Core strength II

Machines sent from the future to destroy me

After a bit more research into how to strengthen my core, I'm more enlightened.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm an expert, as anyone who's met me knows I'm not the expert type – I extract sufficient information to get whatever it is I need the info for, then throw it away again. Like the RAM in your PC.

On the plus side, this means I can quickly learn complicated things, on the downside, I forget them almost straight away so after a short period of time they're gone and I've learned nothing.

I used to worry about it, but then I got my degree so figured it seems to do the trick and wasn't worth fretting about.

Anyway, I digress (unusual, no?).

As mentioned before, core strength exercises work on your abdominals, hips (again, still not sure they're muscles...) lower back (yay!!), and gluteal muscles.

Yes, gluteal means bum. Get the tittering over with, and lets move on.

These all act as a fixed base for your legs to work as levers to propel you forward. This is where it started to make more sense to me – “levers” give the impression of some kind of machine, and being a man, I like that kind of thing.

If the core muscles are weak, they can't keep your body positioned in the best way for running, so you knacker out quickly.

I imagine it's like having dodgy tracking on a wheel – if it's not level, then one edge of the tyre wears quicker than elsewhere, meaning the tyre won't last as long (see how machine metaphors help!).

So improving the core muscles is like getting the wheels balanced properly so they don't wear out too quickly.

This means helping prevent your stride length from shortening as you get more tired (if it's shorter, you need to take more strides to go the same distance).

Also, weak abdominals mean you lean forward so the hamstrings have to stretch even further, which can mess up your back.

Sound familiar? *cough*

I'm gonna have a look for some exercises and try to build them into my training for when I'm feeling less invalid-like, as if I tried even getting into the starting point of a sit-up, I'd cry like John Connor when Arnie gets lowered into the molten iron at the end of Terminator 2.