Abdominals-Building A Strong Core
The core abdominals are the muscles that stretch from your hips to your rib cage. They support and protect your spine and organs, and provide stability for movements in all directions. If you don’t have a strong abdominal core, you’re at risk of injury during activities such as running or jumping. Let’s discuss what the core abdominals are, why they’re important for overall strength, and how to strengthen them!
Let’s first break down each of the muscles involved in your core. The transverse muscles are the deepest layer of the abdominal muscle. They act like a girdle, holding in your internal organs and helping you maintain good posture. The rectus muscles run down the front of your stomach and provide stability for a movement that is forward and up to either side. This group also helps with back movements like bending over or twisting at the waist.
The obliques, on both sides of your body from ribs to hips, help rotate your torso and bend sideways. There are four sets, the right-side outermost set runs diagonally across your body and meets left-side’s innermost horizontal line near the midline of your body.
Outermost left-sides and innermost, right-sides sets of abdominal muscles alternate diagonally across the body to meet in the middle. Strength in these muscles helps prevent rotation at the waist and is important for weight-bearing jobs. To strengthen your core it is important to include a variety of exercises that target these muscles, not just crunches alone.
Core strength is key to developing a strong and stable back, as well as in preventing injury. It’s important to include exercises like bridges with legs raised. Lifted bent-knee knee ups on an exercise ball, twisting at the waist, and rotating about that joint for improved core stability. To get started with core training we recommend these 4 exercises that will strengthen all areas of the abdominals muscles including the lower back.
If you need guidance from experts then contact us today we would love to work with you to create your fitness program!
– Basic Bridge: Lying on your back, bend your knees and hips to form a bridge. Maintain the natural curve of the spine while lifting only as high as you can without overarching or rounding out through the shoulders. Slowly return back to starting position with control and repeat for desired reps.
– Walkouts: In pushup position walk hands out so that arms are fully extended behind body before walking them forward into plank then returning back to the original starting point by walking hands backward again. Continue alternating sides between reps.
– Prone Windmill: From a prone (face down) position, round upper torso off from floor toward one arm side until elbow is at hip height level; hold briefly before rotating towards the opposite side.
– Side Plank: Get into a plank position on one side with the center of your weight distributed between both arms. Contract abs to keep shoulders from sagging and hold for desired time or reps before switching sides.
Join our private community for this weeks plank challenge