The core muscles of the body are very important for many functions of body movement. The core muscles are used for stabilization and balance in everyday life. It is usually because these muscles are weak that injuries occur.
Back pain is a common ailment when core muscles are weak.
Most core exercises can be done without equipment.
It must also be understood, that when I speak about the “core”, more muscles are included other than just the abdominals.
Some of these exercises will work the abdominals and help with those 6 pack abs that most people want, but the core also includes the back and gluteal muscles. All the muscles required to have a strong and stable core.
Exercises for full core workout:
Pelvic tilts
Planks
Hip dips
Superman
Bird dog
Dead bug
Russian twist
Bridges
In my back pain post (here), I went in a little bit about why the pelvic tilt was so important. The pelvic tilt needs to be performed first before any other exercise because if you cannot perform that then the others will be too hard.
The pelvic tilt will help to stabilize and hold your body in the correct position. In my practice, I will check that every patient that has back pain and needs core strengthening can do a pelvic tilt, if not then that is the first exercise performed until you can.
Abdominal Exercises:
The Rectus Abdominus (RA) is the muscle in front that gets the “6 pack”. And this is the muscle most people want to exercise.
And when we talk about the abdominal exercises, you hear a lot about upper and lower abs. But it is a myth that those exercises will work a different part of your RA.
The Rectus Abdominus is one muscle and when you exercise it, the whole thing is working. Check out the article here from ACE Fitness with the research.
It is also important to remember that there are other abdominal muscles that are important to work along with the RA, and those are the Obliques. The Obliques are on the side of the RA.
The next list of exercises will focus more on the abdominals including RA and the obliques.
Abdominal Exercises
Mountain climbers
Leg lifts
Straight leg sit-up
Bicycle crunch
V-up
Spiderman
Remember, the core muscles of the body are very important for many functions of body movement. Exercising these muscle will help reduce back injuries and injuries in other areas.