How to Strengthen Your Core the Right Way

Reduce back pain and injury using my simple tips to strengthen your core!

Good abdominal strength is a vital part of creating a bulletproof back.

The deep layer of your core or transverse abdominals (TA) is a very strong muscle and directly supports your lumbar spine. If the TA isn’t strong or firing correctly your whole lower body then becomes very unstable and susceptible to injury.

It is very important to strengthen your core in order to keep your TA performing successfully to prevent injury. People with weak core strength will often experience back pain with everyday activities such as picking up their babies or kids, playing sports or weight training. If this goes on long enough chronic low back pain can often occur.

Reasons Behind Poor Core Strength

There are several reasons why so many people seem to have poor core strength these days. Our lives have become more and more sedentary with people spending large amounts of time sitting. Due to this, many people do not strengthen their core. Unfortunately there is also a large amount of incorrect information regarding core conditioning within the media with a lot of exercise programs focusing on strengthening the superficial abdominal muscles rather than the deep ones.

While this may help you look great on the beach it doesn’t necessarily help create the strong deep core muscles that everyone needs. To strengthen your core and focus on your deep core muscles you can undertake some pilates, swiss balls, plank holds and chiropractic assistance. These are my most useful tips about the importance of core strength and some simple exercises to strengthen your core.

Pilates

Pilates is a fantastic way to strengthen your core in a supportive environment. There are pilates classes at most gyms, an abundance of reformer studios and even youtube tutorials available for free online, so plenty of options for finding a way of doing pilates to suit your timetable and budget.

Swiss Balls

Replace your office chair at work with an appropriately sized swiss ball and this will automatically help keep your core working through the day. Strengthen your core using a swiss ball by keeping you engaged for long periods of time. If you are working in an office than the majority of your day it spent sitting in your chair. Strengthen your core by implementing a small change like a swiss ball into your work or home life.

Plank holds

Try to add this simple core exercises into your routine a couple of times a week to strengthen your core. Plank holds are fantastic, start with 10- 30 seconds and try increasing how long you can hold it for each day. You will notice a drastic difference and strengthen your core with these exercises.

Chiropractic

Chiropractors can assess how strong your core is and if the nerves to the core are firing correctly. Getting adjusted has been found to increase the activation of the transverse abdominals so this is another great way to help strengthen your core.