Core Values
by Craig Lore

Core training provides strength to the body—abs, upper and lower back, and glutes. The song goes, “With the toe bone connected to the foot bone/ and the foot bone connected to the knee bone/ and the knee bone connected to the hip bone/and the hip bone connected to the back bone...” Strengthening the runner’s core contributes to improvements in strength and stability in the entire athlete, decreases injuries, and increases performance.

The typical core-training routine includes abdominal crunches, lunges, planks, bridges, back extensions and all of their variations. However, when you add another variable, balance, core training becomes running specific, and suddenly crunches don’t seem so much like drudgery. They seem like preparation.

As we run, the body makes dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of adjustments. Our joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles must stretch, contract, twist or relax quickly, continuously and repeatedly to accommodate changes in terrain, the camber of the road, a gust of wind, striding over a curb, balancing on a treadmill, navigating through rocks and roots on a trail or adjusting to incline and decline. Your body’s ability to react properly to these external forces is called proprioception. Balance training improves proprioception, our adaptability to external stimuli.

Core/balance training with equipment can be expensive for the home gym, but if you already belong to a gym, then you’ve seen the equipment lying around in some corner of the facility such as a stability ball, BOSU ball, foam roller, and balance or wobble board. If you can afford one piece of equipment, get a stability ball. You can do various crunches, back extensions, leg extensions, opposite leg and arm extensions, even pushups that on this unstable platform require engaging your core to maintain balance and form while building strength.

The BOSU ball (which stands for “both sides utilized”), can be used as a base for all of the ab and back exercises mentioned above, but because you can stand on it, you can also use it to perform squats, mini-jumps, step-ups, and lunges, which will strengthen leg and core muscles and enhance proprioception in ankle, knee and hip joints. Foam rollers and wobble boards can be used in a similar ways as unstable platforms on which to exercise.

Many core/balance exercises can be done without equipment. One-legged quarter squats. Balance and reach exercises – while balancing on one leg with the knee bent, reach as far as you can with the opposite leg back, forward, or sideways, but don’t touch the floor, then return to the upright position. Try diagonal training—moving opposite arm and leg while standing, lying on your stomach on the floor, on a pillow or on a dining room chair.

Core/balance training should be done once or twice a week all year long. A core workout of five to ten exercises that incorporates stability elements will provide the perfect balance to your running program.

	~ Craig Lore is co-founder of the South Valley Running Club and a certified running coach through Road Runners Club of America. Write to craig@svrchome.org.