The sales of my book Zone Mind, Zone Body have started to pick up thanks to some articles in the press and good reviews. I have now added a free download preview of the book with the complete introduction plus extracts from each chapter - it can be downloaded from the link above.

I had some interesting conversations with trainers and sports people lately who like me are starting to question the wisdom behind all this 'core' stuff. The problem is that once something is repeated often enough with enough 'pseudo science' behind it to sound plausible everyone starts to believe it. Yes I know people say the feel stronger by developing their core but do we really need these muscles to be 'overworked'. Is it strength or tension they are feeling?

The arguement goes that we need a strong core for a stable body - but it doesnt make structural sense! For instance runners are led to believe they need a strong core to move their legs - yet where does the power come from? Answer - the ground. If you suspend a runner in mid air and ask them to move their legs as fast as possible it will be no where near the speed they can do 'on the ground'. This is because the speed comes from the recoil off the floor and it doesnt require great strength in the core to lift your leg. In fact, I think this could impede the recoil and return to the floor.

It just doesn't make sense to develop one part of the body in isolation when nature did a pretty good job at developing coordination reflexes for the whole body. If something isn't working right it's a coordination thing and not the preceived 'weak' muscle at the end of the chain. Remember muscles only do what you tell them to do and if there's a problem the answer is higher up the command chain.

Any comments/ views?

regards

Roy