Why is your core so important?

Wouldn't you say that we use our core muscles mostly all the time?

Yes, the core is your center of gravity and where all body movements begin. Assisting with your core stability and strength is the muscles of the pelvic floor, rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus multifidus, erector spinae, longissimus thoracis, together with the internal and external obliques. However, they are not the only muscles that create the stability as your body movements are not segmented.

Core strength plays a large role in the ability to produce force in relation to the stability but also showing control over the force we produce. The core not only assists with stability and posture but also decreasing your injury to your spine and making every day physical activity easier.

Why do we see this as such an important part of your exercise routine? Core strength and stability is misunderstood to be seen as only working on the abdominal muscles, however, this is not true as the hips, back and the muscles of your midsection assists with postural alignment, producing correct technique, stabilizing and controlling movements of the body. This can then be seen to protect the spine and surrounding musculature from injury.

Remind yourself of what your core does? When sitting the core stabilizes the trunk region, helping you sit up straight, increasing your capability of breathing, decreasing the compression of your vertebra and helping with the pelvic tilt. Having a strong core can also assist with increasing running economy, decreasing the “Wobble” effect, as well as assist the pelvis, legs and lower back working together more effectively thus decreasing energy expenditure and injury.

In various sports such as soccer, tennis or rugby, your body is required to produce a forceful movement, stabilize that movement or keep the movement in a contracted phase. For example, tennis being a foot contact sport, creating force with a quick push off motion, allows energy produced to be transfer from the ground to the racket though the kinetic chain, producing higher force output when hitting the ball, hitting the ball at a higher velocity. As the core has numerous weak points, the force produced can be lost in translation and in turn decrease the velocity at which the ball is hit. 

Tennis also requires multi-dimensional movement patterns, using upper and lower core strength to provide a stable three-dimensional movement without any limitation. The core also assists with protecting your movements through the three-dimensional movement pattern, by decreasing the risk of over rotation or poor technique, thus decreasing injury.

With this said, have you thought of the consequences of having a weak core? Let's take the tennis example; with a weak core, postural imbalances occur, placing strain on musculature that can’t withstand increased amounts of stress, this relates not only in the upper body but also in the lower body. This shows an increase in wobbling and unstable movements that can cause injuries. With lower core strength the lower body force that has been produced, will not effectively be transferred through the kinetic chain to the racket, losing the force at which you could have hit the ball. Poor technique comes into play when fatigue sets in and the core can no longer sustain the force produced or assist with stabilizing your movements, therefore causing injury. 

Most individuals see core exercises as only sit ups/crunches, where this is misunderstood as the only exercise to increase core strength. The core is contracted within most exercises, if not all, assisting with correct posture, technique and assisting with correct movement within the movements. Weak core muscles can project poor technique within an exercise, that is associated with injuries due to an imbalance of load being placed on the body.

Here are just a few ideas of core exercises that you can try out:

1. Sit up
2. Front & Side Plank
3. Lying Leg Lifts
4. Hanging leg lift
5. Mountain climbers
6. V sit up
7. Lying down cycle
8. Flutter Kicks
9. Dead Bug
10. L sit
11. Toe Taps
12. Plank crunches
13. Plank rolls
14. Push up sidewalks

As part of strengthening your core, download our Fitness Hacks for Beginners guide, hust to make sure you've got the basics covered. 

Other conventional exercises assisting in developing core strength:

1. Squat
2. Push up
3. Burpees
4. Lunges
5. Seated rowing
6. Deadlift
7. Kettlebell swings
8. Incline leg press
9. Incline bench press

Proprioceptive exercises to include to develop core strength:

1. One leg bosu ball balance 1min
2. Bosu ball single leg deadlift
3. Bosu ball push up
4. Bosu ball plank
5. Isometric dead bug holds
6. Bosu ball squats
7. Bosu ball single leg jumps
8. Skater side jumps

The core does not only have one responsibility as every single movement resonates from the from the muscles of the midsection. Core strength being one of the most important aspects to include within your training program as it has shown to have many benefits, such as assisting with good technique, stabilizing movements, postural improvements, improvements of balance, increasing force production, as well as assist with everyday physical activities. 

Get into your best shape with Body Fit, our easy to follow plan for those trying to improve their fitness. 

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