ViPR programming applied – Core expansion

Are you looking for a better way to programme fully functional core exercise into your client programming?

Here’s a great way of expanding your core library, which not only makes coughing, sneezing and laughing more fun with some serious DOMS, but also treats and trains the core the way that it was designed to be moved.

Functional core understanding

Traditionally understood as the abdominals, now we realise that the core bridges across our entire being, connecting legs to hips, hips to torso, torso to arms and therefore legs to torso, hips to shoulders and I could go on ….

The core connects our movement and allows us to express ourselves in 3D. The core’s design allows us to move, stretch and reach in any and every direction efficiently, while limiting the risk for injury to the spine or other joints. By tweaking exercise programmes so that the core is loaded in 3D, we have the ability to train the entire core system, from the large global muscles and joints to the small, more targeted ones. We should look to move the core in sagittal, frontal and transverse directions in order to train the entire core.

By designing exercises that are more task-/movement-specific and relatable to our clients’ lives, we give core exercises more purpose. By doing so, core exercises become behaviourally more inspiring to perform and easier for the client to adhere to. By task-orientating our exercises, we don’t just support our clients in realising a more defined torso, but we give our clients the gift of a free, functional and fun lifestyle.

Catching a frisbee overhead or swinging a racket at a wide ball requires us to stretch our core via our limbs. Not only that, it requires us to move our body fluidly in multiple directions. Core exercises that harness and control mass and momentum and load the core in order to explode and return to ‘normal’ mimic what happens in real life in a controlled and safe environment. Therefore, core exercises that focus on the stretch should be included in our programming.

By understanding gravity and its relationship with how we position our body, we can produce exercises in different positions and at different physical levels that will produce different core outcomes, allowing us to train the body to be able to harness more.

Table for expansion

By using our programming table, you can create combinations that keep core training fresh and progressive no matter the target audience. Better yet, you can begin to add to this table and continue to expand your core programming for a lifetime.

Template table (based upon video demos):

	Shift	Lift	Carry	Swing	Drag	Tilt	Flip	?
Supine	SFT							?
Kneeling			SFT					?
Half kneeling		SFT						?
Standing				SFT				?
Balance			SFT					?
Dynamic	SFT
Prone	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

 

KEY: S = sagittal / F = Frontal / T = Transverse

 

 

Demonstration selection

Video 1

Supine – Shifts – Dead bugs

Kneeling – Carries – Leans

 

Video 2

Half kneeling – Lifts – Leave and retrieves

Standing – Swings

 

Video 3

Balancing – Carries – Foot reaches

Dynamic – Shifts – Steps, skips, jumps