Benefits of Core Strengthening for Athletic Performance
Core strengthening has numerous benefits for an athlete’s fitness level and sports performance. The core muscles are the foundation of movement for the entire body, comprised of the abdominals, back muscles, diaphragm, hip muscles, and pelvic floor muscles. When the core muscles contract, they stabilize the spine, pelvis, and shoulder, creating a solid base of support from which you can stand, move, and balance. A physical therapist can assess an athlete’s core strength and design a core strengthening exercise program to enhance the strength, control, and endurance of their core muscles for improved athletic performance. Mangiarelli Rehabilitation physical therapy assistant Patti demonstrates several advanced core strengthening exercises in the video below.
Core Muscle Anatomy
Your core muscles are the foundation of movement for your entire body. The core is comprised of 35 different muscles that make up the trunk, including abdominals, back muscles, diaphragm, hip muscles, and pelvic floor muscles. The core muscles anchor your center of gravity; when they contract, they stabilize the spine, pelvis, and shoulder, creating a solid base of support from which you can stand, move, balance, and shift weight.
The core muscles work together to maintain your posture and balance, prevent certain muscles from overworking themselves to compensate for weak muscles, and support optimal breathing and endurance. The core muscles also serve to transfer energy between the upper and lower body as you stand, walk, run, jump, and engage in daily activities and sports.
Benefits of Core Strengthening for Athletic Performance
Research has shown that core training can improve an athlete’s fitness level and sports performance. A 2023 meta-analysis assessed 169 athletes over seven different studies, half of whom engaged in core training and half of whom did traditional strength training. Researchers noted that core training can improve sport-specific power, speed, agility, strength, and core endurance and balance. Another study evaluating a core training intervention in athletes showed a positive effect on sport-specific performance. The training program involved three levels of gradually increasing difficulty, consisting of seven exercises for each core muscle. This program developed core muscle endurance and muscular strength through static and dynamic training and improved their overall athletic performance.
Eight benefits of core strengthening for athletes include:
A strong core stabilizes the spine and trunk during exercise, providing a solid base for movement.
A strong core improve neuromuscular coordination in the trunk, increases muscular strength in the lumbar-pelvic region, and increases limb stability and energy transfer during exercise.
A strong core allows multi-joint muscles to work more efficiently to control spinal movement, which helps athletes’ activation of muscles for greater coordination, to generate more power, or even to resist movement (such as slowing down after a sprint).
A strong core improves dynamic stability and balance, resulting in better lower extremity movement in athletes.
A strong core reduces the risk of injury by increasing athletes’ coordination and physical resilience and can effectively address non-specific low back pain, which is thought to be related to weakness of the deep trunk muscles. A strong core also decreases the amount of time it takes to recover from injuries.
A strong core enhances athletes’ posture. Poor posture like forward-neck posture, kyphosis, or a significant pelvic tilt can negatively impact coordination and performance. Core training can address some of the muscular imbalances that cause these postural deviations and enhance the athlete’s overall posture and performance.
A strong core can improve an athlete’s breathing technique, leading to more efficient breathing and greater aerobic endurance.
Core Strengthening with Physical Therapy
A physical therapist can assess an athlete’s core strength and design a core strengthening exercise program to enhance the strength, control, and endurance of their core muscles for improved athletic performance. A physical therapist helps to properly strengthen the core muscles based on the functional stability the athlete needs for sport-specific tasks. There are various levels of core strengthening exercises through which the therapist progresses the athlete based upon their baseline core function. The core strengthening program includes a variety of exercises to target all core muscles and involves a gradual progression in intensity and difficulty to safely and effectively build core strength and endurance.
Mangiarelli Rehabilitation physical therapy assistant Patti demonstrates several advanced core strengthening exercises in the video below:
Do you want to level up your sports performance this year? Work with our physical therapists to improve your core strength and your overall athletic performance!
