Why You Should Be Spending More Time on the Ground

This post is inspired by some ideas I came across in a short article written by Dan John.

In some cultures and places around the world, it's the norm to sleep, eat, and just spend a lot of time on the ground. But that is not the case in America and in much of the Western world. With comfy chairs and couches in every room and beds set at a nice comfortable height a few feet from the floor, it's no surprise that we as a culture are spending less and less time on the ground, particularly as we age. Don't get me wrong, I love a good soft couch as much as anyone else. But I think our aversion to ground-time is a serious problem. We need to spend more time on the ground. Why?

(By toomanycircles from UK (Chris Ashton) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons)
Just getting comfortable.

Ground-time can be hard work.

Getting onto and off of the ground requires a bit of work. The average 50-year-old's descent to the ground is probably accompanied by a symphony of joint pops and creaks and an eventual sigh of relief, and the ascent back to standing is likely slow, awkward, and coupled with groans of effort and dismay. In the Dan John article linked above, he proposes an interesting experiment in which you wear a heart monitor and spend five minutes just getting down on the ground and standing back up. That's it. Get on the ground (on your front, side, or back), and then get back up for five minutes.
Ground-time requires a lot more physical effort than sofa time, and, if we're being honest, the average American needs some more physical effort built into his or her everyday life.

Ground-time requires some strength and mobility.
When you get down on the ground, your hips, shoulders, legs, arms, and core are all working to control your descent, and getting back up generally requires (depending on your positioning) some sort of sit-up or push-up coupled with a squatting or lunging movement. (Hey, that almost sounds like a good basis for a workout.) 

In addition, ground-time requires and promotes mobility. When sitting on the ground, our hip and knee joints are generally not at a nice, modest 90 degree angle. Sitting on the ground usually involves near-end-range flexion or extension of the ankle, knee, and/or hip joints. Spending time in these positions (assuming good posture) can improve joint health and range of motion. The same cannot be said of your positioning sitting on the couch. Additionally, most people probably have enough basic strength to get on and off the ground without a problem, but they are lacking mobility and/or stability in end-ranges. Getting on and off the ground generally requires considerable knee and hip flexion as well as shoulder stability in a position of extension. 

Spending more time on the ground can encourage and improve strength, stability, and mobility of major joints. No, sitting on the ground instead of the couch will not turn you into Dmitry Klokov, but it might just make you into a better-functioning human being.

The ground is hard.

It's no surprise that our culture is generally averse to spending time on the ground. Comfort-wise, the choice between a plush, leather couch and the living room carpet is an easy one. I'm not here to argue that being on the ground is more comfortable than your La-Z-Boy recliner (though sprawling out on the floor can be incredibly refreshing at times), but this might actually be a great reason to prioritize ground time. It's pretty easy to spend 3 hours in your recliner and not move much other than your chip hand and your beer hand, but ground time tends to make you a bit more restless. While restlessness isn't always a positive association, it can be a very positive factor in combating the average American's overly-sedentary lifestyle. Spend more time on the ground, and chances are you'll be moving around, switching positions, and getting up and about a bit more. That's a good thing. 

I've fallen, and I can't get up.

There is no question that falls are a major problem for the elderly. According to the CDC, in 2010, falls cost the US healthcare system $30 billion, and among older adults falls are 5x more likely to result in hospitalization than injuries from another cause. While aging does naturally make a fall relatively more dangerous (through osteoporosis, general declines in strength and mobility, etc.), it doesn't have to be as huge of a risk factor as it is. If ground-time were a regular part of our everyday lives throughout the years, not only would we be generally stronger and more mobile, but we would be much more comfortable getting up from the ground if/when a fall does happen. We wonder why it's such an endeavour for great-uncle Louie to get up off the ground after a very minor fall--there's a good chance it's because he hasn't been on the ground in half a decade. 

Athletes need to be comfortable with ground-time. 

(By National Photo Company [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

All contact sports and many other sports require athletes to be comfortable with ending up on the ground and quickly returning to their feet. Football, rugby, hockey, gymnastics, wrestling, MMA, basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, and many more require, to varying degrees, athletes to be able to quickly and efficiently get up off the ground and continue gameplay/competition without pause. Particularly in contact sports where being knocked to the ground is a frequent occurrence, athletes should be well-trained in ground-work such that their movement is quick and effortless. 

Additionally, ground-work can be a great way to examine movement patterns, functional mobility, and joint stability of athletes. Have you ever seen someone getting on the ground who looks like they're just not sure how to do it? Their knees cave in and jut forward, their upper back hunches awkwardly forward and to the side, and their arm stretches out towards the ground, and then they kind of just plop the rest of the way down. A lot can be learned from watching someone get down on and stand up from the ground. While there are certainly more complex movements that a trainer or coach can use, watching an athlete get onto or up from the ground is a great starting point for movement screening. A coach or trainer can tell if an athlete tends to over- or under-pronate, if they lack ankle or hip mobility, if they naturally tend towards valgus or varus knee movement, if they have a habit of rounding the upper back or rolling the shoulder forward, if they strongly prefer one side, and so on. 

And it's not just for athletes.

You may not be playing in the Super Bowl or the Olympics, but chances are at some point you'll be playing with your kids, grandkids, or friend's kids, that you'll need to get on the ground to reach something under the sofa, that you'll want to work under your car, you'll want to plant something in the garden, or maybe you just want to lay down on the beach or a nice patch of grass without having to worry about how you'll get up. 

The ground is dirty.

(By Charles L. Ford, IV [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
This dog knows what's up.

Yes, this is a positive thing. We live in a time and place where our hands undergo a constant barrage of anti-bacterial wash-rinse-repeat, where hand-sanitizer is in every purse and every doorway of every public building, and where dirt is the enemy and "bacteria" is a naughty word to many people. However, there is some evidence suggesting that for optimal health, we need some dirt. Our gut health--which, thanks to yogurt commercials, we all know is an important thing--is dependent upon exposure to new bacteria. In addition, mycobacterium vaccae, found in good ol' dirt, has been found to have antidepressant properties. In other words, a little dirt exposure could make you happier and healthier. And the ground is the perfect place to get friendly with some dirt. I don't suggest that you lick your doormat or never clean your bathroom floor again; however, something as simple as laying on the grass, doing some gardening, or just sitting on the floor and playing with your dog is a great way to expose yourself to some immune-boosting bacteria. 

(Note: I am not proposing that we return to Middle Ages sanitation habits. Our modern Western lifestyles and cleanliness habits/abilities are a vast improvement; however, we've gone a bit overboard with our germophobia and sanitization-o-philia.)

Practice makes perfect.

So you need to spend more time on the ground, and maybe it is just that simple. But I'm not suggesting that you just throw yourself down and see what happens. In addition to spending some of your leisure time on the ground rather than on the couch, there are a number of exercises (some of which you might already be doing) that can help you incorporate ground-work into your training. 

First and foremost, yoga. Yoga is chock full of opportunities to be on the ground, bring yourself down to the ground in a controlled manner, and get up from the ground, all with a focus on stability, positioning, and fluid movement. This, I think, is one of the most positive aspect of yoga and its current popularity. If you're looking for a good way to incorporate more ground-work into your training, yoga is a great place to start. 

Additionally, burpees or up-downs are a great way to incorporate ground-work into your training and get some conditioning in at the same time. 5 minutes of fast, constant burpees or up-downs will give your lungs a good run for their money. 

Core exercises and some gymnastics movements are also a great way to get in ground-work. A few of my favorites are hollow rocks, planks or side-planks, roll to candlestick, pistol with roll, turkish get-ups, supermans, and other basic abdominal exercises like sit-ups, v-ups, and lying leg raises. Additionally, a number of sprinting and speed drills involve starting from the ground. These can be hugely beneficial to field athletes. 

Lastly, foam rolling, soft-tissue work with a ball, and many other drills and stretches involve spending time on the ground. 

--

Sometimes we get too stuck in the rut of separating "exercise" from daily life. We're left with the detrimental idea that fitness is what happens in the gym, and life is what happens everywhere else. Changing the way we see our daily habits can help close that gap and bring forth the realization that fitness is "happening" every minute of every day. 

Keep your swole grounded.

"Core" Concepts, Part 1 - What is the Core, Really?

Core training is the bee's knees right now. A Google search of "core training" comes up with 604,000,000 hits (soon to be +1), countless lists of the top 10 exercises for core strength, and a mind-boggling number of uses of the word "shredded." Unfortunately, the ubiquity of internet users' desires for a strong and well-exercised core overshadows the presence of any good definition of what the "core" really is, any real clarity on what it means to have a strong one, and any good explanation of why we should care.

(By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Lamel J. Hinton. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

So what is the "core?" 
Of those 604 million Google hits, I'd be willing to bet that about half of them are using "core" synonymously with "abs," and that to many people a "strong core" means visible and well-defined (see: SHREDDED) rectus abdominis muscles with very little body fat. While there's nothing inherently wrong with having a visible 6-pack, and while the rectus abdominis muscles are indeed part of the core, they are only a small piece of the whole ensemble.

I propose we define the core as:

The system of muscles and connective tissues surrounding the spine, including both deep and superficial muscles, which directly contributes to the positioning and stability of the spine and aids in the positioning of the rib cage and the shoulder & hip joints, including the pelvis and the scapulae; and which allows for (and in some cases contributes to) the transfer of force (muscle force) from the limbs to some external point(s) of resistance (resistive force) which is not a point on the force-producing limb (particularly in a closed-chain movement). 

This definition of core has two tiers: anatomical and functional. The anatomical definition, which could be generally summed up as "the torso," is quite general and really only sets the stage for the more precise and function-based definition. Because we are talking about the core in the context of human movement and performance, we need the specificity of function.

The functional demands on the trunk in the context of basic movement, sport, optimal force production, etc. provide us with a pretty accurate view of what tissue groups make up the core. The core is aptly named in that it is at the "center," both anatomically and with regard to movement. The arms, legs, and head are all attached to and anchored in your torso--your core. Most all multi-joint movements, and particularly those which could be deemed "functional" movements, are produced through a limb that has proximal insertions in the torso. And unless you believe competitive typing or staring contests are sports, all sport movements are anchored in, and in some ways originate from, the core.

In order to get a clear view of what the core is in the context of function, let's look at a few examples of common movements and the demands on the core in each. For the sake of variety and thoroughness, the movements I have chosen span a wide range of intensities and complexities:

- Walking: Probably the most "basic" and common of all human movements is walking. It is a low-force, low-speed movement. While the prime movers in walking are muscles of the legs and butt, the limbs which generate the movement are attached at the hip joint, and many of these muscles have insertions (i.e., where the muscle attaches to bone) in the torso, and therefore require a stable base (the core). Generation of force at the distal end (away from the center) of a joint requires stability at the proximal end (close to the center) of the joint.

- Swinging a baseball bat: Swinging a baseball bat is a low-resistance, high-speed, rotational movement. Force is generated primarily by the legs and hips and contributed to by the arms, shoulders, and trunk. The back leg generates a strong force against the ground and weight is transferred forward; that force is then translated through the rotation of the hips and subsequent rotation of the trunk and shoulders; the shoulders and arms add additional accelerative forces which are then transmitted to the bat. Ultimately, the swinging of a baseball bat involves the generation of a large force against the ground and transmission of this force through the trunk. In the swinging of a baseball bat, the core is involved in force transmission, acceleration, and deceleration. The core is involved in force transmission in that the enormous forces generated against the ground and through the legs and hips require rigidity in the torso in order to transmit said forces to the shoulders; the core is involved in acceleration in that the muscles of the core (particularly the obliques) contribute to the rotational force that is transmitted to the shoulders; and the core is involved in deceleration in that it must slow down and stop the rotation of trunk in the follow-through.

- Blocking/Form-tackling: A standard block or form tackle is a high-speed, high-resistance, high-impact movement. Force from the legs and hips and momentum are transmitted through the torso to the shoulder or arms, and subsequently to the opposing player. When blocking or tackling, the primary point of contact between the blocking/tackling player and the other player is generally the shoulder or the forearms and hands, while the legs and hips are continually driving into and accelerating against the ground. The torso is the connection between the two points of resistance (the player being blocked/tackled and the ground), and therefore must exhibit great stability in order for the accelerative forces against the ground to be transmitted to the opposing player. This is the job of the core. The core is also required to resist rotation (as blocks/tackles are generally on one side or another, not straight on) and sometimes to generate rotational force. Football hits can involve in excess of 1500lbs of force (sources 1,2). Without a strong, rigid core, a player attempting to block or tackle would just fold in half.

- Bench pressing: The bench press (when performed with maximal or near-maximal loads) is a very high-resistance, lower speed, low-impact, and primarily upper-body movement. However, the core is still an absolutely essential element in performing the bench press. One of the prime movers in the bench press, the pectoralis major, is proximally attached at the rib cage and distally attached at the humerus of the upper arm. When the muscles contracts, it pulls on both the insertion at the rib cage and the insertion on the humerus. If the rib cage were not stabilized and rigid, the forces generated by the muscles would pull the rib cage towards the arm and would not allow transmission of nearly as much force through the arms. In the bench press, the core is responsible for stabilization of the proximal insertions to allow transmission of forces. In addition, the core is responsible for creating and maintaining optimal positioning of the back, chest, shoulders, and hips, and is necessary for creating leg drive and maintaining stability against the bench.

These examples should demonstrate that the core is more than just the rectus abdominus muscles. It is all of the muscles, front and back, surrounding your spine. Yes, your back is your core too (I'm looking at you, Six Pack Shortcuts). Do cut/chiselled/shredded abs look better than flab? Yes. Do they necessarily prevent you from destroying your spine when you help a friend push his stalled car? No. Strength is not always what you see in the mirror.

Why does it matter?
It should be pretty apparent by now why it's important to have a strong core; but, I'll offer a brief summary and explanation in case you're not tired of reading yet.

Think about trying to push someone off of a diving board. Not too hard if they're not expecting it, right? Now think about trying to push someone off of a diving board with a pool noodle. How's that going for you? The pool noodle is a weak, unstable core. You have plenty of strength to push your foe, but the limp pool noodle is sapping all of your force production and turning it into a floppy, bendy, comical dud. Now think about pushing someone off of a diving board with a concrete pylon. Much more effective. The concrete pylon is a strong, stable core. All of the force you generate is being transmitted through the pylon and too the unsuspecting victim.

The core has a unique job in that it is required to both produce stability as well as express mobility around the spine. The core’s job is very precise: it needs to allow mobility of the trunk and limbs around the spine (think about swinging a baseball bat), but it also must prevent excessive mobility (think wrestling or deceleration in a golf swing), and be able to create stability under extreme forces (think football tackle). Most back injuries (and joint injuries, for that matter) occur when joint stability is lost and when a joint is pushed beyond its active range of motion. A strong core is the main player in keeping your back/spine happy and healthy, and in allowing optimal force production and sports performance. 

(By U.S. Navy photo by Mr. Damon J. Moritz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Willing to bet there are some strong cores in that mix.

Stay swole.

In the next post, I'll discuss some exercises you can do to optimally train your core. (Hint: it's probably not crunches 'til the cows come home)