Core Conditioning and Med Ball Abs
| Core Conditioning and Med Ball Abs |
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| Written by Andrea Engelmann, BS Human Biology, CSCS | |
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ThrowFarther Intro: This ThrowFarther article on Core Conditioning and Med Ball Ab training has been developed to accompany aspects of the ThrowFarther Training Framework. Core conditioning touches on two of the key framework building block areas - the Functional Area as well as the Strength and Power area. We hope that you find this article to be very informative and that you can incorporate these training principles into your workouts. To accompany this article and to provide you with more guidance related to the medicine ball training, we have developed a series of video clips demonstrating the exercises that are described here. You can view the video clips of the Core Conditioning and Med Ball Ab training videos here or by going to the 'Throwing Videos' media gallery. To post questions or comments related to this article, check out the Training Discussion area of the website here.
Core Conditioning and Med Ball Absby: Andrea Engelmann, BS Human Biology, CSCS Marquette University physical therapy grad student & former collegiate hammer thrower
Core strengthening is undeniably important to the throws athlete. A stable core (abdominal & back musculature) allows the explosive forces generated in the lower body to be transmitted up into the arms on through to the implement. By contrast, if these large forces generated by the legs are not matched by a strong and active core the thrower will be less efficient as part of that energy goes into undesired trunk movement, and puts him or her in technically bad positions, off balance, and at higher risk for injury. Don’t let your core be the weak link in the explosive kinetic chain that makes up a successful throw (or power & Olympic lift for that matter)!
First, let’s talk a little bit about core conditioning in general. Why is it that we treat our core, particularly our abdominals so differently from every other muscle group that we train? Hopefully you wouldn’t go into the weight room and perform large volumes of back squats every day, to failure… yet that’s just what a lot of athletes do to their abdominal muscles- 100’s of crunches daily. There are several things wrong with this approach. It’s just not a great idea to target the same muscle group every day, particularly not with the same exercise every day. Muscles need recovery for optimal performance and strength gains, and although your core should be actively engaged with every day movement and especially with lifting tasks both inside and outside of the gym setting, fatiguing your abdominals with targeted exercises daily is not best practice. Also, as throwers we don’t just move in the flexion/extension plane (crunch/back extension), we all rotate through our hips, and have need for stability side to side. Therefore, core conditioning programs should hit elements of flexion/extension, side-bending to the right and left, and rotating to the right and to the left. Two good formats for core conditioning are as follows: either hit all of these categories just listed (flex, ext, side-bending, rotation) 3x/wk with at least one day of rest in between workouts, OR chose two different categories of exercises to work on each day, being sure not to repeat a targeted motion two days in a row if you want to work the abdominals 5+ days/wk. By targeting different planes of motion you will fatigue different muscle groups.
Once athletes are proficient with body weight abdominal exercises they can progress to weighted abdominal exercises with plates (or holding a med ball), and finally move into med ball abdominal exercises incorporating throws and catches. Something all athletes should be taught, even at the body weight abdominal exercise stage is how to engage the deep core muscles (transversus abdominus and the multifidi). Emphasize gently drawing in the navel towards the spine (make yourself as skinny as possible), without holding your breath. This light contraction should be held throughout the day, and is even more important in throwing and lifting to protect the spine and promote stability. Make sure that this activation occurs during all abdominal exercises so that the deep core muscles are engaged as well, not just the “6-pack”.
It can also be valuable to have a different training goal for the different core workouts you do in a week. Have a “strength” core workout to finish off a heavy lift day. “Strength” days mean using heavier weight, lower reps and more rest- it’s true for your squats and it’s true for your core. So, try using a med ball (6-8kg) or plate (25+lbs) for 4-6 exercises of 15-20 reps with 30-60s rest. Wait until the end of the lift so that the athlete is not performing a lift like a squat or overhead lift that requires fine tuned core stability with a fatigued core- this increases risk of injury from the core “buckling” under the weight. “Power” and/or “conditioning” core workouts can be done in larger volumes on conditioning days or post throwing. Leave more rest between sets (30-60s) if the abdominal exercises chosen are explosive in nature (med ball throws), choose 4-6 exercises and complete 2-3 sets of 10-15 throws per side using a med ball that you can throw quickly and forcefully (3-5k). “Conditioning” core exercises like variations of sit ups and crunches can be performed at higher rep ranges (20-50) or for time (30-60s) with a medium weight of med ball (4-6k) with minimal rest in between (ie. 0-20s). For example, cycle through 2 sets of 4-6 exercises or 1 set of 6-10 exercises with minimal rest at the end of a workout. If you decide to do a mix of “power” and “conditioning” type abs, perform the “power” abs first, and remember that they will require more rest than the conditioning type work to follow, keep your total # of sets in the 6-10 range.
So, having established that core strengthening is important to throwing- which you probably believed anyway, let’s talk about why med ball abs are a great training tool in core strengthening. First, med balls bring are a break from the monotony of body weight crunches- it’s a way to keep your ab workouts interesting. Second, many body weight abdominal exercises can be progressed be adding the weight of a medicine ball, for increased challenge to the core. Finally, as throwing athletes we can add to the specificity of our core conditioning by incorporating med ball abdominal exercises with throwing and/or explosive elements- med ball abs are plyometrics for your core.
The med ball exercises compiled on the website demonstrate just some of the possible ways to challenge your core with med balls. The exercises are categorized as flexion, extension, rotation or side-bending for your convenience as you put your own workouts together. Also, keep the following principles of progression in mind: If you hold the ball farther away from your body, the exercise gets harder. If you lean back farther or side bend or twist farther- in general, if you work as far into the range of motion as you can- you will be challenged more. Of course, you’ll get a greater challenge from picking up a heavier med ball, throwing balls with more force or by adding reps or time to your med ball core workout. Enjoy!
Key Summary Points for Designing Your Med Ball Core Training Program
To post questions or discussion items related to this article, please post your questions or comments in the Throwing Training section of the ThrowFarther discussion groups (click here).
Medicine Ball Core Conditioning Training Categories and ExercisesClick here to View demonsration videos of all of the following exercises.
Flexion
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