the.com/core strength

not abs for the beach, abs for not falling over when life pushes you.

means the strength and control of the muscles around your trunk, pelvis, and spine that stabilize your body during basically every movement you make.

from the term surged with pilates and physical therapy in the late 20th century, when trainers realized visible abs and functional stability are not the same thing, and started training the deep muscles you cannot see instead.

for instance

gymnasts on ringshold an iron cross using pure trunk and shoulder stability

pilates reformerjoseph pilates built it in the 1920s to train exactly this

olympic weightliftersbrace the core to keep the spine rigid under 200kg loads

rock climbersuse core tension to keep feet on holds, not just arms

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