Dr. Andy Galpin

And then the third is your transverse abdominis.

I'll get into the anatomy in more detail here in one moment, but keep this in mind.

So generally we think abs, we think aesthetics, we think those three groups of muscles.

When we go to the core, it is your abs plus the whole host of other muscle groups.

We're generally now talking about performance and outcome based activities.

So it is your abs, it's your pelvic floor, your diaphragm, your rib cage.

We actually then go into your back and we start talking about the four big groups of spinal erectors and the deep spine muscles and the QL and lateral trunk and all of these things.

If you're like, what are those?

Don't worry about it or go look them up.

It's not critical that you know that right now.

But what is critical is to understand is that is as effective or important to your core as your rectus abdominis.

We also then have things like your hip stabilizers, your glute muscles.

In fact, some people will look at the muscles of the upper back and the shoulder girdle and call those a part of your core.

So really what we're saying is your core is everything, not your limbs, not your forearm, not your knee, not your toes.

And so then it becomes really complicated because there's,

It's reasonable to understand that we probably don't have the exact same training principles for your upper trap muscle as I have for your diaphragm.

And that's probably not the same as it is for your rectus abdominis.

And so right out the gates here, we start to go, oh, okay, I understand that now training my rectus abdominis to make me look like a nice six pack might have some slightly different principles than training my multifidus in my low back.

That distinction right there will clear up a lot of misconceptions.

Now, by the same token, it's also important to understand that training your abs is not exclusively for the purposes of visual appearance.