What is your "core?"

When you think of your body's "core," what do you think of?  Are you thinking of the center of your body?  Are you thinking of your abdominal muscles or even your lower back muscles?  What about your legs?  Do you think those are your "core?"

These questions are all pretty legitimate in terms of describing your "core."  However, everyone I speak with has a different definition of what the "core" actually is.  In truth, all of the questions above can all be the correct answers, though each person would likely identify with only one of those rather than all of them.

My perspective of what the core is are the gluteus maximus muscle (glutes).  The glutes are the largest single muscle in the human body and are predominant in allowing for us to stand upright, walk, and perform a plethora of activities.  If the glutes are strong, typically the muscles around the glutes are strong with it.  Hence, if you call the glutes the "core" then you are likely the most accurate in terms of defining it.

If you look at the apple core above, you can see that the core is in the center and lengthwise, therefore it's larger than only isolated in the center.  But, if you look at the direct center, you can see it is the largest area of the core.  So we can look at the glutes as that center, the abdominals, and erector spinae as the upper end towards the stem and the legs to include the hamstrings and quadriceps as the lower core.  So, the core is much larger, in my mind, than most make it out to be.

I'll be spending a few more posts describing training the core and how to focus and engage it.