Core Train
Core Train
At Core Performance Training and Fitness, our goal is to build every client a stronger body starting with their core and building out from there. Once you can naturally brace and engage your core, all exercises - whether endurance or strength - become safer and easier.
Core Training is simply performing specific exercises to strengthen the muscles in your core. In general, your core is all the muscles of your midsection. This includes muscles in the front, side and back of your midsection, as well as many ancillary muscles you cannot see.
Aside from the obvious aesthetic benefits of maintaining a lean, tight core, there are important functional pluses as well. Imagine easing back pain, improving posture and balance, and being able to lift heavy objects without strain or stress. A strong core allows you to execute everyday movements with ease, even as you age. Core training is an insurance policy for keeping the body performing at peak levels.
There are three key elements to core training and fitness:
Breathing
Form
Speed
Breathing. Think of the inhalation as an archer’s bow before launch, and follow it with a deep exhale on the positive or extended portion of the movement as if you were releasing the arrow. Aim for slow and controlled negative followed by an explosive positive.
Form. Every exercise has its proper starting position, movement path and action. Maintain control through every repetition; controlled exercise develops strength, stamina, flexibility and ease of movement.
Speed. Neither rush through your reps nor greatly slow them; instead, adopt a neutral pace that you can sustain throughout the set while keeping proper form. You want to focus on completing exercises in a full range of motion and not letting momentum do the work your core should be doing.
The bridge is a classic exercise to strengthen the core. To do this properly you need to lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor. Tighten your abdominal muscles and raise your hips off the floor until they are aligned with your knees and shoulders. Hold and squeeze your glutes muscles while taking deep breathes. Add a ball between the knee or a resistance band around the thighs for a little extra work on hips, abductor and adductors.
Other very effective core strengthening exercises are planks, vertical leg crunches, flutter kicks, Russian twists, and hollow body hold and hang. Also, just bracing your core throughout the day is an excellent way to stabilize your core and correct posture imbalances.
For best results, less is more: aim to lengthen the muscle, then contract and squeeze. Place the tension on the core muscles you are working without recruiting muscles you are not. And, when in doubt, reach out to the experts at Core Performance for advice and assistance to ensure you are correctly building the core strength to meet your body’s needs.
Kim Duke is a certified personal trainer and owner of Core Performance Fitness and Training located at 55 Bristol Lane, Ellicottville, NY. Kim resides in Ellicottville where she raised her two sons, Zach and Nik. For more information about her studio visit her Facebook page or www.coreperformancefitness.com. Kim can be reached at 716-698-1198.
