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Core Stabilisation - Samuele Serreli

Some thoughts on core stabilization, back pain and posture

The importance of spinal stabilization has been recognised for many centuries in diverse cultures. Modern research methods bring information through electromyography, which shows co-contractions (simultaneous) of the TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS AND MULTIFIDUS, which seems to be an effective approach to resolving low back pain.

In the past 10 years the concept of spinal stabilization has received considerable attention from science research and the western society in general, but the basic movement has been recognized throughout history and in many cultures, for example in yoga the use of the “ bandha”, in martial arts the lower tantien and more recently the work of Joseph Pilates and Bess Mensendieck “ slowly drawing in the lower part of the abdomen.

It has been accepted that what makes a bad back is some kind of instability or imbalance. The standard approach normally uses joint mobilization and muscle strengthening. Normally this has taken the form of passive manipulation for the joints, combined with exercise to strengthen either the abdominal muscles, as in sit ups, or back extensor as in the Mckenzie system. The poor rectus abdominis or ‘six pack’, which is normally over exercised by the “go for the burn” crowd and undertreated by manual therapists, plays a big role in postural alignment, which I will talk later on in this article. TRANSVERSUS ABDOMINIS AND MULTIFIDUS have the responsibility of deep support, while RECTUS ABDOMINUS AND OBLIQUES are the movers. A healthy body automatically uses the transverses to stabilize the spine before initiating any movement, while in people with back pain this is delayed from 50 to 450ms. In rehabilitation it is important to re-establish the appropriate sequence of firing of the muscles, with the local stabilizer first meaning transversus and multifidus, followed by the global muscles, meaning rectus and obliques.

In Rolfing normally we teach the client how to feel the sensation of the pre movement, you can actually try an exercise at home; stand with your feet shoulder width apart, keep your eyes closed and lift your shoulder up to the sides, and you will feel the transversus contracting first.

The rectus abdominis attaches strongly to the 5th rib, but the fascia continues up to the sternum and collar bone area, it also links fascially into the pects muscles. So if we imagine a short six pack, what would it do to our posture? Gravity will pull our head forward and rotate the pelvis anterior, creating a long back and a short front part of the body, so a good idea specially for people who does lots of sit ups and exercise for the obliques, is to integrate with more movement based exercise like yoga , pilates or Rolfing movement.

Samuele Serreli

Samuele is a personal trainer and qualified Rolfing practitioner, he specialises in movement dysfunction. www.rolfing-workshop.co.uk

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