170905 - Tips Tuesday - Tighten your core?

You may hear your coaches say "Belly tight!" or "Tighten your core!" but do you know how to appropriately follow those directions? First and foremost, let's define what your "CORE" really is and does:

Your core is a series of muscles that extend far beyond your abs but do not include your limbs: 

• Rectus abdominus
• Internal and external obliques
• Transverse abdominus
• Spinal erectors
• Deep hip flexors
• Pelvic floor
• Diaphragm

So, in order to initiate these muscles to brace for heavy lifting or tight movements, you want to think about what you would do if someone were coming in to give you a "pink belly" slap or about to punch you right in the gut. You wouldn't suck in to brace yourself for the impact! You are more likely to take a deep breath in and tighten you entire trunk muscles around that air pocket. 
We brace our core to help us out for two different reasons and both start with the letter R!

Redirect Force ----> This is much like the reason why we have airbags in cars and indy cars are made to explode into a million pieces on impact. We want to direct force evenly and naturally through our spinal column as not to put all of the direct force into a single segment. 

Redistribute Force ----> This involves the first R. If our core is tight, we can create a kinetic chain that distributes force from our hips and thighs to our outer extremities. If we keep those muscles lose, there's no way to create that chain with a broken link. 

Next time you hear a coach yell "Keep your core tight!" just imagine McGregor or Mayweather going in for a gut punch!

WOD
Freestyle Fran
Complete in any order:
21 each of thrusters 95/65 and pull-ups
15 each of thrusters and pull-ups
9 each of thrusters and pull-ups