Business Innovators Radio - What Is Your Core For?

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

When you think ‘core’, is your first thought six-pack abs and endless crunches? In reality, your core is not just something to show off at the beach – it includes deep internal muscles that support the spine and serve a variety of functions in your body. In this episode, Dr. Dan, Angela, and Dr. Riley discuss the importance of core strength and stability. The hosts emphasize that everyone has a core, but many people don’t know how to properly engage it. They discuss the anatomy of the core, its role in posture and breathing, and how weakness can lead to various health issues. The conversation covers the importance of proper core engagement in everyday activities and exercises, as well as the risks of improper training. If you feel like your core could use some extra support, this is a great place to start!To learn more about this and other hot health topics, follow us on social media and subscribe to our WTH podcast. If you have a specific health question or would like to find out if we can help you with a personal health challenge, check out our office page or contact us at 412-369-0400/ [e-mail]. As always, our mission is to help you Get Healthy and Stay Healthy for a Lifetime!What the Health?!https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-the-health/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-is-your-core-for

Welcome to What the Health, where anything health is fair game as we tackle the trends and bust the myths about health and wellness. Here are your hosts, Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. And welcome to another What the Health podcast. I am Dr. Dan here with two of my co-hosts. Angela. I'm Dr. Riley. Welcome back, everybody. But before we get started, as always.

I'm going to say, I think you guys know at this point, but we're here for informational purposes only and no way offering individualized medicalized medicalized. advice. We talk to your trusted health care provider before making changes to your routine. With that being said, we're going to give you advice to change your routine. We're going to talk about... We are the trusted medical professionals on this one.

We are the trust in medical professionals on this one. Yes. We are talking about what's your core for? There, I said it right. And that's the last time I'm going to say that, so I'll flub it. So a lot of people ask us questions about, you know, core stability.

and, you know, the tagline is like, well, I need to strengthen my core. You know, we hear that all the time in the health care, personal training, you know, chiropractic, physical therapy, community. And it's like, what the heck is your core? Yeah, what do you picture when you hear the word core? Or what does the average person who's not in the health or fitness industry picture when they hear the word core? I would argue that most people probably think, oh, it's my abs. Yeah, exactly.

That's a six-pack. Six-pack. It's my six-pack. Yeah, people say, I don't have a core. Oh, that would be, that would be a problem. I might not be a well-defined one, but. It's under my cage. I lost it.

But yes, people do. They picture the, that's, that, those external abdominals, the ones that you, you know, you see. You can visualize on a, you know, a jack. Yes, not on anybody's. any of us. Dr. Riley still's got that 20-year-off. No, though not with a baby. He's working on his dad, boss.

Yeah, I've got to work on that. Well, he's got a good example over here to follow. But, yes, but actually, you know, they always talk about in the fitness world that abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym, which is, so, again, those very chiseled six-pack abs that you see on, you know, the social media influencers and celebrities and all of that. That's the result of very specific type of training, very specific type of eating, dieting, yes,

hours and hours of both of those. So, yeah, we're not talking about, like, that actually, I would argue, it's kind of your least important, those ones that you can see. Yeah, the pretty muscles. Yeah, least important part of your actual functional core, which is what we are interested in. Yeah, and if you think of, you know, just using examples of, like, you know, strong man. You know, if you look at every strong man, I mean, almost none of them have a six-pack. No, they've got.

They have big guts. But there are some. For the bodybuilders. Yes. Where you can see every single muscle of there. But the strong men are the strong men for a reason because they can lift incredible amounts of weight from very awkward positions. And, again, a lot of that starts with the founding. foundational core musculature.

I came to imagine trying to punch one of those guys in the stomach. Like it would be, they would probably laugh. Like it would probably be. I think there was a video of, I think it was Eddie Hall of, he was taking hits from like, you know, one of the, you know, one of the, you know, strongest. But I think he was like a middleweight boxer or something. But like, I mean, he just, yeah, you got barely flinched. But that actually brings up a good point. That's what I tell people to visualize, which I don't know if that's a natural.

instinct for everybody, but if somebody was to punch you in the stomach, like, if you knew, like if somebody comes up and is winding up and you know that you're about to take a hit to the gut, instinctually, yeah, we all, all three of us just did it, you kind of bear down and get ready to take that hit. And what you're doing is you're engaging your core and you're engaging those deep internal core abdominal muscles that are really going to help protect. The reason we do that is because instinctually those muscles are going to help protect your organs, your spine, all the things that you don't want to take the impact. Because, yeah, ideally that muscle is going to help protect everything else that's going on

and that it's surrounding. And again, going back to the anatomy, too, it's like we can be, you know, if you visualize it and, you know, if you're on here or you, you know, just, just Google core, you know, core anatomy and it'll pop up. But, you know, you'll get some pictures of muscles. And you think of the skeleton, you basically have the large upper half of your body with your arms and, you know, your spine and then the ribs that attach. And then there's really nothing from a structural standpoint, from a bony standpoint, from the lower ribs down to the pelvis, which if you put your hands on your quote-unquote hips, that's where your pelvis starts. Other than your spine, your lumbar spine, which connects, there's five bones that basically connect.

from where the ribs attach, down to the pelvis and the tailbone. Everything else in that area is all musculature, which surrounds the outside of the body to protect the internal abdominal organs. You know, your stomach, your small intestine, your, you know, your, well, yeah, parts of your liver. You know, kidneys are kind of wrapped in there as well. You know, so it's a very, very important. structural space.

But what that also does is that allows us the bending, moving, twisting, right? That we as bipedal organism, you know, we're walking on two feet, we have the ability to move around in our environment much more creatively than, you know, a lot of other four-legged animals. So, you know. Except cats. They can. Except cats. Watch my cat bend himself in half and two.

I don't know. How can we just determine their aliens? Yeah, they're not really. I don't mean. But anyway, I mean, so the importance of, you know, we always talk about, right, more freedom of movement in an area, usually the higher freedom of movement in an area, like a shoulder or a hip, you know, your core, you have better movement, but more chance of injury, right? Because, again, you can move in a lot more degrees of motion, so you have a lot more position. so you have a lot more positions and opportunity, yeah, for instability, for, you know, for injury because of the direction and, you know, twisting and pulling and tension on, on those areas. So, yeah, people always ask, like, well, do I need to strengthen or do I need to stretch?

Yes. Yes. And it's, and it is, it's that fine, that fine line, that balance of, yes, you need the underlying strength of those muscles. So back to the, you know, people are like, oh, I don't have a core. It's like, well, we have one. If you didn't have a core, literally, like you just said, your ribs basically, you would just basically fall in half if you didn't have. If you did not have those core muscles, then you would just basically flop over because, as Dr. Dan just mentioned, those couple vertebrae are not going to be enough structurally to keep you in a seated position or even a standing, yeah, standing position without having the engagement of those muscles. And that's what, I mean, we see diseases where people lose.

you know, lose that muscle strength and that, they do, they become very weak. They might lose ability to use their legs or engage their core. So, yes, if you are a healthy individual with normal musculature, you have a core. It's engaged whether you realize it or not. And what you need to learn is how to engage and strengthen, even above and beyond just the basic, you're alive, so you have a core and it's functioning. Well, and again, going back to what you're going back to what you're, you said earlier, Angela, you've got the, you know, the abdominal muscles, which are more the

front, and that's a lot of times what people immediately think of. Yeah, the six pack. Yeah, the six pack in the front. But you have so much musculature from the hips up to the crest of the ilium up to the ribs and then down attaching, basically surrounding the entire lumbar spine and connecting it down, even into the leg muscles, you know, through your hip flexors, your hip, your hip flexors start up in your lower back. A lot of people don't understand that. And so it's like, well, why is my hip hurt? Well, it's because your low back is screwed up.

You have a weak core or vice versa. You know, why does my low back hurt? It's like, well, because your hip flexors are so darn tight that, you know, from a sitting position, so they're not stretched. They're very weak. And so they're constantly pulling on that lower back when you're trying to engage it. So, you know, that is so important to understand the mechanics all the way through, you know, that spine, you know, and surrounding. If you think of the core, it's really a brace that goes all the way from the spine around to the front in your abs.

So if you think of it like that brace. It's a corset. Yeah, I was just got to say, yeah, every woman who's ever been to a Renaissance dress-up or it's, yeah, if you think about that, you know, or just any type of lace. up dress where you keep every time you lace it and it gets tighter and tighter and tighter. And that's essentially what the function is of those deep internal abdominal muscles and all of those surrounding muscles is to literally hold everything in place, tighten you up, keep everything strong and protected. Yeah.

Yeah. So, I mean, without going into the, you know, every little, you know, musculature and anatomy, and everything. Again, I think it's important to understand, you know, what happens when it is weak, you know, because you just mentioned, like, you know, if you didn't have that core, you would kind of fall forward. And, you know, again, if we kind of go to the end stage of life, you know, people in their 80s and the 90s and, you know, we call it, you know, we talk about FBS, flat butt syndrome. But really, you know, if you go from a, if you think of a baby, you know, an infant that was just born, right? They're born with one curvature, basically, from their head down.

to their tailbone. It's called the primary curve. And it's basically like you think of the baby curled up in the fetal position. You have one curve from the head all the way down to the tailbone. Well then if you have proper spinal development, you'll develop two additional curves, one in the neck, one in the lower back. And that comes through muscle activation and through healthy spinal and muscle development around those areas of the spine. But then what happens then later in life, whether it's through injury, whether it's just through, you know, sedentary lifestyle or combination of both, then you'll see those people in their, you know, 70s, 80s, 90s that kind of go back, you know, from holding the head up and being able to stand a wreck, they start

going back to that like fetal position. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but there are some people that just have a very, very, it's called a kyphotic posture where your head really starts. to fall forward. And then, of course, your body isn't going to let you walk around with your head being forward. Your hips and your legs have to come forward. So you're basically going back to that one kiphotic curve from the head. And if you're not sure, you know, what I'm talking about, you just want to Google, kifosis or kyphotic curve, K-Y-P-H-O-T-I-C-C-E-Chyphotic. But just look at what it means with that curvature and and then again going

taking it a step further to the functionality of not just injury but then I mean think of breathing you know right you've now you know instead of being in that upright position where your rib cage is open everything is now just compressed

down and condensed so I mean literally there's no to take a breath your ribs have to be able to expand your lungs expand into your rib cage in case you're not familiar with that. So, yeah, if your skeletal system is basically folding over on itself, your lungs are only going to be able to expand so far, and you're going to have very shallow, constricted breathing.

Yeah, and there is straight up studies on this. Again, we're not, we don't have the advanced podcast yet, where we've got someone in the background looking stuff up. But, you know, there are studies out there showing that when you have forward head posture or a kifahe, neck, which is a neck going the opposite direction from what it should be in a lordotic position, you actually lose up to 30% or more of your lung capacity. And the easiest way I represent that is, you know, I just challenge you if you're not driving

and you're in a safe place. Just, you know, sit up tall, you know, lift your chest up, lift your head to a nice neutral position and take a deep breath in as far as you can and then let that out. Well, then do it again where you bring your arms in front of you, roll your shoulders forward and kind of crunch forward a little bit. Just kind of let your upper body hang down towards your legs just a little bit, not all the way forward. Now try and take that same deep breath of air. It's very, very difficult, you know, to get that same, like, deep breath in, you know. And as you give the example, you used earlier, Angela, it's like imagine getting hit in the stomach.

You, you know, tighten that, you know, ab brace. Well, imagine getting hit and you weren't expecting it. Yeah. You're the wind knocked out of you, right? Because it's like, you know, your diaphragm goes into spasm and everything comes forward because you're trying to protect those organs. So, but anyway, it's just so important to understand, you know, how to strengthen, you know, that core because there's so much, you know, functionality that goes in there.

I mean, you kind of talked about it, too, the connection between the core and the hip flexors. So, I mean, again, imagine if you start to go into that hypotic position and you're bent over and you mention that your hips start to, you know, talk the wrong direction. Imagine being in that position and then trying to lift your leg to get up a flight of stairs or get it out of the car. It's like you're now not in that position to be able to fully engage. Yeah, the muscle is already in a shortened position. If the muscle is shorter than it can't pull. So talk about now we have increased fall risk. We have loss of ability to get through.

your daily life, your activities of daily living. Dress yourself. I mean, there's people who can't, you know, they can't get your, can't get your, yeah, can't lift your leg enough to get their socks on and, you know, to get one pant leg on. I think about the number of times that you have to be able to lift a leg just in your day to day, get in and out of a shower, you know, things like that. You know, these things that, yes, are going to get more difficult as we age, but they don't have to be so difficult to, yes, debilitating to the point that, you know,

we're not able to do them. Yeah. And a lot of that just comes from because we, like you said, either injury or just lack of use. And we talk about all the time, our sedentary lifestyle is just, you know, technology and advancements in our day-to-day life have made so many things so much easier. Yes, which is great for, but we've... Great for comfort, bad for health. Yes, we have lost so many, you know, things that we used to literally have to get up and physically do. It's just we don't have to do it anymore.

And so now it's okay, how can we, what have we lost and how do we, how do we get that back into our day-to-day life so that we don't continue to go down this road? We just keep getting weaker and sicker and more frail. Well, I mean, going back to the tight hip flexors too, and then again, how many times do we hear of people that all I did was bend over and pick up. my empty laundry basket and my little back went out you know quote unquote or you know I just had we just had a patient last night who you know comes to see us you know on more of a wellness basis maybe once every couple weeks a couple months you know but she was playing playing some hockey um you know what

she typically does and you know they don't beat each other up too much it's getting to be like more of a middle-aged league but um but again she said her neck was stiff but then she said she was raking some leaves and her little back stiffened up. She just felt it like really tightened up or like tweak. You know, we hear all they say, you know, the terms when they come in, you know, oh, I tweaked it or it popped or I pulled it or seized up. Yeah, exactly. And it was.

I mean, it was extremely tight when we evaluated her. But interestingly enough, that tightness was coming from the stiffness in her neck because of, you know, the chain reaction. So, you know, if you've got tight hip flex. or pulling on the low back or your neck is stiffened up from poor posture, looking at a computer, looking down at your phone, you know, wrestling with your kids, sleeping in an awkward position. And it's like, and the neck is stiff. Well, then that impacts the ability of your spine to be able to move from top to bottom fluidly.

So then you have a smaller, you know, lever and movement. So rather than, you know, your spine moving freely from the neck all the way down through the low back, Well, if you take the neck out of the equation because it's stiff and locked up, well, now you only have movement. You've lost, you know, six to 12 inches of movement capability through your spine. So now, you know, motions that would move, you know, more freely across, you know, three feet are moving across two feet. And so, but you still have to do the same movement to get down and rake or, you know, lift laundry or move your foot. So now, again, going back to what we talked about, the beginning. getting more freedom of movement, more possibility of injury, if that movement isn't working

there efficiently. Does that make sense? Hopefully that made sense. It made sense in my mind. That's all that matters. It makes sense to you. But yeah, and that's, and that is where core and working, working that is such a fine line. Because you have to strengthen it, but it's also, you have such high risk of injury,

if not done correctly. And I see that all the time with people, you know, trying to do stuff that I've been there myself, like trying to do stuff that your core is just simply not ready for. And if it's not, you're going to either hurt low back or your hip flexors. I'll tell you that right now, depending on, you know, think about a basic leg lift, so laying flat on your back and just trying to lift both legs in the air and back down.

Seems simple enough, but if your core is not engaged, I'll tell you right now you're going to screw up this hip flexors, with those low back or both. And again, people think often they'll do that as a swinging motion from the leg and not actually have the actual core. Yes, the actual core and abdominal muscles engaged while they're doing that. So it looks, you know, like they're doing it correctly, but not at all. That's where you get in trouble with the crunches too.

Oh, yeah. They want to get their abs. They're like good, so speak. So they'll do crunches like crazy. And they're not even using their core. their hip flexors start burning and the next thing you know the next day they can't sit up straight because they're so tight yeah they're already tight yeah we had somebody that yeah she's like i don't understand like i've been doing that uh works out fairly regularly follows a program. And she's like, yeah, I've been doing the crunches.

And I just feel like I'm not doing them correctly. And I'm really hurting my neck. And I was like, well, you're probably not, I was like, you're not engaging your core. And so I, I, I literally, I was, I showed her. And I was like, okay, lay down to your crunch. And I was like, I could tell right away. She was lifting, she was leading with her head.

She was using her neck and that momentum. And so I said, okay, engage. And she, again, she was when I knew, I knew she knew the basic underlying principle of abdominal bracing, which we'll talk about in a second and engaging that core. So I had her to start with that. I was like, now lift from the core. And she couldn't get as high, but she's like, oh, now I feel that in my stomach.

So, like, that's the thing. It doesn't matter. You don't have to get through the full range of motion. You just have to do the part that actually is engaging the muscles and not overcompensating with the neck or the hips or the low back. Well, that's a really good point, Angela, because, again, a lot of times, right, We're in a society, right, of like the, you know, we want the result. Yeah, exactly.

So, you know, if I'm going to do, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 crunches, well, a crunch is, well, I'm going to get my, you know, my upper back up off the ground, right? And so, you know, if I just lift that, oh, that's one, you know. So rather than the actual process of doing it, you know, I know you and I would argue and agree that it is much. better to do 10 perfect crunches, you know, perfect activation than 50 of, you know, very poor, sloppy, you know, crunches because you're at much more risk for injury there. So, um, oh, absolutely. Yeah, I would argue it's better to do 10 minutes of abdominal bracing than any poor quality crunches. So, so with you, I mean, you do a lot of e-vows with people and, you know, in training, are there any signs or what are you looking for, you know, when you have

someone, you know, going through just to like evaluate to see, you know, how strong or weak their core actually is, or there are signs that someone could even do at home to be like, okay, maybe I need to retest it to rethink my training. Yeah. So big one that I look for. So I have everybody lay down, flat on their back. again, assuming you can get on the ground, get on and off the ground. Getting down usually isn't the issue.

It's getting back up. So, assuming it is somebody that can get down to the ground. Again, to reiterate. Only do this. Do not start an exercise program without, you know. If you can't, you can do it in bed, like doing while you're laying in bed or on the couch, if you can't get all the way to the ground.

But yeah, laying flat, ideally on a hard surface, flat on your back, knees bent so that you're basically in, like, if you know what the start of a crunch or setup would be, you're basically starting out in that starting position. And then from there, just seeing if people, one, even know what a pelvic tilt is, because that shows me if they've ever formally been taught how to do that abdominal bracing.

So basically, if you lay flat on your back, especially women, you'll tend to have, your shoulders will be on the ground, your butt will be touching the ground, but your low back will actually have a curve to it. So you could actually stick, like, your hand underneath and get all the way underneath your low back, if you tilt your pelvis,

so I always tell people a picture, if you have a glass of water on your pelvis and you're tilting it, you would actually be spilling that water on yourself. When you do that, your low back goes flat to the ground. And so just if you're able to even just do that, because that's the starting position of any core exercise. That's starting and maintaining throughout any core exercise.

So I always start there just getting people familiar with that. I actually have people have their, hands under their low back while they're doing it so they can feel, and I say if you're doing it right, you shouldn't be able to pull your hands out. Like, you should basically be pressing those hands into the ground with your low back. Um, so that's, yeah, that's test number one is are they even able to do that? And then from there, if they can do that, can they lift their knee, their, um, knees towards them. So they'll get their feet off the ground while maintaining that. The lower back to the ground. Yeah, that lower back to the ground. So that's usually one. It's, it's, it's,

And then again, there's different variations of that. If you can't do both feet together, you do one at a time. And then from there, it just keeps getting, you know, okay, if they can do it with knees bent? Yeah, can you do it with knee legs straight? And it just keeps going up. But I always start in that position because right there, if you can't, you can't do the pelvic tilt and get your low back flat to the ground, I mean, that's what we're working on. So until you can do that, you shouldn't be trying to do anything else. So that's, yeah, and people, it's amazing.

because people, we were just talking about this before we started recording, but unless you've, someone like me and have had low back injuries and hip injuries, which hopefully you're not, but unless you're somebody who specifically been sent to PT, physical therapy for those issues, you probably have never formally been taught abdominal bracing, which is essentially what I just described, is that gauging the core. Yeah, you want to engage, like you said earlier, like you're going to get punched in the stomach. Yeah. So engaging that, but still being able to breathe while doing it.

Exactly, yeah, not holding your breath. That's why I tell you, like, hold your core, not your breath. I think that's the toughest thing, like for people who do have the low back injuries and stuff, and want to get their core strong, it's like, all right, don't do any core exercises until you can hold that, you know, I'm about to get punched in the gut position and then still be able to breathe regularly. Yeah, yeah, and that, yeah, people don't realize, you know, everyone's like, you know, oh, okay, my core site. I'm like, well, you can't be.

saying that out. Yeah, so exactly. Learning to dissociate your lungs from your, from your core, very, very important. Again, things that people aren't taught. And then once you're having those issues, it becomes that much harder, which is why, I mean, I love working with people that are already struggling with it, but if I can get with people where they don't have those injuries yet, it's that much easier and can progress that much faster. But yeah, it is, And it's really amazing. You said, the holding the breath. I feel like, people are like, oh, what do you do as a personal trainer?

I pretty much just tell people to breathe. Like, it's amazing. Like, it's the number of times I'm like, you haven't, breathe. Like, have you taken a breath in the last 30 seconds? And it's something, you know, myself I've had to work on. There's been times through PT. I mean, I've been through several rounds of physical therapy for different things. And, I mean, there were times where it's like I couldn't do.

I couldn't do what I just described. And it is. It's very frustrating when you're like, I just want to be able to. But if you truly go through the process and go through it safely and build up that strength in a slow and progressive way, it's going to make a huge, huge difference. And yeah,

it's not the most exciting looking exercises, but I love seeing people, especially love taking people who, have maybe been doing those exercises wrong, showing them how to do a, and just seeing them go, oh, like, that's what I had a client. She's like, well, I've been doing leg lifts wrong my entire life. So it's never felt like that. Is there like a specific, I don't know, regimen, I guess you would put people through for the corks? I know they harped on like the bird dog progression for us in school.

Is that similar? So I, yeah, like I. there. Bird dog. Define bird dog. Our audience. And refreshing my memory. Once you got the abdominal bracing down and stuff, then it's you start, you know,

you're on your, your elbows, your hands, and your knees, and you're in that hands and knees position. And you can progress. Obviously, if you're like a superior level athlete, you'll be able to, you know, reach your left arm out and your left leg straight back. And that core stability is so strong. you won't fall over. Essentially the progression is hands and knees,

and then you'll go one, I think, just to start, you'll go one at a time. So you'll push your left arm out in front of you as far as you can, and then you'll bring that back down, and you'll do the right side, and then you do the same with the legs, you push them as far back as you can. And then once you feel like that's pretty easy,

you're able to hold your core. And balance-wise, too, right? Yeah, balance. And then once you start progressing, then you'll do your left arm straight out and your right leg straight back. at the same time. And that's already pretty difficult.

I, you know, there was a lot of very, very, I don't know, fit people, I guess I would say in my class. And I think nobody was able to do that left arm out, left leg back. So, yeah, that's just called the bird dog. It's a quick and easy core exercise. Yeah. So I would say that for a younger population with people I work with where most people cannot be on their knees. So I actually like similar, but it's the dead bug. So it's what Dr. Riley just described, but you're on your back.

So instead of being on your hands and knees, you're lying flat on your back, and now you have your knees up bent, your arms up, straight, and it's the same thing. So you work on being able to extend one leg straight out, and then the other one, one arm. All while keeping your low back, pressed to the floor. and all coming back to that low back being glued to the ground. So working on that, being able to do arms same way, and then same thing. Opposite arm, opposite leg go back.

And then same arm. And then you can go to both legs, both arms. Which that, I've even retired that one from mine because I'm just like, it's just not worth, because it's just the strain on the low back. It's just, but there, yeah, there's certain. So yes, but I do like the other one because there's more of a bad, balance component to it.

That'd be more like advanced. So I think, yeah. Yeah, so I would say, yeah, dead bug first. And then if you get to the point where that's feeling good and your knees and wrists are okay, which seem to be the first things that go on everybody. I'm picturing some of my clients. They'd be like, excuse me. You want me to do what?

Guarantee. Especially with knee replacements. Yeah, yeah. You're like, no. But yes, if you were able to go on your hands and knees, then that's a great progression. And what people don't realize is, so actually that's one that I had to do back in PT with my low back. And she would put a box of tissues on my low back because then if you start to tilt your hips, because the idea is your low back should stay totally straight while you're flat while you're doing that,

like tabletop. And what a lot of people do is because they don't have the core strength or the mobility, they start to, yeah, they start to tilt. So yeah, they put that tissue box on your low back. And then that way you'd be able to know if you're, if that falls off, you've tilted. It's like in some of the Asian cultures where they teach you to like walk with the book, you know, as you're doing like, you know, ballet and dance moves.

But yes, but both of those are a great way to just kind of keep progressing, keep progressing. And as you said, I mean, and I'm guessing the people in your class, you know, these are, you know, mid-20-year-olds, any of those people with consistent practice, you probably, I mean, if you did that every day, you would very quickly, somebody at your age of physical level would be able to very quickly be able to do that, which just goes to show how important it is to do it.

Because, you know, people that were in, you know, quote unquote, good physical health and good physical shape weren't able to do a, you know, very, fairly basic core engagement. I think, I don't know why I just thought, like you saying, doing this every day, and I go back to that dead bug, like that's, you know, with the population, how like lazy so to speak we are I feel like that should be easy

you wake up in the morning you just you're already hopefully on your back like do the dead bug for maybe five minutes and then get up and go about your day like that's yeah I think that'd be a huge thing well it's funny because I think some of the people

I think the population that's actually best about their morning exercise routine are the elderly absolutely like you can we talk to 55 and older they talk about like they have this whole routine that kids they're no longer responsible for kids. And also, but they're doing it because they literally have to

to be able to get out of bed. So think about that. If we started this now in our, you know, 20s, 30s, 40s, and started incorporating just a couple minutes every morning of, you know, core engagement. I do it while I'm driving, honestly, like, well, I'm in the car. I'm doing it about, I've been doing it through this entire bucket. Yeah, absolutely.

I'm like, I'm going to be sore tomorrow. It's supposed core workout dark dance. I don't know. My workouts look different now. I'm going to go rake leaves after this. But yeah, just a couple minutes every day. If we do it before we start having these issues, just think how much easier it will continue to be

as we get into our 50, 60, 70s, hopefully beyond. Well, let's take that even a step further because, you know, I look at someone like my oldest son, who's 13 now. And, you know, they're, you know, he's starting to get into middle school sports and, you know, they're working harder. And, you know, there's lots of, you know, there's lots of arguments on when to start, like, you know, weightlifting training for kids.

And I probably about his age was when I really started getting into weightlifting. The problem, though, going back to your argument, is that if they're not taught from the beginning, you know, foundational training of, like, this is how you're supposed to hold your body for a bench press, for a push-up. I mean, push-up is so much core. Oh, my gosh, yeah. You know, because a lot of people can't even hold a push-up position, right? They let their back go way back because there's so weak in the core that they can't hold it straight.

It's like, get your butt down, get your back straight. Like, you know, so they're not taught from that young age. And this is not a knock on, you know, physical education teachers, you know. One of my best dearest friends from, you know, high school is, you know, physical education education teacher. I'm going to have to send them this. This is not a knock on you,

buddy. But to be able to learn those foundational exercises, you know, whether they're playing sports or not. But you're thinking like, you know, musicians, you know, musicians,

you know, at the highest level, you know, if you're in chorus or say, were you taught some of this in chorus in terms of like breathing? Yeah. So it's like, you know,

when you're a musician. But again, probably not so much in, school. Like, I took voice, I took voice lessons. Okay. So, like, at the prep. Yeah. So it's, but that kind of physical stuff, whether you're a, you know, musician playing an instrument or just, you know,

a singer. Just wind instruments. Yeah. Yeah. It's like being able to engage that core and stand up straight and control it and then I think you add marching band to it. Like, you know, you've got to be able to be very physically fit to do that. And if they're taught

that from a very early age, then you set the foundation of good health. practices there rather than again how many sports people do we know they beat the crap out of their bodies you know from the time they're 13 to 23 now they're finishing up college and getting into the workforce and they go from hey working out you know several hours a week to oh I'm working my nine to five you know in front of a computer desk job and they've got all these micro tears and injuries from years of poor you know you know poor usage of their core and boom, everything just starts to tighten up.

And it's like, you wonder when you like, you know, people that hit that 30-year-old mark and they're like, I feel like I'm 30. Yeah, everything hurts. Well, I guess I'm just getting older. Well, no, you just haven't been very nice to your body over the past, over the, you know, decade of 13 to 23rd. Yeah. Well, that's why. Yeah, I mean, I worked with your son and two other kids his age. We did like an eight-week training program over the summer.

and I mean, not the population I usually, I spend a lot of time with, and I'm like, oh, this is going to be so great. I have 50-year-olds who would whip these kids in some of this. Again, yeah, like a basic plank, you know, I'm showing them some stuff, and they're like, how are you doing that? I'm like, it's not. And, yeah, it is. I mean, a lot of it is, like, their bodies are growing and developing so fast, too, but it, I'm like, my gosh, they're like gumby. Like, they just, like, are, like, flopping all over the plane. And yeah, so it's just, but it is.

It's so, so important from, I mean, I do think that age, especially if you're going to be playing sports or doing any of those activities you mentioned, you need to learn, you need to learn that so early, because it's just, it's truly, it's the core of this, you know, of your body, of your health. And if that, if that starts to go, it's, you're not going to have, you're not going to have an easy time. Yeah.

Well, and going back to taking that a step further, Dr. Riley, right, we talk a lot about, you know, proper spinal development, good healthy curve in the neck, the low back, and a lot of that happens with good healthy muscle development and engagement. So as we learned, you know, as we see so often, you know, when there's not that good healthy engagement of the muscles, you know, we get young kids that their spines literally aren't developing properly, you know, kind of like if you went to an orthodontist and your teeth were, you know, terribly crooked. These kids are coming in, you know, eight to, you know, 10, 12 years old. And it's like they don't have a healthy curve in their neck.

It's not developing properly. And then if they mature, they hit spinal maturity, which females is like 18 to 22, males like 20 to 24. But that means like that's when you're done growing. All the spine, the ligaments, the tendons around the spine, the musculature have hit their, you know, tension. And, yeah, and settled in and stopped growing. And so now that tension is in place. So now if you've never developed a good healthy curvature in your neck or low back, you know, from that, you know, adolescent phase, it is that much harder to work through as a young adult into, you know, middle adulthood.

So, yeah, a lot of this, you know, I know we all work with, you know, different populations throughout. But the importance of, you know, the younger generation learning these, you know, this valuable information of like just how to engage your muscle, right? There's a lot of like intellectual intelligence, but physical intelligence, I think, is grossly lacking in a lot of our society. Even in the sports world, right? Again, it's like, because I think now it's like, you know, I mentioned earlier, like social media influencers and you see all this, the other extreme, you know, the bodybuilders and the shot. It's like people, you know, we see it where, you know, we see this every day.

You can go on your phone and see all this crazy stuff. And so now we think we need, we need that. No, like that's, you don't need to be on that extreme. It's like, we're talking. And that's why I love the type of training I do, like what I call functional training. It's using daily movements, mimicking daily movements in your exercise program so that you can just continue. Yeah. I mean, how many of us are going to be elite athletes?

Like, it's how many of us. us are really going to be, I mean, I know everybody wants to be social media influencers anymore, but like how many of us are really truly, like, is that, that's such a small part of the population. We all have to get out of bed in the morning. We all have to get in and out of a car, up and down steps and get through our day to day. Go rake leaves, go shovel snow. Like, you know, can you do these things without, you know, injuring yourself? Yeah. You know, can you walk up your, you know, your hill? Dr. Riley, moving from Ohio to Pittsburgh.

These girls are probably. I'm still trying to find out where to ride the bike. Nowhere. It was a pills. Well, I think we covered some great information. A dead bug, if you're, you know, if you don't want to get on the hands and knees, bird dog, I think these will be great videos. I know we have some PDFs of, like, exercises that we can send people if you're interested

in just those core exercises and abdominal bracing. But, yeah, I mean, as we always say, you haven't started any of this stuff or you feel like you're doing things the wrong way, the first thing is always ask and let, you know, let's set up a routine that you can do, you know, once a, you know, daily or, you know, just a couple times a week. And then get into a routine practices, you know, like most of us have been doing throughout this podcast of just being able to go throughout your day and embrace your abs, you know. You should, everyone should like start a little office thing.

It's like, go around and like, hey, you're ready? You know, just like taping each other. the abs and see who's paying attention. I'm doing that at least three, at least once this week. But, but yeah, if you're, you know, if you have any questions about this, you know, please

reach out. We'll try, we'll put some links in the podcast as well underneath so that you have some access to some of those exercises. I know there's a ton of videos out there if you just Google, you know, bird dog and dead bug. But, yeah, the key is getting into, you know,

making it habitual so that you do a little bit each day, starting with just the abdominal brace and doing it correctly. Awesome. Great talk. That was fantastic. So what's your core for? Thanks for stopping by. We'll see everyone at the next one.

Thank you. Hey, guys. You've been listening to What the Health with Dr. Dan and Angela Toro, brought to you by Toro family chiropractic. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www. Whatthehealth.