Core Strength

Core strengthening

Building a strong core is important for everyday life. There are not a lot of movements that we can complete that don’t involve the core in some way. That’s why it is crucial for us to maintain a strong core so that we aren’t getting becoming sore or injured. Here are a few exercises that you can complete at home, to help maintain core strength.

What is core?

Before we jump into the exercises that we should do to help engage our core, we first need to understand what we mean by core. When we speak about core, some might think about having a 6 pack, like Chris Hemsworth. This isn’t what we mean here at Gators. What we are talking about is being steady through your torso and through your hips. In this post, we will talk specifically about our torso, or our abdominals. But if you would like more information about hips, feel free to read our other posts about hip strengthening and stretching.

Why can't I just do sit ups to work my core?

Although sit ups does work our abdominal muscles, sit ups alone can’t hit all the areas that we need to focus on.

There are four abdominal muscles, our rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. To make sure that we are steady throughout our core, we want to make sure that all of these muscles are working. The two exercises that we have here are an easy way to get these muscles engaged without spending a lot of time on it. Even for those with a really busy schedule!

Russian twists and dead bugs

The first core exercise is called a Russian twist. For this exercise we want to be seated on the ground with our knees bent. We want to start with our feet on the ground and chest pulled up into the sky. You should aim to get a big gap between your hips and ribs. This will help engage our rectus abdominis.

From here we want to rotate and reach as far as we can to our left and then our right. By reaching out we are now engaging our obliques and transverse abdominals. This exercise carries over into everyday life, for when we are reaching for objects, slightly out of our reach.

You can make this exercise easier by placing something over your feet to help keep your feet steady. You can also make this exercise harder by adding weights in the twist, or taking your feet off the ground. Make sure to complete this exercise a few times before adding weight.

The second exercise is called dead bugs. In this exercise we are lying on the ground, on our back. Both arms and legs are in the air, with the legs at a 90 degree angle. Pull your back into the ground, and your belly button down towards the ground, to engage your core. Now that your core is engaged we can start the movement.

From here you want to drop one arm down towards the ground. The opposite leg will drop down at the same time. Neither the arm or leg should touch the ground. When you are almost at the ground, start to bring the arms and legs back up. The key with this exercise is to be slow. The slower you move, the more you need to engage your core.

If you are feeling your back come off the ground as you drop your arms and legs down, don’t drop down as low. Go to the point you can keep the back on the ground then come back up. You will also alternate arms and legs each time they go down.