I’ve been a fitness professional for 17 years, and without fail, the number one request I receive from any client at any age is “more core!” I totally get it- there is nothing more rewarding than arching your back backwards and feeling your muscles stretch and they’re sore and it just feels so rewarding.

And I think we’re conditioned to look at the rectus abdominis, which are those six pack abs on the front of our stomach, as an indicator of how strong our core is. After all, take any Fitness or Health Magazine and 99% of them are going to be women in their sports bras and they’re perfectly toned abs showing.

If you’ve been with me for any amount of time, and especially if you read my book Your Worthy Body, you now this is a trigger for me. No matter how strong my core has been, I always felt like it didn’t measure up because my abs have never ever ever looked like that in a magazine. Now I guess comparing them to the fitness influencers on Instagram is probably a little bit more timely. Regardless, those six pack abs, or lack thereof, really seem to be our overriding goal for our core health.

Let’s take a broader look at what our core is, misperceptions, why it’s important to have a strong core beyond just trying to look good, and then give you some applicable ways to strengthen them.

Before we do, though, a quick word about six-pack abs: not only do these not represent core strength, they also don’t represent health. This is deserving of an entire episode, and I spoke some with Dr. Lisa Folden about this in my Health At Every Size episode.

The reality is we all have a different genetic makeup and natural body size. Some are conducive to showing off particular muscles, and some are simply larger bodies. So please don’t take this discussion to mean you need to have a flat, toned stomach to have or prove you have a strong core. You can have a strong core in any sized body.

What exactly is the core?

The core is where the center of gravity of the body is located and where all movement originates. A strong and efficient core is necessary for maintaining proper muscle balance throughout the entire human movement system. This is called the kinetic chain, which basically means that anything we do reverbates to the rest of our body.

We have three systems associated with our core. The local stabilization system, the global stabilization system, and the movement system. If you listened to last week’s episode on balance, this stabilization system is what engages when we are focusing on our balance. 

Your core is basically like a corset that wraps around your entire midsection. From your bra line to below your rear is your core, and all of these muscles need to be strengthened to optimally work together.

We have 20 different muscle groups that are all part of the core system. Some of them you will know, like the rectus abdominis, which is that six-pack muscle we all see and you hear me talk about because I wish mine were visible.

Another group of muscles you may be familiar with are your oblique muscles, both external and internal. These are basically your side muscles. If you ever do T stands and you’re dropping your hips up and down that’s a great example of a movement that challenges your obliques. However, there are also some muscles that you might not consider are part of the core system. For example, your diaphragm. I don’t know about you, but when I think about my diaphragm, all I think about is it being the muscle that allows my lungs to inhale and exhale. If you’ve ever done a workout that left you breathing really really hard, like those track workouts I love, you may find your abs are sore the next day – this is your diaphragm.

Another muscle that may surprise you as part of the core system is your hip flexors, which are typically tight and inflexible because we are sitting so often. Another unexpected group of muscles in your core are your glutes and also your quadriceps, which are the muscles on the front of your legs.

Misperceptions about your core

1. Core is only the front of your body. I don’t want to beat a dead horse so I won’t go over that again but I feel it’s worth mentioning again that your core is more than just the front of the body.
2. Doing a bunch of ab and core work will get you a six pack. As I mentioned, we all have different body shapes. You can absolutely have a strong core but you may not be able to see defined abdominal muscles because your body isn’t designed that way.

Why is core work important?

Beyond the aesthetics (which let’s be honest many of us – including myself – still strive for), it’s important we have a strong core because this is where all of our strength, power, and muscular endurance comes from. I mentioned earlier about the three different systems, the local stabilization system, the global stabilization system, and the movement system. If you tuned into last week’s episode on balance you also heard about the global stabilization system then. If one of these is significantly stronger than the other, then the kinetic chain senses imbalance. Formally, that means forces are not transferred or used properly. The term I will use is it makes everything wonky. You will start compensating one area for another and your movement becomes very inefficient. Weak core can also lead to injury for that same reason.

An estimated 80% of adults have chronic low back pain because they are not activating and strengthening certain muscle groups. This is not in the research but I can tell you one of the biggest challenges we have is the screens that we are constantly looking at. We’re sitting at a computer all day, slouched over and looking at our screens, like I have a tendency to do if I’m not careful. Or we are standing up with our phone prop on our belly and our head hold down toward it.

These two activities, being on our computer and looking at our phone really do have a tendency to weaken our core because we are not activating all of the muscles needed to stabilize our salt and we’re standing up straight.

How to activate your core

What some easy ways to activate your core? Try this…you can even do it  right now, no matter what you’re doing:

• Sit up straight or stand up straight
• Draw your rib cage in and pull your belly button back to your spine. This is called the drawing in maneuver and what it does is it recruits several muscles by simply drawing the navel back toward the spine. It’s easy to do, you can do it anywhere.

Easy, huh?

Another movement you can do relatively easily is called bracing. This is when we contract both the abdominals in the front and the lower back and buttock muscles. By the way, I don’t recommend doing this in front of a big group of people otherwise they may think that you have a bathroom emergency or something. But if you tighten everything up, you’re activating many of your core muscles as well. 

One of the greatest ways we can also strengthen our core is simply by walking with proper posture. Please keep in mind, just because I know this doesn’t mean I always do it. Sometimes I will get a glimpse of myself in the mirror or in a window and I will see my shoulders hunched over and my belly sticking out because I’m not activating any of those muscles. But if I just take a minute and pull my shoulders back and do that drawing in maneuver while I walk, then I’m activating many of those core muscles. 

If we are talking about 20 muscles that comprise all of the core muscles, it’s going to be difficult for me to tell you a comprehensive core program. but what I want to do is give you a visual of the areas you can focus on begin strengthening all of your core muscles. 

The first would be to practice the three things I just mentioned: drawing in, bracing, and walking.

What are some core exercises?

Think of your trunk as a 3D rectangle: your front, your two sides, and back.

So let’s start with the front.

You can do your basic crunches or bicycles. I’m a big fan of bicycles because they activate more muscles than just the crunches. Not only do they challenge your rectus abdominus, they also get your transverse abdominis and your external obliques. If you don’t know what those are, that’s ok – basically they are the sides of your belly.

Then roll over on your side and do a T- stand. A T-stand is with your elbow or your hand on the ground your hips are vertical to the ground. Depending on your strength, either your feet are on the ground, your knees, or one foot is crossed over the other. Just holding this position will strengthen your external obliques. If you want a little more, you can drop your hip down and up 10 to 15 times.

Next roll over on your belly with your arms straight down by your hips and legs extended out. Pretend like someone is pulling on your middle fingers away from your shoulders and pulling your toes away from you…but keep your toes on the floor. Envision creating space in the joints of your shoulder and your hips. This will also activate some of your core muscles just by doing that motion, specifically the multifidus, which are the muscles that encapsulate the spine. Then, keeping your feet on the floor lift your chest up off the ground and release. It doesn’t have to come far up. You just want to get it up enough so that  the muscles in your back or activated. This is called floor prone cobra. 

Finally roll over to your other side and do T-stands the same way over there. You’ll see several of these movements in my online on-demand class, B.COMPLETE.

One thing I would caution you against is trying to replicate a complicated core movement you may see on Instagram or YouTube. I know those are a lot more fun and impressive, but we also want to make sure that we fully strengthen our core, and not just do a bunch of crunch variations.

Over the last few years, I’ve really transitioned to trying to train my body so it can age well. Keeping that center of gravity strong is a key component, as everything we do, whether it’s strength training, running, athletics, Zumba, or however else you like to move.

Core is the second tenant of my new online, on-demand class called B.COMPLETE. B.COMPLETE is an acronym for the six areas we cover in my new online on-demand class that launches July 26, 2022. We covered B for balance last week, and CO is for core.

This 40-minute class covers all the things we want to be focusing on as we age. This class is offered at $20, which is quite a deal since you can do it as many times as you want, but you can receive presale pricing by clicking here before July 19, 2022 to receive half off the $20 rate, so you’ll get an on demand class for $10 to do as many times as you want. Click here to sign up now.

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Have a graced day,

Amy