It seems that lately, the term “core” is banded around by everyone in the fitness industry, from Personal trainers, to Pilates instructors, and to Physiotherapists. It has become an umbrella term for anything that works your abdominals. This can be extremely confusing and its’ use is not accurately applied. When it comes to spinal control, we need to address the body as a whole; the spine is attached to the Shoulder girdle and Pelvis, and what happens at one part influences the next. There needs to be an efficient transfer of load between one part and another as we move.
As physiotherapists, we are now more likely to use the term “Motor Control”, than “core stability”. Motor Control is any movement activation that the brain tries to control, and includes Posture, the pattern of movements that we adopt, the way we activate muscles and the timing of muscle recruitment. Motor Control can be normal or abnormal and if it is abnormal we can work to correct it.
Commonly, abnormal motor control can develop because of injury and pain, but also based on fear, and how people feel they should move their spines after injury. ‘Bracing’ patterns are common, and can be re-enforced by outdated concepts surrounding the pre-setting of the “core muscles”. Using a ‘more is better’ approach is not functional. By increasing the contraction of the muscles that stabilise the spine, we can restrict the spines movement, restrict breathing and ‘bear’ down on the muscles of pelvic floor, weakening them.
Good Motor Control is about employing the right muscle activation strategy at the right time. Optimal control of the body’s parts is less about contracting as hard as you can to create stiffness, but more about recruiting the right muscles at the right time with just the right amount of contraction.
At Motion Health we train spinal, hip and shoulder motion combined with the rest of the kinetic chain to share the load through the body. We try to do so in a way that promotes variability in movement to give the body options. This aims to inspire confidence and competence in movement to remove fear and allow you to ‘Move well and live well’.
If you are looking for a Physiotherapist in Toorak, South Yarra, Hawthorn, Prahran, Richmond, Malvern or surrounding suburbs then please call Motion Health on 03 9825 2697 or book online