MICKEY RUBEN CORE STUFF

hurdles1

just wondering had any posters on here athlete or coach attended mickey ruben fclinics when he toured here last year.basically what did they think of him,have they used any of his stuff and have they noticed any benefits. i attended his night in kilkenny with few others though some of his stuff good ,some bit gimickey overall a night out to catch up with some friends.talking to people from host club who had some athletes involved they were bit cheesed of their athletes were set up and put into positions to look a bit silly at rbens expence.some of these athletes were on irish teams and well coached. i though the all round core ex sitting on swiss ball use light weights g:)ood also hamstring strengthing ex with med ball good and have added these to our programme to good effect it was gas to see so many people from different sports armed with note books and cameras ,people i recognoised from gaa bailed out during break i enquired why the answer was jasus i though hed show us how that bolt fella runs so quick

Raighne

I was writing an article on core work for runners as we see it when Ido Portal wrote this update on his Facebook page tomorrow and while he's less polite about it than I was planning to be, his opinion exactly mirrors our approach and I believe every runner would do well to read this little excerpt and consider it.

I have seen from experience that this is exactly right, so we don't really speak "core" in our training methodology but we certainly get it working right.

Anyway, here goes Ido:

CORE STRENGTH. Lets talk Core, my favorite word.

Core Strength is a very hot and sexy term and as well the biggest loaf of **** out there.

I get daily remarks at locations I train at around the world: 'man, you have amazing core strength', 'what a demonstration of core control' and other shenanigans. I usually say 'thanks' and roll my eyes walking away.

Here is your wake up call:

1. Rarely would Core Strength be the limiting factor in performance. It can happen, but its not a common issue.

2. Often proper muscular coordination is in the heart of the problem, and not lack of strength. For example most people have enough 'core strength' to properly hold a handstand, but lack the proper 'software' to coordinate rebalancing action and use it along with other areas in the proper timing. Its not weakness or decondition that holds them back, so stop wasting their time, 'Handstand Experts'.

3. Core Strength, even when needed, have to be developed specifically to the relevant movement patterns. You can hammer away on the Pilates machines but I will break you apart with some simple gymnastics stuff, a bit of BJJ, strongman carries or even a back squat. I actually do this, on a regular basis in my workshops where I receive a lot of top level Yogis, Pilates folks and other 'core specialists'.

4. Most professional athletes train their core with various drills, thats true. They are successful IN SPITE of this habit and not because of it. I can speak for myself and my students: we are performing one arm handstands, airborn acrobatics, we climb, we fight, we dance, we can perform full front levers, human flags, press handstands from an L position, etc. WE ARE NOT DOING ONE GENERAL CORE EXERCISE. Not even one.

5. The contribution of 'core exercises' to the appearance of your six pack is minimal. Those muscles have poor potential for hypertrophy in most people and usually are covered with a layer of fat. So, first things first, put your efforts into becoming less of a fatbastard before you allow yourself ANY core exercises.
Now if anything can hypertrophy the abs and shock them into growth its going to be very different from their postural supporting design. The best I've come across are... BACK TUCKS. Yes, you heard me right- back flips.
I remember a case where one of my students took on a challenge and decided to perform 120 back flips for time - as quickly as possible. We like doing **** like that from time to time. She finished in under 30 min, (yes, SHE) but did not appear at the facility for the next week.. Later we discovered she couldn't walk due to extreme soreness of the abdominal wall that lasted for days.

So, enjoy your swiss ball, pilates reformer, crunches, sit-ups, garuda, gyrotonics, 6 min abs solution, kb ab circuit, russian twists and other past-times, but please, dont have any delusions of adequacy: this is NOT going to give you GENERAL CORE STRENGTH applicable to any movement demands.

With love,
Ido.