Getting to the Core of Getting in Shape

Down the road from my house, each apple in the Harner Farm orchard has a core. The Breazeale Nuclear Reactor on Penn State’s campus has a core where fission occurs. Many colleges have a core curriculum program. Most skyscrapers in Manhattan have a vertical core for elevators, stairways and utility lines and wires.

A core is a central and foundational part of something. Without it the rest of the something will often not function.

However, here in America in the 21st century the word core is more and more often being used to describe a part of ourselves. Our cores. And more specifically, how to train and improve our cores. Talk to anyone who is getting or staying physically fit these days and they will tell you about how they are strengthening their core muscles.

Well, what exactly is your core? Generally speaking, the core of our bodies is our midsection – the pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen – as well as the muscles in those areas. And why do we want to strengthen it? Because training those muscles to work together leads to better balance and stability.

“But I’m already pretty balanced and stable,” you say. “Why do I need to waste time strengthening my core muscles when they seem to be doing fine as they are?” At least that’s what I always asked, until a few months ago.

A bit of disclosure here: I’m generally acknowledged as the black sheep for physical fitness and wellness in our family. Let’s review…

My wonderful wife has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and wellness. Her degree program was designed and run by wellness pioneer Donald Ardell, the author of “High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs, and Disease,” published in 1976. She co-created the employee wellness program for Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida — the ninth-largest school system in the country — meeting its two objectives: making school system employees healthier and saving money. She doesn’t take “drugs” (I use all the Tylenol and Advil in the family!), and went through two difficult pregnancies and childbirths without taking a single pain pill. She doesn’t eat grain, starch, sugar or dairy. Her resting heart rate and blood pressure are good. And she participates in cardiovascular and strength training exercises daily.

Our daughter dabbled in a number of sports growing up, then in college walked-on as a D-I athlete for a semester before moving to online coursework, focusing on health issues, and getting her bachelor’s degree in health services administration. Although it’s not her occupation, she is certified as a personal trainer by the American College of Sports Medicine, exercises daily and can name most bones and muscles in the body. Plus, you guessed it, her BMI score, resting heart rate and blood pressure are all also good.

Our son played multiple sports as a youth, focused on soccer as he grew, and is now on the football team at the University at Buffalo, a Division I FBS university in the Mid-American Conference. He trains daily, eats carefully, took a personal training class and, like his sister, can name many bones and muscles in the body. As you would expect, he’s in good physical condition. 

I, on the other hand, haven’t studied anything about the human body since a biological sciences (BiSci) general education class at Penn State 45 years ago. I’m fine eating pizza, ice cream and candy corn. I get exercise when I can but couldn’t tell a glute from an adductor. Although, to my credit, my resting heart rate and blood pressure are fine. As I said, I’m the black sheep in the family in this area. 

However, with the continuing pandemic during the past year, I’ve gotten a bit more sedentary, which creates unneeded weight gain, which in turn causes some bodily aches and pains that remind me, “Hey, you should be more active.” 

So a few months ago when Tom Whipple — a local physical therapist, family friend and the co-owner of Strategic Orthopaedics — sent me an email suggesting I might want to work with a local trainer who specializes in people of my age group, for the first time in my life I considered it. Perhaps leaving my physical fitness and wellness in my own hands wasn’t going to be the best method as I mature into middle age, not to mention that perhaps it hadn’t been up to this point either.

Needless to say, the other members of my family were thrilled about my change of heart and this wellness possibility. 

Here we are, several months after making this momentous decision, and I have to admit, I should have done it years ago. Once a week, several other training “classmates” and I go to Ki’netik fitness on Commercial Boulevard off East College Avenue and spend an hour with Rick Weyer. The long term goal is fitness and good health, but the primary focus of that hour has been the initial building block of strengthening our cores. We’re doing simple, no-fuss, no-muss exercises that require no specialized equipment, but when done correctly and intentionally, enhance our functional movement. Functional movement is all the motions our bodies should make as we go through our daily lives – and which we should be making without pain or discomfort. 

I’ve only been working with Rick for a few months now and I am starting to notice some things. For example, reduced pain in a few areas of my body. But one big difference is how I sit. For years I have been a degenerate sloucher. And as my work life is now mostly centered on sitting at a desk I slouch even more. Because, let’s face it, sitting up straight takes work, focus and energy. Except lately, I’ve found myself sitting straight in my chair for hours with no thought to the energy it takes to maintain that posture. I even went out and bought a new stiffer office chair because my old padded one didn’t feel so good anymore.Which brings me to my self-help tip of the day: get your core in shape. Not your apple core, your reactor core, your educational core or your building core. This is the 21^st century and we should all be leading happy, healthy, functional lives. It’s clear to me now that doing so involves having a strong bodily core. all those muscles in our midsection are the foundation for everything else in our physical lives. Learn how to do bird-dogs, glute bridges, curl-ups and side planks. And don’t be afraid to seek out the help of a trainer to get you moving in the right direction. Your core is the key.