(Photos via Cleveland Browns)

As a young athlete, parent or coach, I’m sure you’ve heard many times about the importance of training the core to prevent injury and enhance performance. But you may be thinking, “What exactly is the core? And how do I train it correctly?”

Most athletes think of the core as the large and strong muscles of your midsection. And most think they can train this area by simply doing “crunch-like” exercises. However, there is much more to the core than many think, and training it is even more complicated.

The core is best referred to as the lumbo-pelvic hip complex, which is a fancy way to describe the area of the abdomen, low back, hips and pelvis. This includes the large and visible abs, but also includes deep and smaller muscles that attach to the spine and create stability among the many segments and joints of the lower back, pelvis and hips.

When firing properly, these core muscles stabilize this area, absorb forces from above and below, and generate and transmit forces through the entire body, becoming the body’s true “power house.”

All of these muscles are tied together in a netlike material, requiring us to fire them together to produce pressure inside the abdomen in order to increase total stability and generate strength and power.

When training the core, it’s important to keep in mind your ability to breathe while doing these exercises. Strong breaths in and out contract these core muscles and generate even larger amounts of pressure, stability and power. If we neglect any of these muscles that make up the core area, or do not breathe properly, we predispose ourselves to injury and decreased performance.

Two excellent, simple ways to teach your body to engage the core and to begin any core stabilization program are the dead bug and bird dog postures. Because this area is so complicated, it is important to learn to engage or turn it on correctly before using core exercises, where we need to move other areas of our body, such as our arms and legs.

Here’s how you can use these postures to engage the core and create a base to build upon for your core training program. If you cannot maintain these postures without moving, you are not ready to progress to more intense exercises safely. 

Dead bug posture

Position yourself so that you are on your back with your hips, knees and arms at 90 degrees.

Brace your midsection as if you are about to take a punch to your stomach. Try to make your midsection as compact as possible by bringing your ribs down and toward your hips and drawing your bellybutton back and into the floor, tightening all those deep muscles of your abdomen.

While keeping this position, take eight breaths. Don’t just breathe slowly. Use the area below your ribs to breathe in, and then use a strong, quick and powerful breath out to create more stability and power in this area.

Once this exercise becomes easy for you and you’ve developed great control, you are ready to progress to more intense exercises that require you to maintain this posture and begin to move the rest of your body, as in the complete Dead Bug exercise, Reverse Crunch and Bridge.

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Bird dog posture

In this exercise, the body is positioned on hands and knees.

Again, brace your midsection by bringing your ribs to your hips, drawing your belly button back, without rounding or arching your lower back.

Take eight breaths, using the same technique as the dead bug posture.

Once you have mastered this exercise, you are ready to move on to more intense exercises while maintaining this posture, such as the complete bird dog exercise, planks and push-ups.

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Once you or your athletes are ready to progress with either of these exercises, seek the advice of a qualified professional, such as a certified athletic trainer, physical therapist, certified strength and conditioning specialist or performance enhancement specialist. These professionals will make sure you are building from these exercises safely and correctly.

These postures may seem simple, but you need to do them correctly as part of a strength and conditioning program in order to create a strong foundation for the rest of your core exercises as well as all other athletic movements.

Gordon Williams has been an assistant athletic trainer with the Cleveland Browns since 2010. Prior to that, he spent 2007-09 as an assistant trainer for the Philadelphia Eagles. Williams serves on the USA Football Committee, NFL Electronic Medical Records Advisory Group and NFL Combine Medical Advisory Committee. He earned a bachelor’s degree in movement science from Texas Christian University in 2003 and a master’s degree in athletic training from California University of Pennsylvania in 2006. He is a certified athletic trainer (NATA), certified strength and conditioning specialist (NSCA), performance enhancement and corrective exercise specialist (NASM), full-body Active Release Technique (ART) and Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) provider and an American Red Cross Certified CPR/First Aid Instructor.