New Eyes—Medicine’s Inability to See the Core

medicine’s inability to see the core

The real magic of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes [Figure 2-1].

—French philosopher Marcel Proust (Figure 2-2). From La Prisonnière, Vol V of Remembrance of Things Past, aka In Search of Lost Time.

Figure 2-1.

Figure 2-2. French stamp commemorating the famous French philosopher.

MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is about the core. What is the core? Look up the definition in the dictionary. The core is the center: the core of the apple, the middle of the Earth, the engine of a car, the foundation of a house. It also is the hub of activity, control central, the center of gravity. It’s what makes things tick, produce, and reproduce. It’s the middle of everything. Consider the different concepts about what the core represents. The core of the apple is probably most important for reproduction, and probably has something to do with growth. Our body is no different. In conjunction with our brain, our core balances, harnesses, and distributes our strength.

The house may make the best analogy. The foundation of the house is truly its balance point, when one considers the role of gravity, just like what was previously shown in the pictures of Messi and Mia (see Figures 1-6D and E). The foundation supports the walls, the insides, and everything else. And, of course, our core forms the foundation for movement and athleticism. Plus, it includes all our vital organs and interacts intimately with the brain (Figure 2-3).

The core allows us to get up from the dinner table. It generates the best athletes. A good core even makes the brain function better. One might say that the core is important. Duh! We said that before, didn’t we?

Figure 2-3. Consider all the functions of a core. The body’s core does all of these and more: (A) an epicenter for regeneration/reproduction, (B) a center of gravity, (C) an engine/transmission, a hub of activity, and (D) the foundation.

THE PUBLIC SEES; MEDICINE STILL HAS BLINDERS

With respect to our body, the public knows about the existence of the core. The term core has come into vogue. Popular exercise programs use the term all the time. P90X, Cross-Fit, middle-of-the-night TV ads, you name it, emphasize its importance to the point of making us nauseated. They talk about the exact same body region we are talking about in this book: nipples to mid-thigh. Our point is that the public already knows this region of the body is ultra-important, yet medicine has not adopted it. The end result: Everyone purely guesses how the core works, and the knowledge gap becomes dangerous. The gap opens the door for preying entrepreneurs and snake oil salespeople. The gap leaves this essential part of our body ultra-vulnerable to injury. A good example of that danger that relates to the public’s poor knowledge base about the core is the best-selling toy of a recent Christmas: the hoverboard.VID 1

This toy shifts the center of gravity in so precarious a way that the Las Vegas bookies would have made it the odds-on favorite to produce injury. Oh, if only we had published this book earlier, the world would be a safer place.

The public’s keen recent interest in the core spawns a vigorous commercialism that takes advantage of all this ignorance. And, of course, sex plays a big role. After all, the core houses our sexual organs and is responsible for our most provocative movements. The core provides fantastic entertainment. The sex and the ignorance provide the motivation for the salespeople, not that snake oil needs more juice. Look at some of the late-night commercials. Some of them may not be dangerous. One of them certainly is.^{VID 2–5}

Now look at the available information on various products and programs that are out there, such as Cross-Fit, Insanity, spin, boot camps, Ab Rail, Thighmaster, Bowflex, Chair Fitness, Total Gym, iGallop, Zumba, the 20-Minute Work-Out, and, of course, Shake Weight. See if you can tell which ones are best or where the dangers might be. Just with this exercise, you will realize the difficulty.

Now consider the paradox. Despite all this recognition and interest, docs and most of our other health care colleagues either ignore the core or deny the core’s existence. Where’s the disconnect? Almost no scientific efforts have been made to study this region of the body as a whole. Scientists have focused tremendously high-powered lenses on portions of the core but have not studied it as a whole. The core of the body is so obviously important…why haven’t the medical scientists gotten into this field? The reason is those health professionals just don’t see the core. They can’t see it. They see certain parts of it, but they are essentially blind to the core itself and how it functions. They need new eyes.

NEW EYES

This book shall provide new eyes so that everyone can see the core. It reveals the basic principles of the core, the functional anatomy, and its practical aspects. It will generate far more questions than it will answer. It will point out that most popular concepts about how the core works are just plain wrong. You will also be able to deduce that most current core training methods are very bad, and that some are, to put it bluntly, dangerous.

We already talked about that “SH” term that we won’t mention (intentionally) again. The point is to beware also of some of the conventional, empirical training methods.

Often, the best physical trainers unsuspectingly prescribe dangerous methods. This example may be appropriate for certain athletes but certainly not for most people: inverted, weighted sit-ups. This exercise focuses way too much in an isolated fashion on the rectus abdominis muscles and subjects them to severe “plate” injuries. The rectus abdominis muscles are part of the core “harness,” which we must protect. Read further about that, and also realize that most isolated muscle exercises are really, really bad when you do too many or with too much load (Figure 2-4).

Figure 2-4. Sit-ups done in extremes of number or high load are bad (eg, the inverted sit-up in the figure should be considered dangerous). The more extreme “weighted” (weights added to the chest) sit-up is even worse.

We almost must get rid of our vision that the core is just about the upper part of our torso—the abs and above. Figure 2-5 is NOT the core. This should not be our visual.

Nor is Figure 2-6.

Our fancy should not be just the beach muscles or pure torso strength.