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I occasionally have patients who are confused by their back pain because they’ve done everything they were told to do.
They work their core. They do planks. Sometimes they can hold one for two minutes.
So why does their back still hurt or feel tight all the time?
Here’s something that may sound strange coming from someone who talks a lot about strength:
More core strength isn’t always better. Sometimes the way we chase core stability can actually work against us.
More precisely, the problem usually isn’t being too strong.
It’s learning to solve every movement problem by creating more stiffness.
And there’s an important distinction there.
Some people genuinely need more core stability
Core stability absolutely matters.
Your trunk needs to be able to control movement and create a stable platform for your hips and shoulders to move from. If that basic trunk control is missing, movement elsewhere can become less efficient or harder to control.
Sometimes I’ll ask someone to maintain their trunk position while moving one leg. Or I’ll have them briefly support themselves with one arm during a plank.
If their pelvis immediately twists, their lower back arches dramatically, or they can only hold the position by bracing as hard as possible and holding their breath, that may be a clue that better trunk control could help.
For those people, core stability exercises can be very useful.
But here’s where I think we sometimes get it wrong:
Once you have enough stability, more isn’t necessarily better.
Too much stability can become rigidity
Stability is essentially the ability to create stiffness when you need it.
If you’re picking something heavy off the floor, that’s useful. Your trunk should be able to brace and control the forces going through it.
But you don’t need that same strategy when you’re walking across the room.
That’s the part that gets overlooked.
Stability is a skill you should be able to turn up when the task demands it — not a posture you need to live in all day.
Unnecessary bracing can limit movement, reinforce a guarded feeling, and make your muscles work harder than the task actually requires.
And if your goal is better spine health or less back pain, constantly moving as though your back needs to be protected may not be the answer.
Walking shouldn’t be a plank with legs
Imagine someone walking while consciously bracing their abs, holding their shoulders back, and trying to keep their torso perfectly still.
The arms barely swing.
The spine hardly rotates.
The whole body looks protected, controlled…and robotic.
Walking shouldn’t be a plank with legs.
Now picture someone walking naturally, with a little bit of swagger.
The arms swing. The rib cage and pelvis rotate. The shoulders and hips work together. Muscles create tension when they need to and relax when they don’t.
That’s fluidity.
And it’s also efficient.
Natural walking takes advantage of momentum, rotation, and the body’s elastic tissues rather than asking the muscles along the spine to rigidly hold everything in place with every step.
I’m not suggesting that more arm swing magically fixes back pain.
The point is simpler than that:
Moving with less unnecessary muscular effort can feel very different from spending your entire walk protecting your spine.
Next time you walk down a hallway, notice your arms.
Are they swinging naturally?
Is your torso rotating a little?
Don’t try to “fix” anything. Just notice how different relaxed walking feels from consciously bracing everything.
Core strength is not the same as constant bracing
This is where the language around “core strength” can become confusing.
A strong core isn’t simply a core that can contract harder.
Good trunk function also involves coordination, timing, breathing, force transfer, and the ability to regulate tension.
Sometimes you need a lot of stiffness.
Sometimes you need very little.
The skill is being able to produce the right amount of tension for the task.
That is very different from simply keeping your abs tight all day.
How we exercise can influence how we move
Planks aren’t bad.
They’re actually very good at training one particular ability: creating stiffness and resisting movement.
Sometimes that’s exactly what we need.
But life doesn’t only ask us to resist movement.
It asks us to walk, reach, rotate, carry, change direction, and transfer force from one part of the body to another.
Single-arm and single-leg exercises, carries, presses, pulls, chops, and rotational movements can challenge the core in a different way.
Now your trunk has to coordinate with your hips and shoulders.
Some areas stabilize while others move.
Forces have to transfer across the body.
Timing becomes important.
Instead of only teaching your body to brace harder, you’re giving it more movement options.
That distinction matters.
Core stability should support movement, not replace it
We spend a lot of time teaching people how to create tension.
Sometimes the missing skill is learning how to regulate it.
Fluidity isn’t always something you have to strengthen.
Sometimes it starts with letting go of effort you don’t need.
Notice what happens when you walk or exercise.
Are you holding your breath?
Clenching your jaw?
Making a strained face?
Are your shoulders creeping toward your ears?
Are your fists tight even though the task doesn’t require it?
Those can be little clues that you’re using more muscular effort than necessary.
Sometimes I’ll have someone shake their arms out, loosen their shoulders, let their hips swing a little, or do a few relaxed rotational movements before trying again.
The goal isn’t to become floppy.
It’s to use enough tension to control the movement without adding tension you don’t need.
What does a healthy core actually need to do?
A healthy core should be able to create stiffness when you’re lifting something heavy, catching yourself, or controlling a difficult movement.
But it should also be able to let that stiffness go when you walk, rotate, reach, and move through everyday life.
That’s why I don’t think the goal should simply be “more core strength.”
The better question is:
Can your body create stability when it needs it and still move freely when it doesn’t?
Some people need more stability.
Some need better coordination.
Some need more confidence moving.
And some need to stop treating every movement like something their spine needs to be protected from.
The goal isn’t maximum stiffness.
It’s adaptability.
Stiff when you need to be. Fluid when you don’t.
Because stability should support movement, not replace it.
