This is a guest post by Travis Hansen of Reno Speed School
It’s no secret at this point that core training has been absolutely addressed to death in the industry.
We all pretty much know what it consist of anatomically, how it operates, so on and so fourth. However, providing an extra progression for high-level athletes who are ready for the demand may still be necessary.
Direct core training on a bar is incredibly challenging and it provides a source of overload to the region. I think that the style of training I’m about to share with you applies a similar stimulus to what the core system has to encounter in athletic competition, when you carefully consider the relatively high level of activity demonstrated by the collective core during athletic movements such as sprinting, jumping, cutting, landing, braking, and more. In terms of intensity, or level of effort, I’m not sure there is anything better for the core than bar work.
The correlation between the physique and performance of a gymnasts’ core and bar core work capacity is very high to say the least.
The unfortunate downfall is that many of the progressions practiced by this type of athlete are flat out ridiculous for the vast majority of the athletic population, which naturally deters them from appreciating the extreme value that bar work would invariably have in the development of their core. By appropriately modifying the exercise selection, you can automatically create a training environment that most skilled athletes can handle and benefit from. This could only translate into better performance on the field or court.
Check out and try this circuit I came up with recently with you or your athletes.
Now I’m not sure exactly how much actual stress is placed to the middle of the body in each variation, aside from measuring soreness levels, and the amount of tension experienced during the circuit, but I’m very confident that it’s VERY high!
I also wanted to share one of two very recent and intriguing systematic reviews on core training that analyzed an entire spectrum of exercises from stability ball work, to free weight exercises and other devices. What the researchers found was that multi-joint free weight exercises stimulated the targeted core muscles (TA and Multifidus) more so than other exercises. 1
Other authorities that I have listened to have alluded to this for years as well.
Bottomline, is that I see athletes on a daily basis completely underachieving the development of their core, because uninformed coaches and trainers are still feeding their athletes the classic non-sense that heavy lifting is bad for you, when the entire scientific community has completely abolished this false preconceived notion time and time again dating back decades ago.
Conversely, I think that omitting direct core exercises and proper progressions in athlete’s program would be foolish. “Activation” work is great for re-educating the core and improving intramuscular coordination levels before subsequent high-intensity training methods.
HOW MUCH CORE TRAINING IS ENOUGH THEN?
I’m not sure that there exists an absolute answer to this question, and I’m sure there is a range of appropriate core work to be performed on a weekly basis, granted the prescribed drills are actually helping the athlete to better improve their specific posture or body function.
For example, having an athlete perform countless crunches and bridges or hip thrusts when he or she presents a drastic PPT (posterior pelvic tilt) would not be too bright.
With that being said, we have all of our athletes go through a specific activation series during the middle of our warm-up/preparation phase of a workout, which immediately follows our active stretching phase. Athletes will perform a series of basic low level/effort drills that pretty much covers core functioning.
In all, I would say that approximately 5% of our entire training system is geared towards direct core training (Plank progressions, renegade rows, pallof presses, reverse crunches, hanging leg raises, bar work, etc.). Anecdotally, this definitely seems to have been more than enough to generate worthwhile athletic performance and physique increases along with moderate amounts of heavy lifting, speed, agility, plyometrics, conditioning, and sound nutrition-supplementation.
Before I go I want to address a few concerns associated with bar work.
First, make sure to keep the frequency low. Like with any high-intensity training method, you will adapt and get better gains practicing this type of exercise just 1-2 days per week with 3-4 days between each exposure.
Furthermore, this type of training really stresses the hip flexors, and when you factor in all of the other work imposed to this area, it’s just smarter to do less.
Secondly, grip strength may be a concern for really strong individuals. In this case, straps may be warranted to help preserve the hands.
Jason Ferruggia has also made mention that too much grip work could impair the Central Nervous System, and Jason referenced world famous strongman Derek Poundstone on this topic. That’s definitely good enough for me. Moreover, in his book “Periodization Training For Sports,” Dr. Bompa makes mention of monitoring CNS fatigue through the use of a handgrip dynamometer to assess grip strength levels. 2
Lastly, if you have a weak back or shoulder complex make sure to keep bar work at a minimum until you develop more as there is a heavy isometric demand here.
SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:
#1-Martuscello, JM. Systematic review of Core muscle activity during physical fitness exercises. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 27: 1684-1698, 2013.
#2-Bompa, Tudor. Periodization Training For Sports, Champaign, IL, Human Kinetics, 2005.
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