The Motor Unit

To add a bit more clarity to my previous post, the core muscles are meant to keep the spine stable. Keeping that in mind, we can isolate and train our core muscles through exercises that target the functions around the trunk - spinal flexion (for example - crunches, planks), spinal rotation (landmine rotations, med ball throws), and lateral flexion (loaded carries, side planks).

These are just isolation exercises and implementing a single variation for each of the three functions mentioned above for a specific number of sets and reps as mentioned in the previous post is only one side of the coin.

You can just as well target core muscles through heavy compound exercises like overhead lifts, squats, deadlifts, single-leg squats/lunges, Olympic lifts, and all their variations.

Why? Because they load the spine. You load the spine directly when you’re performing a barbell back squat. Even if you’re not loading the spine directly, the core muscles are still engaged to stabilize and to keep your spine upright as done during a front squat, a deadlift, an overhead lift, or any Olympic lift variation. If the core is not engaged, you either injure yourself from poor form or the spine collapses and you simply buckle under the load injuring yourself more severely in extreme cases.

In fact, the paper¹ cited in the reference section below even recommends that for the general population and athletes ground-based free-weight exercises (overhead lifts, squats, deadlifts, single leg squats/lunges, Olympic lifts, and all their variations) should form the foundation for core training.

So, the bottom line is that you do not have to do tons of crunches, planks, and side bends to train your core or even use fancy instability devices like those available in many commercial gyms. The key is to focus on implementing compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, etc., and supplement them with isolation work discussed in the previous post.

Reference:

1. Behm, David & Drinkwater, Eric & Willardson, Jeffrey & Cowley, Patrick. (2010). Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology position stand: The use of instability to train the core in athletic and nonathletic conditioning. Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquée, nutrition et métabolisme. 35. 109-12. 10.1139/H09-128.