After reading some important comments on 'core training' which I will refer to as TVA activation or Functional Training, I want to point out just a few issues on it's importance. I begin this post with the assumption that you have already read my first post, The Tao of Core. And that the basics have been mastered or understood.

TVA activation is the ability to exercise in a manner that recruits more muscle fiber throughout the body to perform a given task. Functional Training is then incorporating TVA activation exercises and techniques into a fitness program that overall benefits the neuro-muscular system and enhances your kinetic chain. The Kinetic chain is a subconscious recruitment of muscle systems to perform simple tasks, like picking up a book or getting into a low car seat, to complex motions like hitting a 95 mph fast ball, low and inside.

For the average person trying to overcome symptoms of the common man, using functional training in conjunction with a progressive resistance program, sound nutrition, some supplementation and (everyone smile) cardiovascular endurance, is not a very difficult to live a relatively pain free and physically invigorating life.

Like I wrote in my earlier piece, there are many different tools to use when performing these exercises but not all or any are necessary to begin improving your TVA activiaton, begin incorporating functional training and improve your kinetic chain. However first and foremost a person should be diagnosed by a certified personal trainer who has been trained to assess postural deviations to suggest appropriate corrective movements and stretches to put your body back into alignment. Who do you feel buying your running shoes from, the guy at Meryns or the runner working at the your local running shoe store? Exactly. Don't copy what you see someone else doing because you may have no idea what their doing it for. To get a bit techy here, "Why stretch for an anterior pelvic tilt if your dealing with Upper Cross Syndrome?"

Most exercises in the beginning require only an educated mentor and your body weight. While you may not get stronger at one specific movement like a bench press using just your body weight, you will be doing exercises that will strengthen your kinetic chain and through that become a better athlete, to a point.

Using Swiss balls, dyna-discs, bands, tubing, medicine balls and light dumbbells allow you to push your body through additional processes that now involve greater strength and progress you through greater unstable environments. Which as I explained earlier, instability is the primary focus of 'core training'.

The movements in functional training are designed to mimic real world scenarios. For example, someone tell me the last time you used a movement similar to a behind the neck lat pulldown machine? Or the last time you thanked yourself for doing all those upright rows with a barbell? Exactly, staples of bodybuilding but not really applicable to real life.

In functional training you perform exercises that seem funny like the single leg squat or the Romanian Dead Lift? (the RDL, a great movement BTW, stand on one leg, keeping it straight, lean forward from the hips down till your parallel to the ground and back up, doing a set of repetitions, like a touch your toes stretch) The RDL may seem boring or look silly and slow but you have no concept of how crucial it is to a person with back problems building that area of the body so they can get in and out of a car with some degree of ease. Ever throw your back out just picking up something off the floor, a single leg squat mimics that movement. See functional training has real world application.

Now when you get to a triathletes level of functional training, or a football player, basketball, baseball, soccer player, even in golf, we need to begin discusses functional training in relation to sport specific training.

Upper Cross Syndrome is a condition that affects the shoulders, neck and head. Symptoms include a forward head, shoulders that roll or droop forward and a upper back that tires easily, the chest is pulled in.

Do you think a triathlete would benefit from knowing how to overcome Upper Cross if they have it?

How about in the pool, by bringing your head back into alignment, you reduce body drag in your swim.

How about on the bike? Upper Cross Syndrome can rob power from your legs if your chest can't open up enough to get a lung full of air.

How about the run? If your back is already weak, well its supposed to be holding your head up and pushing your chest out, isn't it? It should be.

Each sport has its own functional training techniques. A basketball player or running back may use plyometrics or explosive movements to improve vertical jumping or lateral quickness. Does a triathlete need to practice explosive movements? Heck no.

There are a tremendous amount of resources available to someone to improve their TVA activation and start a functional training program. If your interested, it can become a very educational approach and would not be surprised if you noticed a break through in your training.

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·  The Tao of Core