Trunk Rotation for Athletes: Why Core Strength Is About More Than Planks
When most people think about core strength, they picture planks, crunches, or exercises designed to keep the trunk perfectly still.
But sport rarely happens that way.
Running, throwing, kicking, changing direction, swinging a racquet, and even walking all require coordinated movement through the trunk. Your rib cage and pelvis need to move relative to one another, your trunk muscles need to create and control rotation, and your breathing system needs to continue working while all of this is happening.
That is why, when I assess and train athletes, I’m not only interested in whether someone can “brace their core.” I also want to know:
Can they rotate? Can they control rotation? Can they transfer force through their trunk while continuing to breathe?
These are important pieces of athletic movement that can easily be missed in traditional strength programs.
Your Core Is Designed to Do More Than Hold You Still
The trunk sits between the upper and lower body, which gives it an important role in transferring force.
Think about throwing a ball. Force starts at the ground, travels through the legs and pelvis, continues through the trunk, and eventually reaches the arm.
Or consider running. As one leg moves forward, the opposite arm moves forward. The pelvis and thorax rotate in a coordinated pattern between them.
The trunk is not simply a rigid block in the middle of these movements.
Instead, it needs to be able to:
produce rotation
control and decelerate rotation
resist excessive or unwanted rotation
transfer force between the upper and lower body
maintain appropriate trunk and pelvic control
coordinate movement with breathing
Good core function is therefore not just about creating stiffness. It is about having the right amount of stiffness and movement at the right time.
Why Trunk Rotation Matters for Running
Running might appear to be a predominantly forward-and-back activity, but rotation is happening with every stride.
As you run, the pelvis rotates with the lower body while the thorax and arms counter-rotate above it. This coordinated movement helps manage angular momentum and contributes to an efficient running pattern.
This becomes especially noticeable when running faster.
Watch a sprinter and you will see powerful arm movement combined with coordinated rotation through the trunk and pelvis. The body needs enough trunk control to transfer force effectively without becoming excessively rigid.
That doesn't mean runners should deliberately twist more when they run. The goal is not to manufacture rotation.
Instead, runners benefit from having the mobility, strength and coordination to allow natural rotation to occur and control it effectively.
For runners, this is one reason I like strength programs that go beyond squats, deadlifts and planks. Those exercises can be extremely valuable, but they don't expose the body to every demand of running.
Adding rotational, anti-rotational and contralateral exercises can help build a more complete strength program.
Rotation Is Everywhere in Sport
The importance of trunk rotation becomes even more obvious in multidirectional and rotational sports.
A soccer player planting and striking a ball needs to transfer force from the ground through the pelvis and trunk before that force reaches the kicking leg.
A tennis or pickleball player needs to generate and control rotation during a serve or groundstroke.
A baseball player throwing or batting relies heavily on sequencing between the lower body, pelvis, trunk and upper body.
A swimmer needs coordinated trunk movement to connect the pull of the upper body with the rest of the stroke.
Even during cutting and changing direction, athletes need to manage rotational forces as they decelerate, plant and redirect their body.
In all of these situations, the trunk acts as an important link in the kinetic chain.
This is why I often think less about strengthening an isolated muscle and more about how well the athlete can transfer force through the entire system.
Trunk Rotation Isn't Just About the Obliques
Your obliques are certainly important rotational muscles, but trunk control is much more complex than simply strengthening them.
The abdominal wall, diaphragm, pelvic floor, spinal musculature, rib cage and pelvis all contribute to how pressure, movement and force are managed through the trunk.
There is also an important coordination component.
During athletic movement, your nervous system needs to determine how much muscular activity is required, when it is required, and when muscles need to relax enough to allow movement.
This is one reason someone can appear very “strong” in traditional core exercises but still struggle with rotational movement.
They may have plenty of muscular strength.
What they may be missing is coordination.
Where Breathing Fits In
Breathing and core function are closely connected because one of our primary breathing muscles—the diaphragm—also contributes to trunk stability and pressure regulation.
When we inhale, the diaphragm descends. Ideally, this occurs alongside expansion of the rib cage and abdominal wall, helping create and regulate intra-abdominal pressure.
That pressure contributes to a stable base from which the arms and legs can move.
This does not mean athletes should take a huge breath and brace as hard as possible during every movement.
A heavy deadlift may require a high level of trunk stiffness and pressure. Running, on the other hand, requires you to maintain trunk control while continuously breathing and moving.
Sport requires the ability to adjust trunk stiffness to the task.
That is an important distinction.
If your strategy for creating stability is always to hold your breath, excessively brace your abdominals, or keep your rib cage completely rigid, that strategy may work during some strength exercises but becomes much less useful when you need to run, rotate, react and breathe at the same time.
Breathing, Rotation and the Rib Cage
The rib cage is not supposed to be completely rigid.
Your ribs move as you breathe, and the thorax also needs to contribute to rotation.
This is particularly relevant for athletes who appear to compensate for limited trunk movement by getting more motion elsewhere.
Rather than simply stretching one area that feels “tight,” it can be useful to assess the bigger movement pattern:
How is the rib cage moving? Can the athlete breathe into different areas of the trunk? Can the pelvis and thorax move relative to each other? Can they maintain that control when speed or load increases?
This is where rehabilitation and performance training start to overlap.
We aren't simply trying to create more range of motion. We want athletes to be able to access movement and then control it.
Rotation vs. Anti-Rotation: Athletes Need Both
You may have heard that the core's primary job is to “resist rotation.”
There is some truth to this, but it is only part of the picture.
Athletes need to be able to resist unwanted rotation—for example, keeping the pelvis controlled during a single-leg exercise or preventing the trunk from collapsing during a change of direction.
But athletes also need to produce and absorb rotation.
That means a complete trunk program should usually expose athletes to several different qualities:
Anti-rotation: resisting a rotational force.
Controlled rotation: actively moving through rotation with good control.
Rotational force production: generating force through rotational movement.
Rotational deceleration: controlling and absorbing rotation.
The appropriate balance depends on the athlete, their sport, their injury history and their current stage of training.
What Does Rotational Training Actually Look Like?
Rotational training does not have to mean aggressively twisting your spine with a heavy weight.
In fact, I usually prefer to establish control first and then gradually increase complexity, load and speed.
Early exercises might include:
dead bug variations with contralateral loading
bird dog variations
Pallof presses
half-kneeling cable presses or rows
carries with asymmetrical loading
controlled thoracic rotation with breathing
From there, an athlete may progress toward exercises such as:
split-stance cable lifts and chops
rotational cable presses
landmine rotations
single-leg exercises with contralateral loading
medicine-ball rotational throws
step-and-throw variations
faster rotational and reactive drills
The exercise itself is only part of the equation.
I also care about how the athlete performs it.
Can they create force from the ground? Can the pelvis and trunk coordinate with one another? Are they simply twisting through one area? Can they control the return? Can they breathe appropriately for the task?
These details are what turn an exercise into purposeful training.
What About Back Pain?
People with a history of back pain are sometimes told to avoid rotation altogether.
There may absolutely be situations where rotation needs to be temporarily modified because of symptoms, tissue healing or a specific diagnosis.
But avoiding rotation forever is rarely a useful long-term performance strategy.
The spine and trunk are designed to move.
For many athletes, rehabilitation eventually needs to progress from comfortable movement, to controlled rotation, to loaded rotation, and—when their sport demands it—to faster and more powerful rotational movement.
The goal is not to make someone afraid of rotation.
The goal is to build their capacity to tolerate it.
The Missing Piece in Many “Core” Programs
Planks, side planks and other isometric exercises can be excellent tools. I use them regularly.
The problem comes when that is where core training ends.
If your sport requires you to run, throw, kick, cut, swim, swing or react, your trunk needs to do much more than hold a plank.
A more complete program considers:
Mobility: Do you have enough movement available through the thorax, hips and surrounding regions?
Strength: Can your trunk muscles produce and tolerate force?
Coordination: Can your rib cage, pelvis, arms and legs work together?
Breathing: Can you regulate pressure and continue breathing while maintaining trunk control?
Speed: Can you maintain these qualities when movement becomes faster?
Sport specificity: Does your training eventually resemble the forces and movement demands you actually encounter?
That is the difference between simply doing “core exercises” and training the trunk for athletic performance.
The Takeaway
A strong core isn't necessarily a rigid core.
For athletes, good trunk function requires the ability to create stability when stability is needed, allow movement when movement is needed, and transition between the two quickly.
Rotation is part of running. It is part of throwing, kicking, swimming, cutting and changing direction. And because breathing, intra-abdominal pressure and trunk control are closely connected, breathing should not be treated as something completely separate from strength and movement.
This is why I look beyond the painful area when assessing athletes.
Whether someone is returning from an injury or simply wants to perform better, I want to understand how the entire system is working together—from the ground, through the hips and pelvis, through the trunk and rib cage, and into the upper body.
The goal isn't simply to build a stronger core.
It is to build a trunk that can move, stabilize, breathe and transfer force when your sport demands it.
Julia Cole, CAT(C), RMT, CSCS
Proactive Therapy | Athletic Therapy & Strength and Conditioning in Victoria, BC
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