What is Your Core and How Does it Work?

I have had the opportunity to work with many people who I would have assumed to be very strong and well put together.  These people can lift significant weight at the gym and would give the impression that they are the epitome of fitness.  The irony of it all is that when I started to work with them, I realized that the most essential areas of strength in the human body were lacking in these big strong people.

One can potentially be able to lay down on a bench press and put up 250 pounds, while they can not even turn over and do 5 push ups.  Holding a plank for any length of time was certainly out of the question.  The people in this situation had built a big strong body that wanted to collapse like a house of cards.  What holds all of this up, creates balance, enables maneuverability, and acts as a primary stabilizer in the body?  The Core!

What is the core?  I am going to use regular terminology to keep this article simple, but also because I am not a doctor.  My goal is to inspire personal fitness revolutions and not to confuse you with technicalities.  The core is your abs as well as all of the muscle structures that support your spine and neck.  Often times, people feel as though they are toughening their core by simply doing crunches, sit-ups, or utilizing their gym's fitness machines.  You will see a lot of people who have the top four abs in place as they stroll the beach, while that lean waste line, the obliques, and the bottom of their abdominal set are missing. That is because they have fallen victim to thinking that working core is applying a few sets of various sit-up options after a day of arms.

You can theoretically take an entire day at the gym to dedicate to working your core.  There are so many dimensions to your core (which is nearly every muscle that is not part of your legs and arms). Applied core functions working your lower, middle, and upper back, your sides, and your entire abdominal set are available to you with a little research. Here are some suggestions:

Obliques:
One Arm/Elbow hip raise
Laying down knee to elbow on both sides

Upper and Lower Abs:
Standing Knee raises to elbow (hands behind your head)
Bicycles
Scissor Kicks
Leg Raises

Full Core:
Planks
Mountain Climbers in Plank

Spinal Muscles:
Laying down on medicine ball pulsing your upper back up
Superman (Laying on stomach with arms and legs raised)

The aforementioned workouts are just 10 of 100's of potential core enhancing workouts.  It is important to educate yourself on various types because mixing them up and giving yourself variety is key to success.  A successful core set is essential to living a fully mobile and healthy life.  So if variety = success, and success = essential to health, then variety = healthy living.  You like that?

A strong core will change your life and have you doing things you never thought possible.  People have said to me, "I'm 45, I'm not going to ever be able to do the things you do."  That is simply not true.  Building the fundamental elements of your body's support system will slowly and progressively begin to show you very surely that age is irrelevant when it comes to fitness.  The reason people start to lose their mobility more and more as they age is because they do not realize this.

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