The importance of a strong core and all-round strength

I don’t know about you, but since my online activity frequently involves sporting activity, the targeted online adverts that I get shown often involve titles such as “Develop a strong core in 30 days”, “Get a six-pack in six weeks”, “Get ripped with this bodyweight workout plan” and so on.

Okay, it would be kind of nice to know that my body is in shape, but most of these ads seem to be appealing to a narcissistic, body-image focused person.  And surely that’s not me?  

My sporting focus is on how fast and far I can run, cycle or swim, not in looking like a Greek god when I take my shirt off.  Which I hasten to add is not entirely appropriate behaviour on most occasions…. (the photo above is not me!)

And so I might have thought a few years back when all I did was run.  My training focus then was all about building leg endurance, honing my running form and developing cardiovascular capability. I considered any upper body muscle as just extra weight to be carried.

But then I started to be coached by people who knew their stuff  and I took up cycling and swimming more seriously.  I realised that having strength in my abdomen and lower back was an essential part of connecting and stabilising my motion, so I could go faster and further.

But it wasn’t until a crisis that I understood how much reliance I had on my core strength.

As I built up my training mileage in 2009 to try to beat three-hours for the marathon, all my training was going well, but I noticed a strange bulge around my belly button. I was still running well, but I thought I’d better get it checked out by my doctor.  He diagnosed a para-umbilical hernia.  Not a serious issue, but one requiring surgery to correct.  

And so, that after a string of personal best performances that summer, I checked into the hospital for a minor procedure to sew up the hernia, a small hole in my muscle wall.  The operation went well but because my middle had just been cut and resewn (very neatly I must say!), I was unable to bend my midriff without extreme pain.  I couldn’t sit up, I couldn’t roll, I couldn’t even hold weight in my hands without discomfort because I had to brace through my tummy.

Without the ability to brace through my core I was rendered completely helpless – at least for the time until the surgical wound had healed.

Since then I’ve at least been much more conscious of putting exercises into my weekly routine to keep my core toned – planks, push-ups, squats, lunges, leg raises etc and general hip and glute flexibility routines.  I haven’t got a six-pack, but I don’t need any of those adverts which promise miracle workout routines.

And so, onto my recent accident and injuries.

Now that my upper spine, neck and shoulders are immobilised and I have a heavy halo vest on my upper body (see above), I’m very grateful for my core routine.  I now have to move the entire weight of my head and torso from my lower back and abdominal muscles.  And even then, it has been a struggle to build up the necessary strength to move around comfortably.

So whilst I’m losing a chunk of overall fitness while I’m wearing the halo since I can’t run cycle or swim, I think I’m getting ripped in my abs! 

This is not quite the fitness plan that all those internet adverts promised…!

My learning from this time of trial: Building a strong core helps in every circumstance – whether I’m flying in the form of my life or whether I’m injured.

So a question for you…

How’s your physical core strength?

The spiritual parallels…

Whatever the visible signs of religious behaviour, all of it is meaningless without a strong core to connect it all up.

Many people erroneously interpret religion as a set of rules that must be obeyed to gain favour with God.  But the Christian faith is different. 

When Jesus came to earth and started teaching, he encountered the Jewish nation bound up in religion and over-zealous focus on rules, dominated by sects such as the Pharisees and Sadducees.  People questioning this and truly seeking the reality of God had all kinds of questions of Jesus.

The Pharisees, whose mindset was that obedience to rules gave brought them closer to God, came to Jesus to test him:

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Matthew 22:36-39 New International Version (NIV)

And Jesus answered with one of the most profound statements of the whole Bible – that, at the core of all the principles, laws and regulations are two very simple principles, that connect everything together:

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

Matthew 22:37-39 New International Version (NIV)

And so the underlying principles of the Christian faith have an analogy in my core strength story.

 If all the visible activity, like the arms and legs that you try to move in sport, are not connected properly through the core, then they’ll be no strength, coordination or effectiveness.

Likewise..

If whatever is seen physically as religious behaviour is not rooted and connected through the core of love for God and our neighbour, then all that religious activity is of no value.

Or as the Apostle Paul wrote:

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 New International Version (NIV)

How’s your spiritual core strength?

Quotations for the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc

Title Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash