Core strength is much more than flashing an attractive ‘six-pack’ in your tummy. It is the central link of the chain that connects your upper and lower body: your abdominals, yes, but also your obliques (sides), lower back, and hips. With a stable core, a person protects and improves the balance of the spine and makes every movement, even the mundane ones-such as carrying groceries and marathon-running-seem, giving such activities a smooth and safe character.
These are 11 exercises to carve a nice strong core with simple movements:
Straight plank
This is the golden standard of core stability. By putting the whole body in line by the elbows and toes on the ground, it has the whole unit of midsection fighting gravity. The deep muscles surrounding the spinal column, right up to the lower back, sucked in, help guard against pain in that area.
D Bug
It’s great for the beginner or the person with a back problem. All you do is lie on your back and lower the opposite arm and leg toward the floor, teaching how to keep the lower back in contact with the ground while allowing movement of an extremity.
Bird Dog
Be on hands and bent knees. Extend an arm straight in front and an opposite leg back. Balancing skills are challenged with the core having to resist rotation. Amazing strengthening of the spine muscles that run up and down.
Side plank
The side plank hits the obliques. The muscles on the side of the waist are involved in this exercise. Balance on one forearm while the side of the foot is on the floor. Core really supports and stabilizes the overall stability of the body in its vertical position.
Hollow Body Hold
Lie flat on your back, with legs, head and shoulders raised slightly off the ground to give the appearance of a shallow “C”. It is high-intensity “bracing” strength for your abdominal wall in a gymnically adapted hold.
Russian Twists
To start off: seated on the ground, knees bend and slightly lean back. Twist your torso and try to touch the floor on either side; it helps give a better rotational ability to the core in a motion we commonly use in sports and everyday life.
Glute Bridge
What is typically thought of as leg work, the glute bridge works back into the backside of the core. Basically, what happens is the il-ions are brought up into the air toward a certain spot under the ceiling. This is through a proper lying position in which the back rests flat on the floor.
Mountain Climbers
This is probably the latest way to turn on the heart rate. The way to do it is to start from the high plank position, with alternating driving knees toward the chest. That keeps the best of the core sturdy while raising the heart rate, producing strength and endurance.
Leg Raise
The lying supine slowly raises and lowers the leg that is targeted to the lower part of the abdominal wall. For safety purposes, the lower back should always be glued to the floor.
Superman
Work the back against core anteriorization. Prone and then fly the chest and legs away from the floor is the exercise for the erector spinae muscles on this end.
Bicycle Crunches
The bicycle method is one of the easiest yet best core-exciting exercises for incorporating multiple stimuli into one target muscle at any given time. The idea is to bring that opposite side elbow toward targeting the opposite knee during pedalling motions to fully engage all three areas-upper abs, lower abs, and obliques-at once.
