Core? Nope... Fulcrum!

Core training is a term that has been thrown around in gyms, physical therapy clinics, triathlon clinics/magazines, yoga studios, and pilates classes extensively over the last few years. But what exactly is core training, and why do endurance athletes need it?

First of all, the term core training is often used incompletely or incorrectly. The majority of core training out there is a fancy term for abdominal training. Many programs and trainers doing core training are only teaching different methods to recruit the abdominals, hip flexors, and supporting abdominal musculature.

Unfortunately, this is only the less important half of the story. True core training works the entire circle of muscles that surround the mid-section of the body. This includes the low back, glutes, obliques, and abdominals. While durable and stable abs are crucial for injury prevention and optimal physical performance, they only comprise the front half of the core. The more important, and often overlooked, other half of the core is the back of the body. Specifically, the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings are the most important pieces of the core. This is the functional unit that I refer to as the "fulcrum". Numerous scientific studies have shown that doing core training on the abs alone and not the fulcrum actually increases the risk of injury. However, the common advice has been that doing abdominal exercises will decrease low back pain and decrease risk of low back/core injury. But, that is in fact opposite to what the literature indicates and I have seen in practice. To reiterate this point, doing more abdominal exercises than low back exercises will actually increase the risk of injury.

This becomes very important during the “off season” training part of endurance athletes’ schedules. The fulcrum is vital for the race season because it is the arms and legs lever against over hundreds of laps or miles throughout training and racing. Without a durable and stable fulcrum the levers have nothing to lever against and therefore can not move the body forward efficiently. (Envision sitting on a stool/chair with wheels and trying to push another heavier chair on wheels... Not very efficient and not much motion occurs). In running and biking the majority of the levering of the legs is against the fulcrum of the low back. Strong and aerobic legs that can function for miles and miles are nothing with a fulcrum that can’t keep up over those miles. Because so much time during the season is spent running, biking, or swimming (using the levers), the time to work on this fulcrum is during those cold winter days of the “off season”.

The best exercises to work this fulcrum are the Back Extension Bench, the Romanian Deadlift, Single Leg Romanian Deadlift, and Reverse Lunges that focus on the glutes. Now that winter is here, it is time to focus on building up the strength of these areas. Again, before you incorporate these exercises into your training, please consult a qualified coach or exercise physiologist. If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call me

-DrTri


1. Good endurance of the low back prevents first-time occurrence of Low back pain in men. Also, men with over flexible low back are more liable to contract Low back pain. (Biering-Sorensen, 1984)
2. A home exercise protocol of back extension holding twice a day for 6 weeks significantly increase endurance capacity of the low back. (Moffroid, et al 1993)
3. Endurance training of the low back was found to expedite recovery from sub-acute (7-49 days duration) low back pain. (Chok et al, 1999)
4. Patients with a history of low back pain have less endurance muscles in their lower back than those without low back pain. (Mannion, et al 1997)
5. Posture has no correlation to low back pain. (Tuzun et al, 1999)
6. Tight hamstrings do not correlate to low back pain. (Hellsing, 1988)
7. Among workers with a history of low back pain poor performance on low back endurance tests predicted future back pain. (Takala et al, 2000)
8. Low back static endurance capacity is a strong predictor of risk of future low back pain. This test validated the Biering-Sorensen test of 1984. (Alaranta, Luoto, et al 1995)
9. Low back muscles in people with chronic low back pain have less endurance capacity than controls. This test validated the Biering-Sorensen test of 1984. (Ito et al, 1996)
10. The glute muscles in people with chronic low back pain have less endurance capacity than controls. (Kankaanpaa et al, 1998)
11. Poor endurance capacity of the low back is a risk indicator for low back pain. This test validated the Biering-Sorensen test of 1984. (Biering-Sorensen et al, 1989)
12. The low back endurance test can discriminate between people with and without low back pain. This test validated the Biering-Sorensen test of 1984. (Latimer et al, 1999)
13. Low back endurance capacity performance was significantly less in golfers with chronic low back pain. (Suter et al, 2001) 14. Stronger abs than low back was found to be a risk factor for low back pain. (Lee et al, 1999)
15. Low back pain patients have less endurance capacity of the low back muscles. This test validated the Biering-Sorensen test of 1984. (Taimela et al 1998)
16. A home exercise program aimed at increasing low back endurance capacity decreased low back pain as effectively as an intensive clinical program. (Kuukkanen et al 1996)
17. Range of motion tests with the back extension test predict the those with low back dysfunction and those at risk for future low back pain/dysfunction.(Allaranta, et al. 1994)