Your core is, quite literally, at the center of everything you do. It’s what powers your paddle strokes, allows you to reach for a climbing hold, and makes hoisting a heavy pack and carrying it over miles of technical terrain possible. It also helps you avoid injury during all those pursuits. But to make it work for you, you have to incorporate core exercises into your training plan.
What Exactly Is Your Core?
Often, core work focuses on building the vanity muscles of the six-pack (also known as the rectus abdominis) through crunches, which can overwork the hip flexors and lead to neck and lower back discomfort. A well-rounded core routine will target the entire core musculature, which also includes your diaphragm, pelvic floor, transverse abdominis (the deep core layer which provides postural stability), obliques, and some of your back muscles (erector spinae, multifidus).
While much of traditional core training involves exercises like planks (a static movement), you also need to train for dynamic stability. “Being in the outdoors is sometimes very unpredictable,” says Steph Gaudreau, a San…
