The term core has been lost as for most, including many trainers means the abdominals obliques, however there are many mechanisms that are lost when people just do. The Transversus abdominus and multifidus which becomes dysfunctional when a breathing pattern disorder, pain or food intolerance is present has considerable impact on factors such as intra abdominal pressure and hydrolic amplifier mechansims.

So in some, the failure of the so called core can happen under relatively little load. more strength training can offset that with a more global activation, however this can still create a dominance of phasic muscles and create imbalance and pain.

So re training these factors within in a rehabilitation setting for those with lumbo-pelvic stability can be essential. That said these strategies do not work with everyone, just like not all weight loss strategies do not work with everyone due to hormonal issues. I think there is definately an over emphasis on the core but in the right setting in pain relief and ‘realignment’ strategies it can be invaluable.

Good post liked it!

In terms of “think about your core,” something else Lederman says is relevant,

“When learning movement a person can be instructed to focus on their technique (called internal focus) or
on the movement goal (called external focus). When a novice learns a novel movement focusing on technique (internal focus) could help their learning. For a skilled person, performance improves if training focuses on tasks outside the body (external-focus) but it
reduces when the focus is on internal processes within the body”

which is to say, “brace!” is useful when a person is first learning to squat or whatever, but once they’re skilled at it, they can just focus on getting the damn weight up – the bracing becomes automatic.

I hope this article’s message spreads. Many women I meet in the gym who get pregnant have been waiting a long time to conceive and imagine that any weight training at all will cause a miscarriage. I’ve seen it a few times, and the ones who do the least weight training seem to have the most difficult pregnancies – one especially comes to mind, she was bed-ridden in the sixth month and had an underweight baby.