August 6, 2025 • 18 mins
Ever notice how back pain seems to persist despite treatments targeting the painful area? The missing piece might be core stability—but not in the way most people understand it.
Most individuals suffering from back pain have muscles that are actually working too hard. Their back muscles are constantly "hanging on for dear life," creating spasms while their abdominals remain relatively disengaged. This recruitment imbalance is the hidden driver behind many chronic back issues.
During this episode, Dr. Kyle breaks down core stability into an easy-to-visualize model: picture your core as a cylindrical container. The front and sides comprise your abdominals and obliques, the back consists of your erector muscles, the top is your diaphragm, and the bottom is your pelvic floor. When functioning properly, all these components work in harmony to stabilize your spine and pelvis during movement.
The transformational three-step approach to core stability begins with awareness—learning which muscles are activating during exercises like planks and consciously redirecting effort away from overactive back muscles toward the underutilized abdominals. This simple shift alone can dramatically reduce pain in a single session. Next comes functional translation, applying these new recruitment patterns to everyday movements and sports. Finally, integrating proper diaphragmatic breathing creates internal pressure that further protects the spine from harmful micro-shearing forces.
What makes this approach so powerful is how quickly it can create change. Through mindful practice, patients who initially feel 80% back activation and only 20% abdominal engagement during core exercises can completely reverse those percentages. This rebalancing prevents the micro-traumas that lead to degenerative changes, herniated discs, and chronic pain patterns.
Ready to resolve your back pain by addressing its root cause? This episode provides clear insights that could transform your understanding of core stability and put you on a path toward lasting relief. Your future self will thank you for taking action now.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach
and pursue a higher qualitylife with some ambition, then
guess what this podcast is foryou.
This is the Driven AthletePodcast.
What's up, y'all?
Welcome back to the DrivenAthlete Podcast.
It's your man, dr Kyle.
We're going to talk about coreand the core stability, what the
(00:21):
core is and how it contributesto lumbopelvic hip stability and
trunk stability and rib andthoracic spine stability too.
So the best way I like todescribe the core would be like
imagine like a cup like thisthis is a little Yeti.
The core circumference aroundthe perimeter would be like your
(00:45):
abdominal muscles and yourobliques and the front and
lateral side, the back muscles.
In the back, the erector groupwould be contributing.
In the back, the roof of yourcore would be your diaphragm and
then the floor of yourdiaphragm would be your pelvic
floor.
All right, so imagine like aCoke can the front and lateral
sides of your obliques and yourabdominals.
(01:05):
The back is the erector groups,the top is the diaphragm and
the bottom is the pelvic floor.
So all those are players with.
When we say like core stability, very often the low back
muscles, the erector group, arealready really strong and
guarded and tense and sensitiveand like hypervigilant and
guarded and tense and sensitiveand like hypervigilant.
(01:27):
So we got to get.
There's a muscle disparity ofrecruitment between the rector
group muscles and then some ofthe other muscles which would be
like your abdominals.
And a key thing that we like toask people would be like have
you ever, when people havespasms and we're involved with
their back, where is the spasmlocated?
The spastic muscles are the onesthat are overly active and
(01:49):
overly protective becausethey're over-recruited and
they're doing too much.
They're hanging on for dearlife and they're doing too much
is required of them to stabilize.
They're being recruited overlyand too heavily where their
companions aren't beingrecruited well enough.
So where the spasm happened,that tells you what the muscles
(02:09):
are being overused are.
The ones that are beingoverused is the low back muscles
.
It's the erector groups.
Right, there's several in therethe iliocostalis longissimus
multifidus spinalis those aresome super common ones.
The quadratus lumborum, anotherone.
So those are the ones that areusually very they're hanging on
for dear life, they'reover-recruited and they're too.
(02:31):
They're just very recruitableand very active.
We've got to get those thingsto settle down.
Those are the spastic muscles,the ones that are just doing too
much and too much are requiredof them.
Have you ever heard of an abspasm?
Usually not.
Have you heard of like ahamstring strain?
For sure it's because hamstringdominance is super common,
(02:52):
hamstring dominant.
You never heard like a glutestrain right, like, oh there
goes my glute again.
It's overly recruited, it'susually not the problem.
Hip flexor strain for sure,those are actually really common
.
So running mechanics can beflawed.
But then also, like the psoasor the rectus femoris, those are
the main hip flexors.
Those are going to be overlyrecruited and too much required
(03:15):
upon them to make the actionhappen.
So when it comes to corestability, usually the
abdominals and the obliques andthe transverse abdominis, those
are less recruited and thediaphragm also less recruited
and that allows that thencontinues to feed back loop, the
low back erector group musclesto always be super dominant and
(03:38):
strong and first thing,recruited.
The other question we usuallyhave would be like to prove this
point if somebody does a plankand it's hurting, what usually
hurts when they do a plank, like, oh there it is, I feel it in
pain?
Their low back.
It's because their low backmuscles are the first things to
kick in and those are the onesthat are the first ones to cause
(03:59):
pain and spasm.
It's because they're the firstones to recruit.
So if we're doing somethingthat's aggressive and hard from
an exercise standpoint, thefirst muscles to kick in are the
dominant ones.
We have to change thatrecruitment pattern and get the
core, the abdominals, theobliques and the transverse
abdominis, the rectus abdominis,to be more involved and
(04:20):
contributory and maybe even bemore dominant than the low back,
because right now the back isstrong enough.
Definitely don't need to do anyhinging right now.
Prone hyperextensions, prone leglifts Like bro.
We don't need to do that rightnow.
They're strong, your back isstrong enough.
It's doing too much.
We need to settle that thingdown, all right.
So from court, from just aanatomy standpoint or like a
(04:43):
visual, the core would be like aCoke can, all right.
But anyway, the diaphragm is ahuge key player with this too
and it plays a role with thecore.
And there's a huge, strongcorrelation in the research
between a lack of diaphragmaticbreathing and diaphragmatic
activation, recruitment and lowback pain and trunk pain.
So it's super common Right andrib dysfunction, all right.
(05:07):
That also plays with trunk, alack of trunk stability, trunk
strength, core strength isreally what it is.
So can we leverage all groupsof the core simultaneously
equally?
Because right now, whensomebody comes in to see us and
they have back pain and theirback is super tight, that's not
equal.
Right now, the muscle andbalance of recruitment is not as
(05:27):
equal as it could be.
They're just way over-recruited.
We need to get the abdominalsto kick in more.
So that's what we're going tobe working on in some of the
corrective exercises.
All right, so here's the recipefor core stability.
All right, there's a differencebetween core stability and core
strength.
Core strength would be like howmany sit-ups can you do?
(05:50):
How many V-ups, how many legraises?
All right, that's core strength.
Core stability is how well canyou resist against forces
outside of your body?
How well can your spine andyour trunk resist outside forces
to keep things in place?
Keep things stable.
Resist outside forces to keepthings in place.
Keep things stable.
What I mean in place?
What I mean is like um, keepyour trunk in a posture that
it's maintaining.
Can it maintain a postureduring athletic movements?
(06:12):
Um, cause, you have limbsextending off of your trunk and
your trunk has to stabilizeagainst those outside forces
tugging in different directions.
That would be resisting againstoutside forces.
That would be core stability.
All right, that's corestability.
So here's the steps we do forhelping improve core stability.
(06:33):
The first step is justawareness, as in like what do
you feel when you're doing thisexercise?
Can you do a plank or a birddog or a TRX plank or something
like that, or a pushup positionhold and not have your back hurt
?
And people come in?
That's the point.
Of course it hurts, right?
That's what they're seeing us,right.
Like, as soon as I get in thatplank position, it just guards.
(06:54):
I feel my back.
That's just represents that'sthe first thing that kicks in.
The low back muscles are thefirst ones to contribute and
kick in and hold what needs tobe held.
We need to reverse that, allright.
So we work on awareness, whichis how well can you recruit the
other muscles, which would beyour, like your abdominals,
(07:14):
during this plank or during abird dog or something like that?
How well can those muscles befocused on and a little bit of
mental effort placed on keepingthose guys to be active and
override the low back muscles?
Because right now the low backmuscles are kicking in too much,
you feel them too much.
So the question would be likewhere do you feel this?
Do you feel this in your back,like your back's kicking in, or
(07:37):
do you feel this in yourabdominals?
So super common people are like, well, I feel mostly my back,
but I feel some of my abs.
I'm like, all right, whatpercent?
What percent of this plank holdright now?
Or this bird dog position, doyou feel like your back is
kicking in versus yourabdominals?
Oh, my back is like 80% kickingin and my abdominals is like
20% kicking in, so it's like80-20.
(07:59):
My low back muscles are activeand I can feel them.
They're tight and it's kind ofhurting, whereas my stomach is
like 20%.
All right, that's a disparityin recruitment.
All right, at minimum we wantit 50%.
So by the end of the session,my goal is let's reverse that
and make it 20% in your low backand 80% in your abdominals,
with this plank hold position asan example.
(08:21):
All right, it's easy tovisualize.
Even better, what if we made itlike 90 -10?
90% abdominals, 10% low backmuscles, so like feeling both
right.
So putting them in a betterposition and a better posture
sets it up for success.
And then they have toconcentrate.
Because I asked them this ifawareness is the goal for step
(08:42):
one, like, where do you feelthis?
Can you reverse what things arebeing recruited and overly
recruited and under recruited?
Can you focus?
What controls your muscles?
The question I ask is whatcontrols your muscle activation?
The nerves do.
What controls your nerves?
Your brain?
You control, voluntarily atwill.
You can and you can work onthis.
(09:03):
You can control and focus onwhat muscles to use.
All right, so you just have toconcentrate.
It can be done.
I promise I've done thishundreds of times day one with
people where it's like I can'teven be done.
I promise I've done thishundreds of times day one with
people where it's like I can'teven feel my abs with this, I
just feel my back and by the endof the session they're like, oh
, I'm 80% abs and I'm 20% backand actually right now I'm 90-10
.
The goal is 99-1,.
Right, because the back isstrong enough.
(09:27):
Now we need to get the core tobe purposely more active right
now and then that will normalizethe disparity of muscle
recruitment.
So where do you feel this?
What controls your muscles?
Your brain does you can focuson what muscles to concentrate
and recruit.
You just got to concentrate andthink about it.
The posture sets it up forsuccess.
The positioning, which we getsuper detailed on that and
(09:50):
nitpicky.
And then we focus on recruitingthe right things tactile cues
I'll poke the right thing, I'llturn everything up, we'll have
conversations, we'll change itup, I'll change my vocabulary
that clicks with them.
That's a key one.
And by the end of that step one, they're like yeah, my back
doesn't really hurt right now, Ionly feel my abdominals.
That was a huge change and ittook 10 minutes.
Man, that's amazing.
(10:11):
Imagine, feel in my abdominals.
That was a huge change and ittook 10 minutes.
Man, that's amazing.
Imagine what the next 45minutes will look like.
Or the next eight sessions thatwe work together doing this.
What's that going to look likeseven sessions from now?
Probably a lot better, right?
And if nothing changes, if wedon't work on this, what does
that look like?
If nothing changes, nothingchanges.
So if you don't work on that,what does the next five years
look like?
Because your back's beenhurting for eight months now.
It's been two years at thispoint.
(10:32):
What's it look like five yearsfrom now if we don't fix it?
Probably not good, right?
So very encouraging, amazing,right now, after this little
session that we're talking about, their back feels a lot better
and they're able to recruittheir abdominals more than their
low back, where 15 minutes agoago was the opposite Cool.
So step one is awareness.
(10:53):
Step two can you translate thatrecruitment, awareness and
mental effort with functionalstuff like a plank or lunges,
running power, cleans, squats,jumping agility ladder Like?
(11:13):
Can this type of core awarenessand stability and bracing?
Can you apply that while doingfunctional movements and
exercise and athletic thingsthat might not be thought of as
like core activator exercises,like lunges?
What about overhead shoulderpress?
Can your core be engaged whiledoing overhead shoulder press?
Because it's never beeninvolved before?
(11:34):
That's why you have back painand what's going on right now.
That's step two.
It's translating that tofunctional activity and then
trickling that into sports, andthe question I would ask at that
point would be like for proathletes that don't have back
pain tennis players, golfers,football players, nba basketball
players, whatever Do you thinkthey have weak cores?
(11:56):
Probably not because they do somuch activity.
If they were lacking corestability, they probably would
have some kind of back pain, andthen when they do get a bout of
back pain, they get in the laband they fix it with guys like
us and girls like us.
So the question would be likebut during their sport, do you
think they're thinking about?
(12:16):
Like, while they're driving thelane in basketball or running
through a football play orhitting a tennis shot, are they
like, oh, but hey, I'm trying tofigure out where it's shot to
hit and I need to.
I need to hit this ball on thisparticular direction as a
tennis player, but don't forget,use your core.
So they can't think about that.
Then you focus on, like,hitting the ball.
(12:36):
So they, how do they normalizethat recruitment?
They do it all the pre-work,it's all the pre-work and all
the workout stuff they do prior.
They do a lot of activationexercises and concentration
stuff.
They apply that with theirstrength training and agility
training and so by the time theyget to the sport and the game,
they don't have to think aboutit.
It's just a normal recruitmentpattern at this point where, for
(12:57):
this patient that came to seeus, their normal recruitment
pattern a couple of weeks agowas their low back just
dominating and kicking in allthe time.
Their low back is super guardedand stiff, right and spastic
and hanging on for dear life.
That was their previousrecruitment pattern, but you can
train it to be the opposite,where the abdominals is the main
key player now with producingforce and producing rotational
(13:21):
force and producing effort,ultimately to stabilize your
spine.
That's the rationale, all right, and prevent shearing in your
low back and your lumbarvertebrae.
The third thing, third step,with core stability is
leveraging your diaphragm isinvolving diaphragmatic
breathing with core stability atthe same time.
All right, that's the trifectato be a core stability ninja and
(13:44):
have a solid core andultimately stabilize your
vertebrae and your spine withhard exercise and activities
like lunges, split squats, splitsquat jumps, box jumps, running
, agility, football, lacrosse,tennis, golf all that stuff
producing the force to hit agolf ball.
Right, like, where's that forcecoming from?
(14:05):
Well, there's a lot of studieson that.
Very often, with people withpain, they're not involving
their core enough and they'renot involving their glutes
enough.
Those two things combined iswhat stabilizes the lumbopelvic
region in the spine.
Where a lack thereof, they'regoing to recruit something else,
which is usually their low backmuscles, their psoas or if
(14:25):
they're quad dominant withexercise and squats and stuff
like that, and their glutesaren't being helped enough.
That's a classic.
So leveraging the diaphragm isthe final trifecta step, that
after multiple sessions, we'llstart involving that too.
And they're feeling better atthis point.
They're feeling more stable,their back doesn't hurt, they're
(14:46):
able to kick in their core andfind quote, find their core with
this exercise pretty quickly.
It's like perfect, now let'sinvolve the diaphragm.
All right, so diaphragmaticbreathing the diaphragm is a
breathing muscle and it'slocated under your rib cage,
just below your sternum, andit's a muscle and that muscle
can be worked and focused on andstrengthened and more
normalized and ready to berecruitable with functional
(15:07):
activity.
So the thought would be likeimagine if your core is a Coke
can, that's even better.
Let's say a cinder block okay,an open cinder block, and
imagine the inner walls of thatcinder block would be like your
core.
The front and lateral sideswould be your abdominals.
Imagine blowing up a ballooninside that cinder block would
be like your core.
The front and lateral sideswould be your abdominals.
(15:28):
Imagine blowing up a ballooninside the cinder block.
It has nowhere to go and it'sgoing to compress the outer
walls of the balloon into theinner walls of the cinder block
and it's going to compress andcreate a lot of pressure and
tension in there.
Perfect, that's creating moreintra-abdominal pressure.
While not holding a breath,we're breathing with our
diaphragm and that creates morespinal stability and prevents a
lot of shearing from happening,which is ultimately what causes
back pain and acceleratesdegenerative changes that you
(15:50):
would see like arthritic changesand bone spurs and herniated
discs and ligament and plavaminflammation and facet
arthropathy all that stuff.
It usually comes from microshearing of the lumbar spine,
from hypermobilities, which thathypermobility podcast we did a
little while ago was about that.
So core stability preventsextraneous, excessive
(16:12):
micro-shearing movements of thevertebrae in your spine and your
pelvis and your sacrum and yourfacet joints of your spine.
That would cause pain and jointirritation.
That then causes the musclesthat connect to those joints to
hang on for dear life and beoverly recruitable to protect
and stabilize too much.
And then it also involves thenerves, the nerves that pass
(16:35):
through that area and that cancause preferred pain.
So that's a breakdown of corestability and the core and what
it is, where it's located, whatit involved, what's the
three-step process to be a corestability, trifecta, ninja, and
then some of the insights on howwe do that and the Coke can
analogy.
So all that combined that's abreakdown on core stability and
(16:58):
the core.
So this is a really commonthing.
We work on this all the timewith patients.
So if you have any issues oryou know anybody that has issues
, please don't hesitate to reachout and have them reach out to
us.
We can at least talk on thephone, because we've done this a
bunch of times.
All those five-star reviews onGoogle we have, like those high
five moments, come from after aplan of care, people see
improvements and the proof,ultimately, is in the pudding.
And that's what we want toprovide for people and get it
(17:20):
quickly right, get some clearanswers and get them on a good
trajectory and pathway.
Because if it hurts right now,what does five years from now
look like?
If you're 38 right now, whatdoes 48 look like 10 years from
now?
Right, probably not good.
We got to change something andwe got to fix it right and
that's what this recipe.
We have to involve this.
Otherwise, not doing thisusually leads to meandering
(17:42):
around, lingering pain.
It's not getting better.
I'm waiting for another image,I'm waiting for another test.
I'm going to get more pain meds, more injections, another
surgery.
I don't hate surgery andinjections and meds when it's
necessary, but it's not alwaysnecessary we can prevent that.
I mean, it's a big reason whypeople call us.
But anyway, we'd love to helpyou.
(18:02):
So please don't hesitate togive us a call 561-899-8725.
We're located in downtown WestPalm, right off Palm Beach Lakes
Boulevard, next to the TangerOutlet Mall, just east of 95.
So we're central located.
But please don't hesitate toreach out.
We'd love to help you.
We can at least send you inthat direction.
If not with us, we'll send yousomewhere else.
Totally understandable.
At least give some insights onwhat to do next.
(18:22):
So we'd love to hear from youand if you have any comments,
questions, concerns orconflicting opinions or ideas
for a different podcast, pleaselet us know and we'll catch you
on next time.
If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach
and pursue a higher qualitylife with some ambition, then
guess what this podcast is foryou.
This is the Driven AthletePodcast.
What's up, y'all?
Welcome back to the DrivenAthlete Podcast.
It's your man, dr Kyle.
We're going to talk about coreand the core stability, what the
(00:21):
core is and how it contributesto lumbopelvic hip stability and
trunk stability and rib andthoracic spine stability too.
So the best way I like todescribe the core would be like
imagine like a cup like thisthis is a little Yeti.
The core circumference aroundthe perimeter would be like your
(00:45):
abdominal muscles and yourobliques and the front and
lateral side, the back muscles.
In the back, the erector groupwould be contributing.
In the back, the roof of yourcore would be your diaphragm and
then the floor of yourdiaphragm would be your pelvic
floor.
All right, so imagine like aCoke can the front and lateral
sides of your obliques and yourabdominals.
(01:05):
The back is the erector groups,the top is the diaphragm and
the bottom is the pelvic floor.
So all those are players with.
When we say like core stability, very often the low back
muscles, the erector group, arealready really strong and
guarded and tense and sensitiveand like hypervigilant and
guarded and tense and sensitiveand like hypervigilant.
(01:27):
So we got to get.
There's a muscle disparity ofrecruitment between the rector
group muscles and then some ofthe other muscles which would be
like your abdominals.
And a key thing that we like toask people would be like have
you ever, when people havespasms and we're involved with
their back, where is the spasmlocated?
The spastic muscles are the onesthat are overly active and
(01:49):
overly protective becausethey're over-recruited and
they're doing too much.
They're hanging on for dearlife and they're doing too much
is required of them to stabilize.
They're being recruited overlyand too heavily where their
companions aren't beingrecruited well enough.
So where the spasm happened,that tells you what the muscles
(02:09):
are being overused are.
The ones that are beingoverused is the low back muscles
.
It's the erector groups.
Right, there's several in therethe iliocostalis longissimus
multifidus spinalis those aresome super common ones.
The quadratus lumborum, anotherone.
So those are the ones that areusually very they're hanging on
for dear life, they'reover-recruited and they're too.
(02:31):
They're just very recruitableand very active.
We've got to get those thingsto settle down.
Those are the spastic muscles,the ones that are just doing too
much and too much are requiredof them.
Have you ever heard of an abspasm?
Usually not.
Have you heard of like ahamstring strain?
For sure it's because hamstringdominance is super common,
(02:52):
hamstring dominant.
You never heard like a glutestrain right, like, oh there
goes my glute again.
It's overly recruited, it'susually not the problem.
Hip flexor strain for sure,those are actually really common
.
So running mechanics can beflawed.
But then also, like the psoasor the rectus femoris, those are
the main hip flexors.
Those are going to be overlyrecruited and too much required
(03:15):
upon them to make the actionhappen.
So when it comes to corestability, usually the
abdominals and the obliques andthe transverse abdominis, those
are less recruited and thediaphragm also less recruited
and that allows that thencontinues to feed back loop, the
low back erector group musclesto always be super dominant and
(03:38):
strong and first thing,recruited.
The other question we usuallyhave would be like to prove this
point if somebody does a plankand it's hurting, what usually
hurts when they do a plank, like, oh there it is, I feel it in
pain?
Their low back.
It's because their low backmuscles are the first things to
kick in and those are the onesthat are the first ones to cause
(03:59):
pain and spasm.
It's because they're the firstones to recruit.
So if we're doing somethingthat's aggressive and hard from
an exercise standpoint, thefirst muscles to kick in are the
dominant ones.
We have to change thatrecruitment pattern and get the
core, the abdominals, theobliques and the transverse
abdominis, the rectus abdominis,to be more involved and
(04:20):
contributory and maybe even bemore dominant than the low back,
because right now the back isstrong enough.
Definitely don't need to do anyhinging right now.
Prone hyperextensions, prone leglifts Like bro.
We don't need to do that rightnow.
They're strong, your back isstrong enough.
It's doing too much.
We need to settle that thingdown, all right.
So from court, from just aanatomy standpoint or like a
(04:43):
visual, the core would be like aCoke can, all right.
But anyway, the diaphragm is ahuge key player with this too
and it plays a role with thecore.
And there's a huge, strongcorrelation in the research
between a lack of diaphragmaticbreathing and diaphragmatic
activation, recruitment and lowback pain and trunk pain.
So it's super common Right andrib dysfunction, all right.
(05:07):
That also plays with trunk, alack of trunk stability, trunk
strength, core strength isreally what it is.
So can we leverage all groupsof the core simultaneously
equally?
Because right now, whensomebody comes in to see us and
they have back pain and theirback is super tight, that's not
equal.
Right now, the muscle andbalance of recruitment is not as
(05:27):
equal as it could be.
They're just way over-recruited.
We need to get the abdominalsto kick in more.
So that's what we're going tobe working on in some of the
corrective exercises.
All right, so here's the recipefor core stability.
All right, there's a differencebetween core stability and core
strength.
Core strength would be like howmany sit-ups can you do?
(05:50):
How many V-ups, how many legraises?
All right, that's core strength.
Core stability is how well canyou resist against forces
outside of your body?
How well can your spine andyour trunk resist outside forces
to keep things in place?
Keep things stable.
Resist outside forces to keepthings in place.
Keep things stable.
What I mean in place?
What I mean is like um, keepyour trunk in a posture that
it's maintaining.
Can it maintain a postureduring athletic movements?
(06:12):
Um, cause, you have limbsextending off of your trunk and
your trunk has to stabilizeagainst those outside forces
tugging in different directions.
That would be resisting againstoutside forces.
That would be core stability.
All right, that's corestability.
So here's the steps we do forhelping improve core stability.
(06:33):
The first step is justawareness, as in like what do
you feel when you're doing thisexercise?
Can you do a plank or a birddog or a TRX plank or something
like that, or a pushup positionhold and not have your back hurt
?
And people come in?
That's the point.
Of course it hurts, right?
That's what they're seeing us,right.
Like, as soon as I get in thatplank position, it just guards.
(06:54):
I feel my back.
That's just represents that'sthe first thing that kicks in.
The low back muscles are thefirst ones to contribute and
kick in and hold what needs tobe held.
We need to reverse that, allright.
So we work on awareness, whichis how well can you recruit the
other muscles, which would beyour, like your abdominals,
(07:14):
during this plank or during abird dog or something like that?
How well can those muscles befocused on and a little bit of
mental effort placed on keepingthose guys to be active and
override the low back muscles?
Because right now the low backmuscles are kicking in too much,
you feel them too much.
So the question would be likewhere do you feel this?
Do you feel this in your back,like your back's kicking in, or
(07:37):
do you feel this in yourabdominals?
So super common people are like, well, I feel mostly my back,
but I feel some of my abs.
I'm like, all right, whatpercent?
What percent of this plank holdright now?
Or this bird dog position, doyou feel like your back is
kicking in versus yourabdominals?
Oh, my back is like 80% kickingin and my abdominals is like
20% kicking in, so it's like80-20.
(07:59):
My low back muscles are activeand I can feel them.
They're tight and it's kind ofhurting, whereas my stomach is
like 20%.
All right, that's a disparityin recruitment.
All right, at minimum we wantit 50%.
So by the end of the session,my goal is let's reverse that
and make it 20% in your low backand 80% in your abdominals,
with this plank hold position asan example.
(08:21):
All right, it's easy tovisualize.
Even better, what if we made itlike 90 -10?
90% abdominals, 10% low backmuscles, so like feeling both
right.
So putting them in a betterposition and a better posture
sets it up for success.
And then they have toconcentrate.
Because I asked them this ifawareness is the goal for step
(08:42):
one, like, where do you feelthis?
Can you reverse what things arebeing recruited and overly
recruited and under recruited?
Can you focus?
What controls your muscles?
The question I ask is whatcontrols your muscle activation?
The nerves do.
What controls your nerves?
Your brain?
You control, voluntarily atwill.
You can and you can work onthis.
(09:03):
You can control and focus onwhat muscles to use.
All right, so you just have toconcentrate.
It can be done.
I promise I've done thishundreds of times day one with
people where it's like I can'teven be done.
I promise I've done thishundreds of times day one with
people where it's like I can'teven feel my abs with this, I
just feel my back and by the endof the session they're like, oh
, I'm 80% abs and I'm 20% backand actually right now I'm 90-10
.
The goal is 99-1,.
Right, because the back isstrong enough.
(09:27):
Now we need to get the core tobe purposely more active right
now and then that will normalizethe disparity of muscle
recruitment.
So where do you feel this?
What controls your muscles?
Your brain does you can focuson what muscles to concentrate
and recruit.
You just got to concentrate andthink about it.
The posture sets it up forsuccess.
The positioning, which we getsuper detailed on that and
(09:50):
nitpicky.
And then we focus on recruitingthe right things tactile cues
I'll poke the right thing, I'llturn everything up, we'll have
conversations, we'll change itup, I'll change my vocabulary
that clicks with them.
That's a key one.
And by the end of that step one, they're like yeah, my back
doesn't really hurt right now, Ionly feel my abdominals.
That was a huge change and ittook 10 minutes.
Man, that's amazing.
(10:11):
Imagine, feel in my abdominals.
That was a huge change and ittook 10 minutes.
Man, that's amazing.
Imagine what the next 45minutes will look like.
Or the next eight sessions thatwe work together doing this.
What's that going to look likeseven sessions from now?
Probably a lot better, right?
And if nothing changes, if wedon't work on this, what does
that look like?
If nothing changes, nothingchanges.
So if you don't work on that,what does the next five years
look like?
Because your back's beenhurting for eight months now.
It's been two years at thispoint.
(10:32):
What's it look like five yearsfrom now if we don't fix it?
Probably not good, right?
So very encouraging, amazing,right now, after this little
session that we're talking about, their back feels a lot better
and they're able to recruittheir abdominals more than their
low back, where 15 minutes agoago was the opposite Cool.
So step one is awareness.
(10:53):
Step two can you translate thatrecruitment, awareness and
mental effort with functionalstuff like a plank or lunges,
running power, cleans, squats,jumping agility ladder Like?
(11:13):
Can this type of core awarenessand stability and bracing?
Can you apply that while doingfunctional movements and
exercise and athletic thingsthat might not be thought of as
like core activator exercises,like lunges?
What about overhead shoulderpress?
Can your core be engaged whiledoing overhead shoulder press?
Because it's never beeninvolved before?
(11:34):
That's why you have back painand what's going on right now.
That's step two.
It's translating that tofunctional activity and then
trickling that into sports, andthe question I would ask at that
point would be like for proathletes that don't have back
pain tennis players, golfers,football players, nba basketball
players, whatever Do you thinkthey have weak cores?
(11:56):
Probably not because they do somuch activity.
If they were lacking corestability, they probably would
have some kind of back pain, andthen when they do get a bout of
back pain, they get in the laband they fix it with guys like
us and girls like us.
So the question would be likebut during their sport, do you
think they're thinking about?
(12:16):
Like, while they're driving thelane in basketball or running
through a football play orhitting a tennis shot, are they
like, oh, but hey, I'm trying tofigure out where it's shot to
hit and I need to.
I need to hit this ball on thisparticular direction as a
tennis player, but don't forget,use your core.
So they can't think about that.
Then you focus on, like,hitting the ball.
(12:36):
So they, how do they normalizethat recruitment?
They do it all the pre-work,it's all the pre-work and all
the workout stuff they do prior.
They do a lot of activationexercises and concentration
stuff.
They apply that with theirstrength training and agility
training and so by the time theyget to the sport and the game,
they don't have to think aboutit.
It's just a normal recruitmentpattern at this point where, for
(12:57):
this patient that came to seeus, their normal recruitment
pattern a couple of weeks agowas their low back just
dominating and kicking in allthe time.
Their low back is super guardedand stiff, right and spastic
and hanging on for dear life.
That was their previousrecruitment pattern, but you can
train it to be the opposite,where the abdominals is the main
key player now with producingforce and producing rotational
(13:21):
force and producing effort,ultimately to stabilize your
spine.
That's the rationale, all right, and prevent shearing in your
low back and your lumbarvertebrae.
The third thing, third step,with core stability is
leveraging your diaphragm isinvolving diaphragmatic
breathing with core stability atthe same time.
All right, that's the trifectato be a core stability ninja and
(13:44):
have a solid core andultimately stabilize your
vertebrae and your spine withhard exercise and activities
like lunges, split squats, splitsquat jumps, box jumps, running
, agility, football, lacrosse,tennis, golf all that stuff
producing the force to hit agolf ball.
Right, like, where's that forcecoming from?
(14:05):
Well, there's a lot of studieson that.
Very often, with people withpain, they're not involving
their core enough and they'renot involving their glutes
enough.
Those two things combined iswhat stabilizes the lumbopelvic
region in the spine.
Where a lack thereof, they'regoing to recruit something else,
which is usually their low backmuscles, their psoas or if
(14:25):
they're quad dominant withexercise and squats and stuff
like that, and their glutesaren't being helped enough.
That's a classic.
So leveraging the diaphragm isthe final trifecta step, that
after multiple sessions, we'llstart involving that too.
And they're feeling better atthis point.
They're feeling more stable,their back doesn't hurt, they're
(14:46):
able to kick in their core andfind quote, find their core with
this exercise pretty quickly.
It's like perfect, now let'sinvolve the diaphragm.
All right, so diaphragmaticbreathing the diaphragm is a
breathing muscle and it'slocated under your rib cage,
just below your sternum, andit's a muscle and that muscle
can be worked and focused on andstrengthened and more
normalized and ready to berecruitable with functional
(15:07):
activity.
So the thought would be likeimagine if your core is a Coke
can, that's even better.
Let's say a cinder block okay,an open cinder block, and
imagine the inner walls of thatcinder block would be like your
core.
The front and lateral sideswould be your abdominals.
Imagine blowing up a ballooninside that cinder block would
be like your core.
The front and lateral sideswould be your abdominals.
(15:28):
Imagine blowing up a ballooninside the cinder block.
It has nowhere to go and it'sgoing to compress the outer
walls of the balloon into theinner walls of the cinder block
and it's going to compress andcreate a lot of pressure and
tension in there.
Perfect, that's creating moreintra-abdominal pressure.
While not holding a breath,we're breathing with our
diaphragm and that creates morespinal stability and prevents a
lot of shearing from happening,which is ultimately what causes
back pain and acceleratesdegenerative changes that you
(15:50):
would see like arthritic changesand bone spurs and herniated
discs and ligament and plavaminflammation and facet
arthropathy all that stuff.
It usually comes from microshearing of the lumbar spine,
from hypermobilities, which thathypermobility podcast we did a
little while ago was about that.
So core stability preventsextraneous, excessive
(16:12):
micro-shearing movements of thevertebrae in your spine and your
pelvis and your sacrum and yourfacet joints of your spine.
That would cause pain and jointirritation.
That then causes the musclesthat connect to those joints to
hang on for dear life and beoverly recruitable to protect
and stabilize too much.
And then it also involves thenerves, the nerves that pass
(16:35):
through that area and that cancause preferred pain.
So that's a breakdown of corestability and the core and what
it is, where it's located, whatit involved, what's the
three-step process to be a corestability, trifecta, ninja, and
then some of the insights on howwe do that and the Coke can
analogy.
So all that combined that's abreakdown on core stability and
(16:58):
the core.
So this is a really commonthing.
We work on this all the timewith patients.
So if you have any issues oryou know anybody that has issues
, please don't hesitate to reachout and have them reach out to
us.
We can at least talk on thephone, because we've done this a
bunch of times.
All those five-star reviews onGoogle we have, like those high
five moments, come from after aplan of care, people see
improvements and the proof,ultimately, is in the pudding.
And that's what we want toprovide for people and get it
(17:20):
quickly right, get some clearanswers and get them on a good
trajectory and pathway.
Because if it hurts right now,what does five years from now
look like?
If you're 38 right now, whatdoes 48 look like 10 years from
now?
Right, probably not good.
We got to change something andwe got to fix it right and
that's what this recipe.
We have to involve this.
Otherwise, not doing thisusually leads to meandering
(17:42):
around, lingering pain.
It's not getting better.
I'm waiting for another image,I'm waiting for another test.
I'm going to get more pain meds, more injections, another
surgery.
I don't hate surgery andinjections and meds when it's
necessary, but it's not alwaysnecessary we can prevent that.
I mean, it's a big reason whypeople call us.
But anyway, we'd love to helpyou.
(18:02):
So please don't hesitate togive us a call 561-899-8725.
We're located in downtown WestPalm, right off Palm Beach Lakes
Boulevard, next to the TangerOutlet Mall, just east of 95.
So we're central located.
But please don't hesitate toreach out.
We'd love to help you.
We can at least send you inthat direction.
If not with us, we'll send yousomewhere else.
Totally understandable.
At least give some insights onwhat to do next.
(18:22):
So we'd love to hear from youand if you have any comments,
questions, concerns orconflicting opinions or ideas
for a different podcast, pleaselet us know and we'll catch you
on next time.
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