What is the rationale for emphasizing the core muscle groups in strength training programs for athletes?
ALLEN: When athletes produce the necessary movements in their sports with increased efficiency, their performance improves; better core strength can enhance this efficiency of movement. Greater strength of the core musculature increases the stability of the pelvis and spine and improves body control or balance during athletic movements. This helps the athlete generate greater power output, not only from the core musculature, but also from the peripheral muscles of the shoulders, arms, and legs because many of these muscles are anchored to the spine or pelvis. When the spine and pelvis are more stable, the peripheral muscles are biomechanically more effective. STANFORTH: To expand on Skip?s comments, it is important to train the core muscles because the torso is used either actively or as a stabilizer in just about any athletic movement; thus, it makes sense to target those muscles for strength training. More importantly, those muscles should not be trained exclusively in isolation beca
