Hard Core

The core region of the body has the most significant impact on athletic development and performance. The core (abdominals and low back) is the link between the upper and lower extremities of the body. All actions in athletics require a power transfer and effective stabilization from the core to create movement. They not only allow the transfer of power between the upper and lower body, but also control the body’s balance, stability, and center of gravity. In turn, it has a significant impact on speed, explosion, strength, power, agility, balance, and injury prevention.

The body is forced to adapt to regularly changing stimuli and environments in multiple planes and at varying intensities during athletics. The ever changing pressures of the environment force the core to adapt and overcome stressors at a high rate of speed. In order to simulate this environment we must train the core utilizing instable apparatus and in multiple planes. The instability of the apparatus promotes sporadic irregular firing of the core in a stabilizing action. These activations occur while stimulating a specified contraction to accomplish a given movement. This directly correlates to actions that take place in the core region during athletics.

The abdominals are postural muscles that require high repetitions and frequent training in order to develop effectively. Exercises for this region should be conducted on instable apparatus and approximately 3-4 times per week. Although the abdominals can sustain greater repetitions and frequency of training, they must also have adequate recovery. 24-hours of recovery between training periods is ample time for full restoration of abdominal function. 6-8 sets of approximately 25-50 repetitions of varying exercises is sufficient for core development. We must always remember that training the abdominals with- out placing an equal emphasis on the back muscle groups will promote muscular imbalance. At WVU, we conduct our core training on all lifting days. Typically this ranges from 3-4 days per week. Our program varies depending upon the lifting cycle it is coordinated with, as well as the mode of training at the time. We conduct approximately 300 varying core balance and functional movements to stimulate the necessary results for elite athletes. For the elite athlete or the weekend warrior the core region has the greatest impact on athletic performance.

Crunches	Supine Scissors
Hip Raises	Explosive Hypers
Ball Pushups	Various Crunches
Medicine Ball Standing 180
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