Activities such as aerobics, swimming, weight training, yoga, pilates - in fact all forms of fitness and exercise - all promote the idea of core stability; having a strong midrift that will strengthen the abdominal and lower back area.

Core-stability exercise is endorsed by everyone from celebrities to physiotherapists, so there has never been cause to question its wisdom. But the beginnings of a backlash have started to appear.

The Times newspaper recently reported, 11th April 2009, that there seems to a bit of a backlash as to the effectiveness of core stability and lower back exercise.

The Times reported that a paper published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that the benefits of core-stability workouts have been wildly overplayed. A professor of physiotherapy at the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia, Professor Garry Allison, and Sue Morris, a physiotherapy researcher at the University of Western Australia, claim that when it comes to proof that core-stability workouts are helpful the “evidence is just not there”.

The cause of lower back pain

Rather than show that lower back pain is directly linked to core stability, they claim that this pain is linked to poor trunk strength and rotation instead.

Not only that but teaching core stability to those not suffering from lower back pain is at best controversial as these types of exercises show very little benefit.

Core stability research

It was a University of Queensland research study that first highlighted the concept of core stability when it uncovered evidence that people suffering from lower back pain used the transversus abdominis, a deeply embedded muscle that wraps around the lower trunk, when they were asked to perform various physical tests.

Thus, by learning to engage by drawing in these muscles, lower back pain suffers found that their lower back pain dramatically decreased. Therefore, the research assumed, that a strong core would protect the lower back and allow the performer to create a strong base for all other forms of exercise performance.

Core stability in sport and exercise

These days core stability is a buzz term for footballers, golfers, swimmers ... in fact all professional sports people and general exercisers. Many personal trainers pride themselves on their knowledge and expertise of core strength training, with specific units in core stability training available in many personal training and fitness courses.

Research in question ... by the women who ran the study!

However, even the woman who led the University of Queensland lower back study, and who is responsible for coining the term “core stability”, has expressed reservations about its usefulness. Professor Carolyn Richardson, of the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland, says: “I have found that for the fitness industry it is often a poor instruction that is often misinterpreted or carried out badly. Its easily done incorrectly by people holding their breath or rounding their backs because they are sucking in their muscles so far.”

Core stability can cause problems

Dr Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, discovered that the transverse muscle of the trunk, the muscle engaged during core stability exercises, does not play as pivotal a role in protecting the back as is commonly thought.

McGills research even showed that strengthening the transverse muscles can make lower back pain worse by seriously weakening the lower back muscles.

What the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy say

Sammy Margo and Claire Small, both of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, suggest that core strength is the key to maintaining a strong functional body but that like any exercise, correct performance is the key.

Sammy Margo suggests that while core stability exercises can help, its effectiveness should be kept in context as it is neither the cure or single way to prevent lower back pain. In fact Margo has seen numerous people actually develop lower pain pain from performing core stability exercise in classes like pilates.

How to strengthen the core muscles

Dr McGill suggests that rather than pulling the transverse muscles of the trunk closer to the spine people should learn to brace all the muscles of the trunk before and during exercise. This will engage the trunk muscles as a whole, the abs, transverse and lower back muscles rather than isolating a particular set of muscles. By bracing the trunk muscles they can work together to create a strong core and support the lower back muscles more effectively.