The Inner Core

I recently learnt about my ‘inner core’ which, maybe very naively, I didn’t really know exisited.  (I am still piecing together the information so please don’t take my word as gospel have a look into it yourself too.)

The core is all the muscles in our torso and all these muscles work together to stabilise the trunk while our limbs are active. We climbers often think of core as our outer six pack muscles.

The dictionary says otherwise: “the strength of the underlying muscles of the torso, which help determine posture”

The word ‘underlying’ is the key word here. There are two parts of your core, the outer and the inner. As climbers we are all aware of the abs (rectus abdominis) and the obliques. I guess I always thought my core was resonably good as I could see my abs (the six pack muscles). It was one of the few muscles that I could actually see on my body so therefore I assumed it was strong (ish).

However, as you start to peel back a few layers in the diagram above you begin to see the Transversus Abdominis buried deep under the outer core. This is part of the inner core which is made up of the diaphragm, transverus abdominis and the pelvic floor. The outer core, in general, is considered as the “movement” core muscles, and the inner core is considered as the “stabilisation” core muscles.

Below you can see the muscles of the inner core. The inner core is responsible for the muscle activation that support respiration and stability at the lower spine.  If the inner core is weak and unstable this is when you are more likely to injure yourself.

You can see from the picture that the transverus abdominis is a huge corset muscle that wraps around and supports your whole lower trunk. It is the largest and deepest abdominal muscle and acts as a natural back belt (so all those weight lifters you see using big body belts probably need to work on their inner core!!).

The pelvic floor are a group of muscles that are shaped like a hammock. They extend from the tailbone to the pubic bone when you contract you pelvis floor you stabilse your pelvic joints. So imagine if you spent your whole climbing life with out properly activating the inner core? You would be wasting a lot of big strong muscles…

It is not surprising I hurt my back when I had a weak foundation under my outer core. I also think it is something I really need to focus on particularly as I have rather longer limbs, and the longer the limbs the longer the levers and therefore the harder the core must work and the more stable it must be.

I now have some exercises to do to get my inner core nice and strong, this will hopefully help support my lower back and then I will be pain free!