What is your core?

Physical therapy

﻿Hello, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today. We are starting with a new topic of core strengthening. The first lesson today, we're going to be looking at what is your core? We will start off by looking at what are your core muscles. Then we will look a bit about what the core does, and we'll finish with an activity where we'll just be introducing a little bit of awareness to your core. For the activity, you will need a water bottle. So you might have a water bottle like this or you might have a reusable one like this. Also, please make sure that your water bottle has got water in it and that the lid is done up securely so that you can take part in the activity. So if you want to get those things now, you might need some help from a parent or carer and then we can begin. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So you may be watching this as a child by yourself or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. And each lesson we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using, or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist. So please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions or would like help tailoring this to their needs, then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. Let us begin with an introduction into what are core muscles? So the word core, you might also of heard it be called your abdominals, or it can be called your tummy muscles. So your core muscles are the muscles around your tummy area which can also be called your trunk, and this is the middle part of your body. They help keep you steady when you're moving your arms and legs. So they're really vital for helping move other parts of your body, not just that area. And the muscles have to work together. So they have to do those jobs together to help stabilise you and help move you. And some of the muscles you can see, and some of the muscles are very deep muscles that help stabilise you. So within that area, there's lots of muscles that make up your core. So let's think about what does your core do? When you have a strong core, so when those muscles are working well and they're activated, the strong core protects your spine when you are still but also when you are moving. So it has an important job to protect your spine, which can help with your posture. So your core and your posture link together. And also, when you have a strong core, you're able to carry yourself in a way that is effective when moving and changing position, but also keeping you stable. So it has those two jobs that work alongside each other. I'll take you through this flow chart that looks at what can happen when you have a strong and stable core. If your core is activated and working well, it can help prevent injury, which is what we want to do. We want to eliminate any pain or injury. It also protects your body, and this links into posture. So if you wanted to learn about posture, you could have a look at the lessons I did in the unit on posture. So helping your posture will help reduce and prevent back pain. This topic of core strengthening ties in really nicely with the topic of posture. To have a little think about activating our core, and just seeing what our core does, I'd like you to try this activity. So I'd like you to stand, holding a bottle of water. I'd like you to lift the bottle to your shoulder height and keep your arms as straight as you can. I would then like you to lift and lower the bottle. So take the bottle from the starting position, just down to your legs and pay careful attention to what is happening to your body. I'll demonstrate this for you now. When you finish watching the video of me demonstrating, pause the video and have a try yourself and then press Start to rejoin me. I'm now going to demonstrate the activity with the bottle of water. So the position you need to start in, I'll show you from the front first. So you need to start with your feet a good distance apart so you're feeling nice and stable, and you want to hold your arms out in front of you holding the bottle of water either at the ends there or on top, or underneath. I find it easier to hold a bottle of water at the ends. So you want to try and keep your arms straight, but you don't want them hyper-extending. If you naturally have a bit more movement in your elbows, you want them in a position like that, and then I'll show you at the side. So you don't want your arms all the way like this. You want your arms about there. And what you are going to do is you're going to take the bottle down towards your legs, and bring the bottle back up. And back down, and back up. And what I'd like you to do is have a little think about what is happening to your body when you're lifting the bottle up and taking it back down. Especially around your tummy area. So as you're doing the activity, you might like to pay attention to what's going on around your head, and also your neck, the muscles all around your neck, the muscles in the top of your back, the muscles in your tummy, and also the muscles in the lower part of your body, so in your feet. And just see what happens when you lift the bottle and you lower it. If you pause the video now, give those a go and join me again after. Let's maybe think about this a little bit more. So if we take the different areas of your body, what was happening at your head? Does your head stay steady when you were moving other parts of your body? You may notice that your head might tilt forward slightly. And what about your tummy or trunk area? To extend the activity, you could turn the bottle upside down and back 10 times and see if you notice what happens around your tummy. Were your core muscles starting to move? And then, moving to your neck, pay attention to the muscles in the front of your neck. Do you feel them contracting as they work to keep your head stable? And lastly, moving to your feet. Feel what is happening in your feet. As you lift the bottle up and down, you might notice that your weight moves backwards into your heels. This can be because you're changing your centre of gravity and your base of support is changing to accommodate this. Have a think about those four areas and see what you come up with. Pause the video now and then you can join me again after. I think we've just about come to the end of our lesson today. So I'd like to thank you for joining me. I hope you found some useful things on the topic of core strengthening. Please join me next time for lesson two where we will be looking a little closer at why core strength is important. All that leaves me to say now is thank you very much for joining me, take care, have a great day, and I will see you very soon. Good bye.

What is your core?

What is your core?

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