Why Core Strengthening & Stabilizing Your Core Is Essential

September 24, 2022 3 min read

How strong is your core? Building core strength and stability is something we all should be doing if we want to improve our overall health, feel better, and be prepared in case of injury. A strong core is also essential for heavy lifting, sports, and everyday tasks like picking up your kids or carrying groceries.

The core is like the foundation of a house — everything is built on this area of your body.

If you have weak or unstable abs, lower back, and glutes, you will experience problems in other parts of your body.The best way to build core strength and stability is through functional movements that challenge your body in multiple planes of motion: side planks, Russian twists, and press-ups are all greatexercises that work your whole body while also improving core strength.

Weak core muscles can lead to poor posture and back pain.

What Is a Strong Core?

A strong core generates sufficient strength in all the muscles that support your spine and pelvis while performing functional movement patterns such as walking, bending over, lifting objects, etc. A strong core is essential for athletes and non-athletes because it helps prevent injury during daily activities.

The different core muscles

The core is the area of your body that includes your chest, back, and abdomen. A strong core helps you maintain balance, do your daily activities quickly, and prevent injury. The core comprises many muscles that support and stabilize your spine. When these muscles work together, they can help you produce force in your upper and lower body.

The core muscles are:

Transversus abdominis – this muscle wraps around the waist like an apron. It helps to compress the abdomen to assist with breathing, coughing, and sneezing.

Rectus abdominis – this muscle runs vertically along the front of the abdomen and contributes to flexion and rotation at the spine and pelvis.

Obliques – these muscles run diagonally from one ribcage to another. They assist with lateral flexion at the spine and pelvis (side bends).

Erector spinae – this group of muscles lies on either side of the spine and extends from the pelvis to the skull. It supports the extension of vertebrae.

There are different ways to train your core, depending on your fitness needs and goals.

Here are four types of workouts that will help you strengthen your core:

1. Sit-ups

Sit-ups are one of the most common exercises for strengthening your core. Unfortunately, they're also one of the easiest to do wrong, which can cause injury if you don't know how to do them correctly.

2. Crunches

Crunches are another great exercise to strengthen your core. Unfortunately, they're also easy to do wrong, so follow instructions carefully when performing this exercise.

https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/sit-ups-vs-crunches#crunches

3. Planks or Side Planks

Planks and side planks work your entire body, including your core, abs, and back muscles. These exercises can help improve overall strength and stability in your entire body andreduce lower back pain.

4. Lateral Walkouts

Lateral walkouts strengthen your hip abductors (muscles on the sides of your hips) and gluteus medius (one of the main hip stabilizing muscles). These muscles help keep your hips stable while walking or running, so strengthening them makes it easier for you to perform any activity without injuring yourself by overloading these areas due to weakness or poor balance control.

It's a good thing that your core strength is largely trainable. You can use many techniques to build up those stabilizing muscles, some of which target the deep core (the one that really drives movement) and some of which target the superficial core.

We need to learn how to strengthen our core because our ability to control stability and balance in a variety of situations helps keep our bodies healthy and strong. But developing strong core strength and a solid sense of balance is also incredibly vital for virtually all activities of daily living.