Benefits of having a strong core

Building your core muscles

Despite numerous advertisements that claim things like “one simple trick to lose belly fat,” there is no short cut to reducing your waistline. As a personal training consultant I hear more often than not from clients that all they want is a solid 6 pack. I have to remind people that you can’t lose belly fat by only exercising abdominal muscles. To lose fat anywhere on your body you need a combination of aerobic exercise, strength training, and most importantly a healthy diet. All movement and forms of exercise may burn calories helping with weight loss, however if washboard abs are your holy grail, I think it’s far more important to consider incorporating core exercises for a well-rounded workout.

Why strengthen you core?

• Core exercises improve your balance and stability

Core exercises train the muscles in your lower back, hips, pelvis, butt, and abdomen to work smooth and simultaneously. When all these muscles work together in harmony it leads to better balance and stability. Having stability increases performance in sports, lifting, and even simple daily activities.

• Core exercises prevent injury

Developing a stronger core will help support your spine and prevent lower back injuries, sprains, or muscle spasms. Studies have shown that most back injuries taking place while working out, are often a result of having weak core muscles. As a result, people may even harm other parts of their body like their shoulders, hips, and knees. Athletes, especially runners, who have weak core muscles will have more fatigue, less endurance, and are more susceptible to injuries.

• Core exercises can help tone your abs

If you are striving for more defined abs, core exercises will do the trick. Although it takes aerobic activity to burn abdominal fat, core exercises can strengthen and tone the underlying muscles.

• A strong core can keep you from being able to complete or continue an exercise-even in movement not primarily working your abs

Some things I look for while training a client: During his or her push-ups are there hips dipping down? Are their lower back arching and stomach touching the ground first? With an overhead press, does their lower back arch and ribs pop forward to help with getting the weight up? Or deadlift, does their back ache or are they forced to either hunch forward or extend (arch) their back? For any of these instances it’s likely they have weak abs.

What is a core exercise?

Any exercise that involves using your belly or back muscles in harmonized fashion counts as a core exercise. So for example, if you’re using free weights while maintaining a stable foundation, it can train and strengthen several of your muscles, including these core muscles.

• Core exercises don’t require gym memberships

People may perform several specific core exercises to stabilize and strengthen their core without the use of a gym membership. Some exercises include planks, sit-ups and fitness ball exercises.

Whether you’re taking your first steps to healthy fitness goals or a fitness fanatic, it’s important to stay committed to a well-rounded fitness program. I encourage you to remember the next time we find ourselves counting our six pack in the mirrors, It’s everything underneath that really counts.