Rethinking Core Training

[hemann]

@Flash

On this particular point, the late Mel Siff in his works constantly emphasized the Eastern Europeans’ aversion to specific core training for these very reasons. He recounts stories of seminars given by (I believe) Angel Spassov in the US in the late '80’s where American coaches would ask him the best way to load abdominal exercises, and he would just laugh and state that the abdominal muscles contract far more forcefully during squats, cleans, etc. than during any kind of weighted situp.
If you’re going to rethink core training, it might be to drop it altogether. Of course Charlie has been an advocate of large volumes of core work, BUT you also have to understand how he uses it in the overall structure of the training and the loading parameters used, which differs greatly from many of the core training gurus pushing their gadgets and DVDs.

Is there a good way to test core strength? I have personally always done bench, squat, cleans… but almost never did sit ups or any “ab work”.

As a result, I have always been terrible at doing sit ups or any ab exercises. I would consider myself as having a weak core.

So, back to my question, Is there a good way to test core strength? If I do a bunch of sit ups, I will get better at doing sit ups, but does that mean i have a stronger core? Or is it just the training curve.

I have heard of the plank test. I was always very bad at that, until recently I have done a lot of various ab work and my entire core feels stronger.

I don’t think squatting helped my core become more functionally strong. By that I mean bending at the waist and hips and crunching/flexing the abdominals. Perhaps the squats help the spinal erectors and the postural abdominal muscles?