, mate?
  
  Easy tiger, those obliques have logged more crunch miles than I care to remember. What's wrong with them? He poked me in the lower belly.
  
  There's nothing there, you have zero core stability. You are using the wrong muscles to support your spine. You've worked your upper abs (mobilisers) and ignored your deep stabilisers. The result is a reduced tidal volume reduced lung performance and habitual injury. I'll straighten your chassis, but you're not leaving until I engage your stabilisers.
  
  Whoaa, I have reduced performance? Never tell a guy that kind of news. You mean a better core stability will make me perform better? I would camp on Piccadilly Circus in winter for that kind of improvement.
  So began my journey to hunting down those elusive low-slung-pointy-sticky-outty muscles you only see on the men on the covers of magazines.
  
  And, true to male form, it all begins with your Penis.
  
  The core stabilisers are small and lie deep in the body, close to the spine and pelvis, so initially there's no visual stimulus once you have them engaged. You have to learn how to lift your scrotum, was McLoughlin's instruction as he corrected my spine into a neutral position.
  
  What, that's it that's my exercise? Sack lifts for improved performance? This has got to be a joke, right? But he wasn't joking. Because of their deep-seated nature, men need to use mental imagery in order to engage the stabilisers in the cognitive phase.
  
  Quite handy that man's best friend resides in that area, he's usually top of mind anyway, and quite a responsive fella at the best of times. By mentally lifting the scrotum up and onto the pelvic bone, the stabilisers are engaged.
  This, combined with the mental imagery of stretching one's spine and breathing out' expanding your lats to breathe is the route to improved stability, balance, posture and improved athletic performance.