In 1990, two men coined a term that would later become a standard term for business students and companies attempting to enter the marketplace.  What is this term? Core competency.  In the business world, a core competency is a specific factor that a business sees as being central to the way it, or its employees, works.  Additionally, for it to be a legitimate core competency in business, it must provide a benefit to the customer, be inimitable, and provide broad sweeping application to numerous products or markets.

In the world of strength and conditioning, core competency is a specific factor that is central to the way athletes function and are trained.  Simply put, these core competencies are to be developed first and foremost in athletes of any discipline before even beginning to look to other movements and training interventions.  To be termed core competencies, they must also provide benefit to the athlete that few other methods are capable of replicating and also provide benefits for a number of movement dysfunctions.  As I see it, there are two core competencies to be addressed with every athlete or client regardless of discipline.  Unquestionably, these two core competencies are breathing and rolling patterns.  That’s right, breathing and rolling.

Breathing as a Core Competency

Breathing is a critical piece of the movement equation and is one that has been almost ignored until recently.  Many people simply breathe, and call it “good” if they do not suffocate, unfortunately this is far too simplistic as there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to breathe.

Unfortunately, we know that the majority of people fall toward the “wrong” way and incorrect breathing patterns lead to a gamut of movement dysfunctions.  Improper breathing can lead to dysfunction as high as the TMJ (though some osteopathic physicians see proper breathing as having a mobilizing effect on the skull) and as low as the hips.  In between, breathing plays a powerful role in cervical posture, carpal function, shoulder health from a joint centration perspective, thoracic spine mobility, and lumbo-pelvic-hip stability via intra-abdominal pressure mechanisms.  Better control at the pelvis, leads to more favorable mechanics of the joints above and below, making breathing a powerful ally in preventing lower extremity injury.  Restoration of proper breathing patterns can reduce tone in the majority of cervical muscles, aid in the reduction of forward head posture, and reduce tone of the hip flexors.

The biochemical effects of hyperventilation have powerful effects on fascial constriction and there are primary and/or accessory muscles in each and every fascial line presented by Thomas Myers.  As we understand from the concept of tensegrity, it then stands to reason that breathing limitations alter all fascial lines, and ultimately lead to movement dysfunction.   One could go as far as to say that due to the relationship between the obliques and intercostals of the lateral line, improper breathing can result in reduced function of the “anterior X” that controls and produces torque, and subsequently running and walking mechanics can be altered.

Proper breathing certainly provides great benefit to the athlete, is inimitable, and is of huge benefit to a vast array of movement dysfunction.  Thus, there is little question that breathing must be a core competency.  As the great therapist Karel Lewit said, “If breathing is not normalized, no other movement pattern can be.”

Rolling as a Core Competency

Rolling is a concept that is beginning to gain respect in the strength and conditioning world thanks to the great work of Pavel Kolar, Gray Cook, and Craig Liebenson.  It is not a new concept and rolling as a therapeutic technique has been utilized by Moshé Feldenkrais, members of The Prague School of Rehabilitation, Margaret Knott, and Dorothy Voss among others for decades.

The basis of rolling goes back to the developmental sequence during which a baby follows a predictable set of developmental movement parameters as a result of “pre-programmed” neural patterns.  After lifting the head, the first step in the sequence is rolling.  By allowing appropriate developmental sequencing, the baby goes through postural ontogenesis and develops reflex responses that are useful at later stages of development.  Unfortunately, Vojta suggests that up to 30% of children never reach full CNS maturation yet go on to develop more complex quadruped or bipedal movement patterns.  This altered sequence can contribute to movement dysfunction in many ways.  Additionally, Janda and Lewit theorized that it is the body’s response to revert back to an earlier stage of posture or movement patterning in response to trauma or excessive strain.  It is here that rolling fits into training all populations.

Rolling allows us to train patterns that already exist in our neural circuitry that may be out of touch, and in turn allow us to restore appropriate and reflexive motor control.  Though muscles are not a focus in retraining patterning, rolling requires good function of the deep neck flexors, diaphragm, mutifidi, pelvic floor, and abdominal wall according to Kolar.  Additionally, some suggest that the psoas and transverse abdominis plays a role in providing stability via the inner unit of the core.

Appropriate development of the rolling sequence depends on neurological, energetic, biomechanical, and cognitive functions.  In the initial stages, a feedback mechanism is in place as a response to excessive rotational stressors on the spine. This mechanical stress leads to boatloads of afferent information, which leads to long loop reflex activity that stimulates the musculature involved in stabilizing the movement.  With repeated exposure, our brain is able to develop an effective feedforward mechanism by body schema monitoring. It is at this time that the CNS is able to identify the body’s relationship relative to its base of support, predict where alterations in the center of mass occur, and ultimately leads to anticipatory muscle response and a better controlled neutral zone.  When this portion of development is complete, the body is capable of using eye and tongue movement to create reflexive activation that applies to far more movements than rolling.

With proper development, an athlete stands to gain superior control of segmental translation via feedback mechanisms and the ability to control coupled spinal shear and rotational moments, which are critical for clean gait patterns.  Additionally, the establishment of strong ocular and respiratory synkinesis will allow for higher levels of function and development in all body positions.  Perhaps most beneficial, however, is the development of the feedforward mechanism, which can assist in the prevention of injury as a result of unexpected shifts of the center of mass characteristic of athletic contests.

Due to it’s ability to stimulate reflexive core activation unlike any other exercise and because it provides benefits to nearly every movement pattern via feedback and feedforward reflex mediation, rolling is undoubtedly a core competency.

Wrap up

It is also important to note that simply because you have decided that you have core competencies that they are all you are allowed to focus on until they are perfect.  This could not be further from the truth, as there are many exercises that can be programmed that will make your athletes better breathers and rollers.

Whether you agree or disagree with breathing and rolling as the two core competencies in training matters little.  Instead, what matters is that whatever you choose you have a strong supporting argument.  Remember, it must provide benefit, be difficult to emulate with other exercises, and provide global benefits.  What are your core competencies?