By the time most of us reach our twenties, we find that building core strength is an uphill battle. Recreational sports are often dropped to work long, sedentary jobs in an office and provide a taxi service for our children. As our range of motion decreases, the body’s flexibility and balance tends to hit the floor.
The core doesn’t begin and end with our abdominals, and so when we do attempt to tighten our midsection, many of approach strengthening our muscles with a limited understanding of how to get the best possible results. While your chances of out-performing an Olympic athlete on the pommel horse may seem out of reach, you can still learn from the best when it comes to improving your own physical fitness and getting the best from core workouts.
And when it comes to learning from the best, there’s nobody better than U.S. Olympic gymnast Sam Mikulak, who has worked on his core strength more than most. The six-time U.S. national all-around champion, eight-time NCAA champion, and Olympic athlete takes a holistic approach to training, meaning that you won’t have to jump through hoops to make your own rapid improvements.
Elite athletes know that training doesn’t simply begin when you enter the gym, and success comes from understanding the connection between your mind and body. There’s a whole new mentality that you can adopt to get the very best from each rep.
Here are Sam’s nine sensible tips for athletes of all abilities.
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It’s not all about sit-ups.
Sit-ups can be a valuable part of a core strengthening routine, but you shouldn’t rely on these alone. Since your midsection utilizes muscles from all of its surrounding areas, including your spine for stability, it’s important to draw on a wide variety of approaches when building your core power. There are a number of other worthy exercises that you can bring into your regimen, such as throwing in variations on the traditional sit-up. The plank is a great test of endurance and you can get a great range of motion from Russian twists for a side-to-side movement.
“Your core is not just at the front. The core is everything around your stomach essentially. You want to strengthen the muscles in the back, get in those Russian twists. Also make sure your legs, everything gets worked. That’s what is actually going to pull everything in tighter,” says Sam.
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Warming Up
Get physically ready before entering the gym.
Ask yourself if you’re really putting all of your physical effort into your core workouts. If you’re coasting along, you may need to look at improving your physical readiness before hitting the gym. Results of any type of workout will depend on the effort that you invest. Before you even get as far as the warm up, think about what you need to do to feel as ready as possible for the training session ahead.
“[Fellow gymnast] Yul Moldauer likes to sit in a jacuzzi for five minutes before practice,” says Sam.
A jacuzzi is a great way to warm up the muscles, making them expand and less likely to become pulled. Perhaps that’s overkill for your routine and you just need to take the office stairs during the day instead of riding the elevator to stay active. Whatever improves your own physical readiness for each gym session will impact positively on your results.
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Now warm up
So, you made it to the gym — but before you pat yourself on the back, make sure you give adequate time to warming up. Stretching your muscles and tendons is essential for improving circulation and serves to warm the muscles, making them more limber and less prone to injury. Don’t skip or rush through the warm up, because it’s just as important as the main workout when it comes to improving your well-being. Warmup routines can also be a great stress reliever.
“I warm up every single day because I feel like you need to get every part of your body moving. I make sure that I really can flex the muscles to the extremes before I start training,” says Sam.
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Dial-in mnetally.
Exercising the core isn’t about throwing weights around. It’s an almost spiritual process that requires mental clarity and a good mind-body connection. Try to leave the stresses of the day back at the office and enter the gym with the focus you need to succeed. Focus on breathing, so you can be at peace and thoroughly enjoy the movements you undertake.
“Exercise is only half the equation. How do you feel when you walk into the gym? I like the Optimum Nutrition Amino Energy drinks. They wake me up in a way where I can mentally make all the body movements. I get a symbiosis going on so that everything just flows. When focus and endurance is working together, that is what we need,” says Sam.
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Eat right
When you have a healthy relationship with food, the physical benefits are endless. If you want to show off your rock-solid core, then you need to eat right. Taking care of yourself by eating right goes much further than mere aesthetics, since putting the correct fuel into your body will improve your workouts and also speed up recovery times. Losing unwanted bodyfat will also make exercises feel easier, since you will lighten the load.
“You can do as many crunches as you want, but if you are not eating right, and you’ve got a gut over your abs, that’s not going to look that good. Have a good healthy diet, eat your whole foods, if you can’t get the nutrition when you need it. We are all on a time crunch so good recovery and getting your protein in as soon as possible is important,” says Sam.
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Work on your range of motion
Twisting the body from side to side, with weights if you feel able, is a great way to work on your range of motion and will strengthen your core muscles. Range-of-motion exercises are all about slowly seeing how far you can extend yourself. When you focus on range of motion, you will not only strengthen your abs and your back, but you will also improve your levels of flexibility.
“One of the best parts about building your core is building on your range of motion. When you are twisting, how far can you go? How can you build strength in that range? I do range-of-motion exercises in my core and also in my legs and may arms,” says Sam.
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Monitor your progress
Staying in loop with your body’s range of motion is a good way of tracking flexibility. Monitor your progress with core exercises and make sure to set personal targets that you would like to reach. Perhaps you want to extend the time spent in the plank position, or increase the amount of reps achieved on the balance ball.
“Take the time to reflect and ask yourself, what did you do well and how can you make it better next week? Being able to progress to a point where you are safe, and you are doing things right is the way to go,” says Sam.
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Focus on technique
For many athletes, a one-rep max would only be an exercise in vanity. With your ego checked at the door, concentrate on form and technique. Not only will your body respond better, but you will be less likely to pull a muscle. When you work on your core the right way, you will notice that every other type of exercise you undertake will show an improvement.
“I want to make sure that I can continue to bench as much as I want by building everything around those core muscles. My coach will tell me when I am doing my range of motion and compromising technique, and he may advise me to drop down on weight. If you don’t train right, you will get hurt. Let’s make sure that everything is done technically well,” says Sam
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Focus on your weaknesses
From complete gym novice to Olympic athlete, everyone has their weak spots. While it might be easy to crank out the same exercises session after session because you know you can do them well, it is important to focus on weak spots and build up muscles that you may have missed by frequently using the same old routine. Don’t be afraid to try new things — you can lower the weight until you feel that your form has improved.
“Our athletic trainers are very good at building our weak muscles. You can build on your weak muscles with very light weights, maybe even 2 or 3 lbs. Practice holding a dumbbell to your side and then raise your arm and extend it. In gymnastics, you might think that an iron cross or a maltese is the hardest thing to do, but sometimes it can be just raising your arm above your head. Build on that and it will strengthen your core. You might not get as much satisfaction picking up a 3 lb. weight, but I’ve convinced myself that building on weak spots is much more beneficial.”
