Core

What the Core Actually Is

The core is not one muscle. It is a group of muscles that surround the trunk and stabilise the spine under load. The rectus abdominis runs down the front of the abdomen — the visible muscle behind the "six pack" appearance. The transverse abdominis wraps around the trunk like a belt and is the deep stabilising muscle that matters most when the spine is under load. The obliques — internal and external — run diagonally across the sides of the trunk and control rotation and lateral stability. The erector spinae run vertically along the spine and keep the back upright. All of these muscles work together to brace the trunk during movement. None of them need to be crunched repeatedly to be trained.

Chelsea, 2000 — and the Chek Ball

In 2000, working in Chelsea, the core craze arrived at full force. Every personal trainer in the postcode had discovered it simultaneously. Classes, programmes, dedicated sessions — and the Chek ball, the large inflatable Swiss ball named after Paul Chek, the functional training coach whose work became enormously fashionable in upscale gyms of that era. Clients balanced on them, rolled on them, did exercises on them that looked impressive and produced results that were, at best, debatable.

The ab wheel appeared around the same time — a small wheel with handles that rolled out from a kneeling position and was genuinely difficult to use correctly. Both pieces of equipment were taken very seriously by people who had not been training long enough to know whether they needed to be. The whole scene was, in hindsight, hilarious. A lot of very fashionable people wobbling on large rubber balls in expensive gym kit.

One client put it well at the time: "Men have everything in the gym, so this one is ours." She was not wrong about the cultural moment. Core training in that era was coded as something for women in ways that weightlifting was not. Whether that was fair or not is a separate conversation. What it meant practically was that a generation of men dismissed core work entirely, while a generation of women overinvested in it at the expense of the compound movements that would have served them far better.

The Honest Truth — You Are Already Training It

Every heavy barbell squat requires the core to brace hard to protect the spine under load. Every deadlift demands the same. Every barbell row, every overhead press, every loaded lunge — the core is working as a stabiliser in all of them. People who train compound movements consistently have strong, functional core muscles whether or not they have done a single dedicated core exercise. This is not an opinion. It is how the body works.

Dedicated core training — isolated ab exercises, core classes, Swiss ball circuits — produces results that compound training largely already provides, with considerably more time and effort. For most people training for general fitness and health, the core is covered. There is no gap to fill.

After thirty years of coaching and training, this is the honest position: core training as a dedicated focus is largely unnecessary if the rest of the programme is built on compound movements. It was not something preached to clients. It was not something practised consistently. The compound movements covered it.

If You Want to Add Something — The Plank

The plank is the one core exercise worth doing. It trains the core the way the core actually functions under load — isometric bracing, resisting extension, maintaining a neutral spine against force. No crunching, no movement, no equipment. Forearms on the floor, body in a straight line from head to heels, hold. That is the exercise. It is harder than it looks when done correctly and produces genuine results when held for meaningful duration with proper form.

Start with thirty seconds. Build to sixty. Build beyond that if you want. The plank done consistently — even a few times a week added to the end of a session — is more useful than twenty minutes of ab exercises on a ball.

Everything Else Is Optional

Hanging leg raises, ab wheel rollouts, cable crunches, hollow body holds — all legitimate exercises that train the core effectively. None of them necessary if the compound programme is solid. If boredom demands variety or a specific goal requires more direct core work, they are there. But they are additions, not requirements.

The Swiss ball is in a storage cupboard somewhere collecting dust in every gym that bought one in 2001. The ab wheel still works if you want it to. The plank has been around since before any of these trends and will outlast all of them.