You can’t walk into a gym, watch a workout DVD or read an exercise article without hearing about “core” or “core strength.”  The fact that the core has gotten a lot of hype is a good thing, the bad thing is the misunderstanding.  Walk into any health club and ask a few of the personal trainers what the word “core” means to them and you will get multiple responses.  Ask them to show you their favorite core exercise and some will show you a sit up variation, while another may show you total body exercise that you didn’t realize involved the core at all.  With all this confusion on what the core actually is, we are missing out on the bigger picture.

The pillar is where your focus needs to start to shift to, as opposed to the core. The pillar can be thought of as a rectangular box that incorporates everything from your shoulders to your hips. Since the shoulders and hips need to be strong for you to truly have core strength, developing pillar strength is essential.  All of your daily movement should begin from your center (core) and stem outward to your limbs.  The bridge connects that gap from core to limbs is your hip and shoulder joints.  If you do not have strength in your shoulders and hips, there will be an energy leak.  This leak will result in instability because you will not be able to harness that strength all of the way from your core to your extremities (feet and hands).  The great thing about developing pillar strength is the fact that you will be developing your core strength at the same time.

The best pillar strength exercises require for your core to be firing on all cylinders in order for you to complete them.  A typical crunch requires really no other strength besides in the abdominals and is actually very limited in providing true core strength.  You may be hardening your abdominal muscles but you won’t necessarily be a stable person.  Exercises such as a plank are amazing for not only developing your abdominals from an aesthetic standpoint, but also making you a more stable and solid person all around.

As you begin to develop better pillar strength, the doors will open allowing you to pick from a wider exercise selection.  No matter what your fitness goals are, better pillar strength will play a major roll in helping you accomplish them. If you are looking to get stronger, you will be able to bench and squat more weight because of the stability within the joints.  If you are looking to lose weight or lean out, more difficult exercises that weren’t an option before will come available.  More difficult exercises place a larger demand on the body, which equates to you burning more calories.   Developing pillar strength should be at the top of your list of goals in the gym. Once you have a strong pillar, it will be easy to manipulate your body to accomplish the other goals that you have.

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying when I am talking about incorporating the shoulder and hips.  Doing lateral or front raises won’t necessarily strengthen your joints, which is what we rely for stability.  A lateral or front raise will develop the deltoids but won’t do a great job at developing the stabilizer muscles in your rotator cuff.  Just as doing a bunch of squats wont necessarily develop the stabilizer muscles around your hip socket.  Exercises such as a glute bridge, or side plank are small movements that do wonders for developing the muscles that surround a joint.

The fitness industry needs to make the shift from talking about core strength to talking about pillar strength.  Core is a hot buzzword that is gaining a lot of attention right now, but as I said it is widely misunderstood.  Incorporate the shoulders and hips with your core and you are now developing pillar strength, this is true core strength. Check out the video below for some great exercises that will help you develop pillar strength. Your Shadow Fit personalized workout will be based around developing that strength. Fill out the questionnaire and give it a try. http://shadowfit.com/signup_1.cfm?secret_code=dh374hfj3s