What’s At the Core?
Moving from a strong CORE could be the most important element in your approach to movement and exercise. A strong core allows you to move through life with control because the muscles in your abdomen, lower back, pelvis, and hips are all strong enough to work together in concert toward balance and stability.
A targeted core exercise is any exercise that asks your abdominal muscles and your back muscles to synchronize. HOWEVER, bringing an engaged core to almost every exercise will extend the exercise to building the core and use the core to make sure that the correct muscles are doing the work they should be doing.
You may notice that if you’ve spent some time focusing on engaging your core in your workout that you move from your core more in your every day activities like standing up, sitting down, carrying groceries, and even sitting at a desk. This is terrific! We want our workout to add more physical strength to our everyday life and we want our movements in everyday life to reinforce our strengthening.
For Active Imaginations:
Imagine for a moment that you are laying on your back and you are about to do a bicep curl with a weight that is a bit heavy for you. Imagine first that you are going to do this curl with a core as relaxed as jelly…
If your imagination is active you might notice that tiny back muscles in your upper and mid-back might jump up to help do the job but that these same muscles might become injured in the process.
Now imagine that you are about to curl with the same weight but this time you first engage all your core muscles. Now as you do your bicep curl you may notice that you feel your core supporting all the muscles in your arm. That’s what we want!
Assignment for the week:
See if you can engage your core in EVERY single exercise you do and then see if you can engage your core when you are doing daily tasks including sitting at a desk or table. Building your core is less about crunches and more about bringing a level of awareness and engagements to all of your movements and exercises.
– Becka Tilsen, Booty Blogger, Camper and Coaching Consultant Extraordinaire
