A famous climber and quintessential hardman hard man once said “there is no core” You should be able to figure out what he meant by this. But for ease of discussion in this brief overview I am going to use the word; although sparingly. I am going to use it to refer to the musculature around the torso. The various abdominal and lower back structures correspond roughly to a person’s centre of gravity. But in reality it should also include the hip flexors, shoulders, upper back, arms, and most of the other bits. From a perspective of a climber and a martial artist this is a critical area to develop; and cannot be weak.
There are probably more gimmicks out there and misguided information about training this region of the anatomy than in all other training put together. Like all other training however, there is no secret, no magic bullet. There is only hard work and focus and dedication. The type of training I am going to describe may or may not give you the six packs that the infomercials advertise. If you really want that then look more to your diet and maybe even more to your parents. I would posit that if you are doing a lot of functional training and natural movement stuff then you probably don’t need to do detailed work in this area anyway. This is geared to people who want to target specific strength in that area so that they can move and perform at maximum efficiency. For most people who are pushed for time; specific core work should be the first thing you cut from your program.
I won’t be going into a huge amount of detail here. I just want to present an overview of what is available. I may post some specifics at a later date but for now if you want to know how to do these things correctly you will need to do some research. There are several good sources out there that deal with advanced bodyweight training in great detail. For simplicity I will talk about the front, side, and back. If you want to sound impressive you can always use the terms: Anterior Chain, Lateral Chain, and Posterior Chain
Front.
No gadgets, no gimmicks, no big inflatable balls, no useless crunches. There is only one main exercise type that you need to do, although I will discuss three others for the sake of variation. The one drill that will be most effective is hanging leg raises. Granted you do need some apparatus for this. A standard pull up bar will do perfectly, but all you really need is something that you can hang from that has enough clearance in front of you to raise your legs horizontally. You can and should of course start with easier variations such as leg raises while lying on the floor, and partial hanging leg raises, but eventually you need to progress to be able to do full hanging straight-leg leg raises. Again the standard warning applies to all hanging work… keep your shoulders engaged throughout the exercise. Never ‘Dead Hang’.
From the hanging position start the movement from your hips and slowly raise your dead straight legs until they are at ninety degrees to your body and hold there for two seconds then slowly lower them until your hanging body is straight and vertical again. No swinging, or kipping; you must be in complete control in both directions. You need to master the move. If you can do two sets of twenty reps of strict and honest hanging leg raises you will be well beyond most mortal people. You might find that you can’t keep your legs straight. Tight hamstrings… you will want to do something about those. If you want more keep going until you can do a one arm hanging v-raise.
If you feel that you need to augment this or go beyond there are four other exercises I can recommend. But be warned… you might not find them easy.
Superman Walkout. The nice thing about this one is that it really doesn’t require anything but the floor. It’s sort of like a supercharged plank. In fact you can start from the plank position. Just walk your hands out in front of you and hold. You will need to keep the entire body tense and rigid for this to work. It’s easy to see how to progress. Just keep walking your hands further out until your arms are stretched way out in front of you like… superman flying. Eventually you will be on your toes and finger tips. This is pretty hard to do. For those of you who like gadgets the so called ab wheel is one that actually works. You can buy one, make one, or better yet use a heavy loaded barbell.
Dragon Flag. Purportedly a favourite of Bruce Lee’s; the Dragon Flag requires a sturdy bench. You lay on the bench on your back and with your hands reach overhead and grab the sides of the bench. You need to hold on really tight and again tense your entire body. The idea is to keep the body straight and rigid as you gradually lift the body off of the bench pivoting at your shoulder blades. Keep going until you are more or less in a shoulder stand then slowly lower. Repeat if you can. It may be easier to learn this move by starting in a shoulder stand and work only on the lowering half until you build strength and a feeling for it. Remember… the whole body; this is not a leg raise.
Front Lever. Very simple… hang from a pull-up bar or equivalent and lever your body so that you end up in a rigid horizontal position looking up at the bar with your arms pointed up, and your back facing down; parallel to the floor. Yeah right. If you think this is simple try it. If it’s easy try it with one arm. If you can do that… then you don’t need to be reading this.
Lastly, the traditional sit-up works wonders. You just need to know how to properly do them, and do them strictly. Find out how! Related to the sit-up is it’s evil cousin the Janda sit-up.
Back.
The front and the back of the ‘core’ need to be harmonized. This is for two reasons. One is for injury prevention; the other is that they are inter-dependant. You won’t be able to maximize strength in one without also doing so in the other.
So, there is pretty much one and only one effective bodyweight exercise you can do to specifically target the lower back and that is the back bridge. Bridging has a bad rap in some circles. If done correctly with good form and if entered into in a gradual progressive fashion then any potential risk will be minimized. You can start with a really simple and benign ‘short bridge’ (or shoulder bridge) and work your way up the mother of all bridges: the full bridge to standing position. Some yoga positions like the cobra are also good for stretching and strengthening this region.
If you insist upon using weights and I know that there are some of you out there… then consider the deadlift. It’s one of the best weightlifting exercises out there, if not the best. Just get appropriate instruction on proper form first and start slowly with and low weights. You can build astonishing back strength this way.
Side.
There is this thing called the lateral chain. It incorporates all of the muscles, and other bits that run along or support the sides of your body. And while there are some weight exercises that more or less target the oblique portion of your abdominals such as Saxon Side Bends, and Suitcase Deadlifts, there are also far superior bodyweight only exercises that will do the trick nicely. Side planks work well as an introduction to lateral chain training, but if you really want to get strong there is only one thing to do. This is of course the lateral flag. There are two variations that I know of: the clutch hold flag and the press hold flag. Both are really hard to do. Like some other ‘core’ work, these require you to use your whole body. You do need a piece of apparatus for this one however. You need to find a sturdy vertical base that you can grasp firmly. I have used sign posts and playground equipment to good effect here. It pays to be creative. The essence is to ‘hold on’ to the pole and lever your body into a horizontal position where your right side is facing the ground and your left side is facing the sky; then switch sides. I used to know some young ladies that were very adept at this. This drill requires you to have a high degree of grip strength and strong shoulders to even to be able to begin to perform.
As an adjunct to lateral chain training a great thing to incorporate is some form of rotational torque training. There are some good yoga postures that do this like the Half Lord of the Fishes or Ashtanga Marichyasana C & D.
If you are diligent in your training and progressively ease your way through the aforementioned exercises you will end up having exceptional stability strength that will serve you well in most any situation.