Core Training - Interview with Paul Chek
By Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN
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Yuri Elkaim: That is awesome. That is a very deep approach and that is why I love what you do. It is more than just, "lets set goals and make them happen." It is a very holistic and spiritual approach. So if we were to look at the Dr. Movement component, considering that we are talking about core training, if someone is beginning an exercise program or they want to better their core stability, or strength, or endurance, how do you start someone off? What is your personal approach to get someone stronger? And maybe you can identify what core means to you because for many people it means many different things.
Paul Chek: Well first and foremost the core is real easy to identify if you remove the arms and the legs from the human body you are left with the axial skeleton. All movement originates from the core outward so the core is really what an infant has to begin its life. When an infant is born it takes about 3 months for the motor nerves to the extremities to myelinate and this is by plan. The reason is that the infant has to learn to use the muscles of the spinal axis to stabilize itself in the field of gravity and then be able to counterbalance the intrinsic forces of muscle contraction.
For example, if you walk or kick a ball, the contraction of the hip flexors as you swing your leg forward have to be counterbalanced by the antagonists or every step you took would literally just twist and shake your spine to pieces. If a person does not have optimal core function, then their posture will reflect that and so their whole body becomes essentially a biomechanical conundrum and they are just running from doctor to doctor and therapist to therapist.
So when I assess someone or one of my practitioners assesses someone, the first thing we have to do is identify baseline function. Does the core work? The core, really, when we assess the core, we are looking at the pelvic floor, the abdominal wall particularly the transverse abdominis and the posterior fibers of the internal oblique, the diaphragm and the deep intrinsic stabilizers of the spine as one working system and because those are the key muscles both of respiration, pumping, evacuation, and stabilization, there is really no benefit whatsoever in increasing strength in prime movers of gross stabilizers until you have the stability to manage the intrinsic forces created by muscle contraction of large multi-joint muscles, so the first thing we do is identify baseline function, and I have what we call a Chekism which is isolate and then integrate, so first we isolate any muscle that is not working, we activate it, and then we seek to integrate it into the musculoskeletal system.
Once a person has baseline function and can move and meets the requirement of infant development, we then look at what their dream is and then we assess the core in primal pattern movements which are the chief movements I identify through my own research that we would have had to have optimal function with in order to survive in nature.
The 7 primal patterns are squatting, lunging, bending, pushing, pulling, and twisting all done from a standing position without support which is what nature would require. So for example, if I'm working with a golfer than I am very interested in assessing and correcting any deficits in core function with regard to the twist pattern which is the primary pattern in golf, the bend pattern which is intimate with golf and gait because people have to walk around the golf course or at least they are supposed to. So there is not a whole lot of benefit in getting too carried away with a push pattern or a pull pattern or a lunge pattern for example because those are not critical to golf. So for each dream we do an environmental or a needs analysis to determine what the environment demands of the body and then we seek to make sure first and foremost that they can integrate their core with their extremities in those key movement patterns specific to their environment.
Once we have established normal muscle balance, flexibility, optimal posture, and base levels of strength, we then and only then move into what you would know of as sports specific conditioning because to do it any other way is to set the body up for guaranteed failure.
For example, if somebody has loose lug nuts, putting 200 more horse power in the car is just going to increase the likelihood that they are going to die driving the car, so I get the suspension right, get the body aligned, get the frame right, and then once the systems are working we seek to increase horsepower metaphorically so that the system is not damaged by trying to live the dream.
Most people do is backwards out there and this is why I have to work with so many sports teams. Even at the most elite level they completely overlook the importance of posture, muscle/joint function, organ/gland function, etc. My students are taught through their training the neurology and the reflex relationships that every organ and gland has with the musculoskeletal systems so they are capable of assessing an individual's musculoskeletal health by analyzing the health of the glands and the organs and vice versa so they can determine the etiology of the disorder is.
For example, most core dysfunction out there comes from inflammation of the gut, secondary to stress, medical drug consumption, alcohol consumption, and eating gluten-containing foods or processed dairy. Those are the main culprits that trigger an inflammatory reaction in the gut and because the organs share a reflex neurological relationship and are in competition with the musculoskeletal system for circulation of blood which delivers oxygen and nutrition and removes waste, any time you have organ or gland dysfunction, it will not only cause a restriction of blood flow to the muscles because they are competing for nutrients, oxygen and waste removal, but the sympathetic nervous system will not allow blood flow to a muscle/joint complex that is competing with an organ that is in a state of dysfunction or disease because it means death to the organism.
You can get by without an arm but you cannot get by without your liver for example. So once we identify the health of the person on the inside, and we look at the mental, emotional relationships that are correlated to each organ, for example, the stomach is the home to anxiety, the liver is the home of anger, so when we see an organ dysfunction we know where to look in the person's mental/emotional profile to see where this emotion is coming from and then through counseling we work with that person to identify the relationships and we seek to help them with resources and/or referrals to psychologists and whoever else may be needed, and depending on the level of the Chek practitioner, the first 2 levels of the Chek practitioner program we'll need to refer out, but level 3 and level 4 Chek practitioners and HOC 2s and 3s are trained progressively deeper in the psychophysical relationships so they become more and more effective coaches and the reason that I don't teach that until the later stages of the program is because it is absolutely critical that all Chek practitioners eat, sleep, breathe and live the teachings to that it is not an intellectual process. It is a process that comes out of their own experience so that they don't have to walk around with this head full of stuff to remember like everyone else whose egos are so invested in being a wise guy.
Those people often don't get good results because the ideas are not backed by experience. Chek practitioners are trained to be the change themselves and share that journey with their clients so that they are authentic guides as opposed to people telling you what to do.
Yuri Elkaim: It's all about integrity. Just going back to what you said about how you isolate a specific muscle before integrating it into the larger sum, just as an example, for someone just starting out, I guess you would just assess their deeper abdominal muscles whether it be the pelvic floor, multifidus, or TVA, would you spend time teaching a person how to activate that muscle before getting them into for instance, a body weight squat, or do you integrate that teaching with basic or primal movement patterns as you mentioned.
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