The core is the foundation of the body, and from it all limb movements are based. In recent years athletes have recognized the importance of core strength and have been taking measures to improve the strength of their core muscles. No matter what the sport, whether it be basketball or golf or anything in between, core strength is important and athletes are taking strides in building it.
What Are Core Muscles Exactly?
The core muscles are all the muscles that surround the spine and abdomen. They include the abdominals, hip flexors, gluteal muscles, and others. If we have control over these muscles, we can give greater stability to the spinal area as well as improve movement in other parts of the body, such as the arms or legs. Core strength is also a primary part in eliminating lower back pain, which is another reason so many athletes strive to increase it.
Of course core conditioning is not merely for athletes, people of all shapes and sizes as well as any age can benefit from having a strong core, especially when it comes to controlling or regulating back pain. Core stability is also a vital part of rehabilitation exercises and treatment for various conditions.
Activate That Core!
Many people jump into core exercises without any real idea or plan of what they are doing. People claim having experienced many awesome benefits from working out their abdominal and core muscles, but this is just not the case for every person. Why? Because there is no quick fix to core activation and stability.
People want to have fast and easy results and as a result they jump into core exercises that are simply too advanced for them. When taught correctly, core exercises are not fast, or easy. It takes a whole lot of time, and even more patience.
Core stability needs to be looked at as a set of skills that has been achieved due to time and dedication. The basics need to be mastered before you are ready to move on to a more advanced move. Just like crawling comes before walking, so core strength needs to be built up.
Functional Progression and basic motor skill strengthening and training are the three correct beginning steps to core activation techniques. You must learn how to activate, then strengthen, then utilize your core to work exactly as you need it to for your particular goal.
Anyone can do it, all that is required is time and consistent dedication and anyone can have a strong and stable core.
In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.
Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.
The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.
Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient to proper diagnostic workup
Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed to be a complete tear with muscle contraction under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)
Complete tear of rectus femoris with large hematoma (blood)
Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited on dynamic sonography examination
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