Core Training for Weightlifters — How to Become Strong and Stable With the Barbell

There is a lot of debate among fitness experts about the best way to train your core. The trunk is the central pillar of your movement. The core is not just the anatomical components, but also the functional engine of stability and athletic prowess.

Your core directly supports your performance in Olympic lifting. A strong core is necessary for maintaining your posture in the snatch or clean. Additionally, your core relays information to your nervous system and helps keep your lifting muscles in place.

You need to train your core properly if you want to be able to lift big weights on the platform. A strong, sturdy trunk is one that doesn't move around unwantedly, but can still handle a heavy barbell. Weightlifters won't see results from crunches and sit-ups alone.

5 Posterior Chain Exercises For Stability And Strength

What you can’t see can hurt you. It can help you gain strength, muscle, and improve your athletic performance.

You cannot see all the muscles on the backside of your body without looking in the mirror and twisting your body. The glutes, hamstrings, lower back muscles, lats, and a few other key muscles. Collectively, these are known as the posterior chain.

Having large muscles on the front of your body might make you look good, but the muscles on your back are more important for activities such as sports, lifting weights, and preventing injuries.

The muscles that are most visible on the front of the body are typically referred to as the “show” muscles, according to Jim Smith, CPPS, a strength coach and owner of Diesel Strength & Conditioning. “The posterior chain is the ‘go’ muscles.”

If you are more focused on your chest and abs rather than your glutes and hamstrings, it is time to start focusing more on your backside. The article explains why it is beneficial to train the posterior chain and provides a guide on how to do so.

What is the Posterior Chain?

There is some confusion about what exactly makes up the posterior chain. The main muscles located in the posterior part of the body are the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back muscles. Most trainers use the term posterior chain to refer to these muscles. But it doesn’t stop there.

According to Jeff Jucha, who is the owner and head coach at West Little Rock CrossFit in Arkansas, there are more muscles back there than just the hamstrings and glutes. The traps, lats, and other muscles located along the spine are also part of the posterior muscle group.

This is in addition to the muscles that were already mentioned, including the adductors, calves, and core musculature. He says that the posterior chain is all the muscles you can't see when you look in a mirror.

Major Posterior Chain Muscles

Upper, middle, and lower trapezius

– Posterior deltoids

– Latissimus dorsi

– Rhomboids

– Spinal erectors (erector spinae)

– Transverse abdominis

– Gluteus maximus, gluteus medius

– Hamstrings (biceps femoris, semimembranosis, semitendonosis)

– Calves (gastrocnemius, soleus)

The muscles work together in a chain to create movement.

“According to Smith, the posterior chain works together to help the body move forward, react quickly, and start movements like throwing, jumping, sprinting, and speeding up or slowing down.” The rats' ability to work together is due to their intermuscular coordination.

Why is Working Out the Posterior Chain Important?

Jumping, sprinting, and all the foundational gym lifts require action from the muscles in the back of the body. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, and other variations target the muscles in the core and lower body. Classic upper-body lifts like rows, presses, and chinups also work the backside muscles. If you are performing the bench press with the correct form, you should have your butt muscles tightened and your feet pushing against the floor. These actions help stabilize the torso.

The posterior chain is the group of muscles running down the back of the body and are responsible for hip extension, knee flexion, and plantar flexion. In most back and pull day workout routines, the traps, lats, rear delts, and rhomboids are worked through the pulling and retracting motions that they provide. The article will focus on lower-body posterior chain muscles, which are often ignored.

You may be wondering about the quads if you have been paying attention. The quads are not part of the posterior chain, however knee extension, which they initiate, is obviously important for sports and strength athletes; it makes up one-third of the all-important “triple extension” sequence. The triple extension sequence is the simultaneous extension of the hips, knees, and ankles to produce explosiveness. Some lifters may train too much with an emphasis on knee extension, which can be a problem. Many people who go to the gym enjoy doing squats and leg presses because it is satisfying to see their legs swell with blood. The posterior chain is the set of muscles that runs down the back of the body. It can get undertrained because the lifter doesn't see it in the mirror, and so working it is an afterthought. Even if the result is quads that are too strong in comparison to the glutes and hamstrings, and a posterior chain that is disproportionately weak. Athletes should focus on the posterior chain and not worry about the quads for a while.

“There should be a balance,” says Smith. This slight change in mechanics places an imbalance on the joints and muscles, and can lead to serious knee and hip injuries.” The text is saying that many athletes and lifters become quad-dominant, which means they start their squatting patterns by initiating knee flexion first, instead of sitting back into their hips to engage the glutes. This can lead to serious knee and hip injuries because it puts an imbalance on the joints and muscles. If a person cannot sit properly in a squat, their glutes will become weaker and their knees will push forward. This increases the strain on the quadriceps and can cause lower back injuries. “It's important to develop your quad muscles for everything, including athletics,” says Smith. “But you also need to strengthen your hamstrings, glutes, and other muscles in your back to create a balance of forces across your ankles, knees, and hips.”

If your hamstrings, glutes, and other posterior muscles are weak, it can lead to imbalanced development, which can decrease your strength and athletic performance, and increase your risk of injury. If you don't take care of your posterior chain, you will end up with lower back and knee pain. This is because of the squatting that is not done correctly, as Smith described it above, as well as a problem with being balanced that causes a domino effect on all movements and exercises.

According to Brian Strump, a weak posterior chain in relation to the rectus abdominis, quads, and hip flexors can create an increased potential for injury. ” The risk of low-back pain, hip pain, and knee pain often increases when the muscles are out of balance. To maintain optimal joint function, it is important to have a balance of push and pull muscles and tendons around the joint.

Here are five posterior chain-focused exercises to help with these issues and improve your gains and performance.

Best Core Exercises for Weightlifting

A “hollow position” is when your body is slightly concave. This sets your core muscles in place. It’s an isometric contraction that holds the midsection in place by pressing the ribcage down so it is in line with the pelvis. This is the starting position for all types of movement that involve momentum and weight. The hollow brace is often used in weightlifting movements, such as the pull, squat, or press.

Benefits of the Hollow Hold

• It’s an accessible first building block of activating the core.
• The position solidifies the trunk in place while you train under load.
• The isometric contraction is a good way to beef up your abs.

How to Do the Hollow Hold

Lay on the floor on your back with your knees bent. Your lower back should not be touching the ground. There should be a slight arch in your lower back. Breathe out deeply and completely, and suck in your stomach to “push your back” against the ground. Extend your knee so your leg is straight and off the ground.

Plank

The plank is a move that is similar to the hollow hold, but instead of just your back and shoulders being off the ground, your entire body is supported by your arms and legs. Some core exercises involve keeping your trunk and legs off the ground while resisting the downward force of gravity by maintaining total-body tension. An isometric contraction is a muscle contraction in which the length of the muscle does not change. The plank is a great way to practice this type of muscle contraction, which will help you to improve your lifts.

Benefits of the Plank

•  The plank helps you develop spatial awareness between your core and limbs.
•  The position holds tension against gravity, which is a necessary stepping stone to bracing against a heavy barbell.
•  The position strengthens the shoulders, wrists, and upper body musculature.

How to Do the Plank

Set up your plank on your hands and knees. For the basic plank, rest your elbows and forearms on the ground. Balance on the balls of both feet with your legs extended. Tighten your abdominal muscles so that your back is in a straight, hollow position. Hold still for time.

Dead Bug

The dead bug is a great way to learn how to move your limbs while keeping your stomach contracted. In order to successfully weightlift, you must be able to keep your core muscles engaged so that your arms and legs can move quickly and effortlessly.