As you have probably noticed, I tend to go away a fair bit. When I do go away, it tends to be on cycle touring or mountain walking holidays where I eat badly and sleep on the floor a lot.
When I do collapse into a mountain hut or at the side of the road, it tends to be in a slouch. Consequently, when I get back, I need to have a programme that will get me back up and functioning fairly quickly so I feel confident about hitting my squats and deadlifts in the gym.
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My core stability progressions
I’ve used the following sequence a few times and it generally gets me up and running after a week or so. Each phase of exercises includes a glute exercise, an abdominal exercise and a squat pattern. I do each phase for a few days to a week until I feel comfortable doing it.
For the glute strength and abdominal exercises, I’ll generally do 15 – 20 reps and 2 sets. For the squat patterns, I’ll generally do just 5 – 10 reps or until they feel natural.
| Focus of exercise | Glute strength | Abdominal strength | Hip drive |
| Phase one | Glute bridges | One leg lowering | Plate squat |
| Phase two | One-leg glute bridges | Two leg lowering | Goblet squat |
| Phase three | Weighted glute bridge | Hanging leg raise | Pistol off box |
PHASE ONE
Glute bridges
Lying on your back, you clench your glutes and push your hips towards the ceiling. Hold the bridge for a couple of seconds to really activate the glutes.
Leg lowering
This looks so easy until you try and do it properly, i.e. without allowing your lower back to come away from the floor. You lie on your back and extend both legs slightly so that you form a sitting position but horizontally, like in the first picture below.
Now try extending one leg slightly, while tensing your abdominal muscles. When you feel your lower back start coming away from the floor, stop and pull your leg back slightly. Pause for a moment and then try the other leg.
Plate squats
As it says on the tin, you squat while holding a plate. Only go as deep as you can safely without rounding the lower back. A friend who can shout when your lower back rounds comes in handy here. The key is to counter-balance your rear end with a small weight so that you can easily sit back and therefore create hip drive.
PHASE TWO
One-leg glute bridge
Just like the two leg glute bridge, this exercise starts with both feet on the floor. Then, you raise one leg up straight. Finally, you use the leg in contact with the floor to raise yourself off the ground.
Two-leg lowering
Like the one-leg lowering, you start this exercise with both feet off the ground. This time, though, you lower both legs together, while keeping the lower back in contact with the ground.
Goblet squat
Dan John has made these popular and I have only recently starting investigating them myself. However, they are clearly a good way to teach people to squat with good form, keeping a flat back, shins perpendicular to the floor and chest out. I can feel that my body is doing good things when I practice them…
PHASE THREE
Weighted glute bridge
These are just like the unweighted glute bridges I mentioned above. But with weight. Start on the floor with the weight over your hips. I have never tried doing these with anything other than a barbell but I imagine you could use any weight so long as you could position it over your hips.
Hanging leg raises
You can do straight-legged hanging leg raises from a pull-up bar. If you can’t do leg raises, you can substitute these with knee raises.
Pistol off box
Doing pistols off a box is much more comfortable for my lower back as the easier angle means that there is less lumbar rounding. In the picture below, I am using some weight to make the exercise harder. I am lazy, so I just grab plates but you could just as easily use dumbbells to increase the weight incrementally.
I like to do these phases so that I do one phase a week for three weeks, a couple of times a week. After that, I figure I’m probably fine again. It doesn’t stop me squatting and deadlifting in the meantime, but, hey, nobody’s perfect…
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