Sports. With this one word everything is actually said. You torment yourself several times a week to notice any improvement. Maybe you started exercising to lose weight. On the other hand, you may feel too skinny. Putting it another way, you may be looking for a balance because after 40 hours a week at your desk your body is crying out for a different kind of exertion. And taking a different perspective, maybe sport is just fun. If you relate all facets to each other and weight them differently, then we can promise you: You and your relationship with the barbell are healthy through and through! But health is the key word that we want to go into today.:
Few things are as important in functional fitness as your core, torso, hips and core. Where does it come from? Why does a sport that demands physical and mental improvement at all levels place such a focus on specific areas? We work on your stability and give you incentives to get back into the plank every now and then!
Core muscle groups:
It doesn't matter whether you're just running, whether you're playing soccer on the way to the goal, or whether you're having fun in the kitchen: your core has a say on a physical level all the time, even if you don't see yourself as a full-blooded athlete . The core itself includes the muscles of the pelvic floor, the vertical, horizontal and oblique abdominal muscles, the erector spinae, the deep muscles of your back, the hamstrings and the gluteal muscles. Your core not only acts as a link between the upper and lower half of the body, it also ensures freedom of movement and mobility. It lifts you up and keeps you straight, it connects your legs and back for squats and deadlifts and is figuratively a kind of cord that runs from your bottom to your neck. What you can learn from this up to this point: Without your core, your workout will be nothing, no matter how well you eat and sleep!how do you balance
Twisting, bending and co: without a flexible back and an open hip, everyday business becomes a challenge. Balance is the keyword of the hour, the magic word when it comes to strength and mobility. But how do you do it all? In short: it's all in the mix! Functional training as well as agile sports such as MMA rely on a recipe for success that alternates between static and dynamic exercises. Let's take a punch in boxing to explore this concept in more detail. Dropping your fist, you move it forward from a held position with your arm stretched further and further. Your weight shifts to another leg, your hip rotates with it. How does the knockout come about?
On to the fitness ring!
A boxer trains his core strength to trigger punching power. Only with proper pressure behind his fist does the opponent go to the ground. But the agility does the rest, after all the boxer has to parry and hit, and that in equal measure! What do all these aspects have in common? YOU guessed it: the hull. Last but not least, the basic strength is increased by the fact that bench press, deadlift and squat are supported by abdominal and hip muscles. The boxer can move into his punches firmly yet flexibly by having his hip rotators strong enough to do so. Apart from that, the lower back withstands the force of the counter-blows and ensures that our boxer does not stagger from the force of his opponent alone.Coming back to staggering, you're just like the boxer: you have to stay upright, be able to react quickly and stay strong in individual situations. Balance in training creates balance in life. Because the same applies in sports: the chain is only as strong as its weakest link!
Stay stable - goodbye to back problems!
Since we've rambled on about balance for so long, let's look at what imbalances lead to in athletes. It means that you only deliver well in certain areas. However, sports with complex movements require that you deliver everywhere. Not every workout in the box is a one rep max! In other segments of your functional class, you are far behind with imbalanced muscle groups. For example, if your abdominal muscles give out quickly, you can't deadlift the highest possible weight that your grip strength would allow. If your mobility in the front squat quickly gives way, you end up with a rounded back to compensate, which puts an unnatural strain on your joints and vertebrae. This is where the torso comes into play again. He holds you tight, in the truest sense of the word. It lets you push more, walk straighter and stand more firmly when a pressing movement doesn't work again.So to sum it up, a firm core protects you from postural damage, which can take its toll on you in a few years at the latest (even if we can't, of course, make any health forecasts.) The following therefore applies: Your torso builds you up and automatically allows you to aim higher tackle while staying healthy at the same time.
Can a sport do without a strong torso?
Let's take a look at a few areas of fitness to back up our core strength case: curling doesn't necessarily require long-term stable grip, but your body does need to be able to withstand both momentum and movement; a task for your torso. In polo, you rotate along the sides of your horse, keeping you in the saddle at high speeds. This is where your hip muscles work in tandem with your abs and lower back. Divers, gymnasts and figure skaters perform figures in fixed sequences. Every cell must be under control, absolute discipline is required. Otherwise there are striking deductions in the B grade.We could go on and on with this list, but we deliberately don't want to bore you. From what we've said, it's clear that all of the machinery your body is built on needs to work together so that no cogs break out of the loop. Individual parts may not be that important, but the hull plays first fiddle.
Who needs special attention to posture?
A healthy posture protects you from damage that we would all like to avoid: Both constant neck problems have become a widespread disease, as well as herniated discs and posture-related migraines are things on the scales. However, certain groups of people are predisposed, for example due to little exercise at work or due to other types of absenteeism. Let's attack the obvious: the older we get, the faster we get health problems. An active life is more important than it was when you were twenty.The situation is similar for pregnant people: of course you have to take it easy if you are pregnant or have just given birth. But in consultation with the doctor, midwife and physiotherapy, core training or a moderate workout can limit the difficulties of pregnancy. Your body is not automatically completely shut down just because a new living being is growing inside it.
But even the office tigers and desk warriors are dependent on active breaks from the work environment. If you work in an office, you move very little. But if we go back to the analogy of your physical machinery, then you also know that a machine has to run in order to function over the long term. A strong torso protects you from protective and compensatory postures in front of the screen and also ensures that a sporty lunch break does not demand enormous strength from you.
What do you need to keep an eye on?
As a rule of thumb, you can remember the following standard formula: If you move a little, make sure to change this in the meantime. If you are in poor health, adapt your sport accordingly, but do not shy away from any exercise. And otherwise: Keep going, you against yourself, as long as you feel healthy doing it!
