What you need to know about core muscles
Hi everyone,
It’s Sunday Morning and still the weekend. Did you have an enjoyable week? Hopefully you got out and did something active that made you feel good?
If you’ve had a high intake food then do your best to get back into the zone and on the right path. Just because it’s the weekend you still have to keep your focus and remember why you’re trying so hard. Writing a food diary instinctively makes you change a behaviour for the better - try it for 14 days. Get a small note book and write down everything you eat and drink. I bet you start to make some long term changes!
Hopefully you’re feeling motivated for some exercise today? Perhaps a walk, cycle or playing some football with the kids. The rain shouldn't stop you!
I’m looking forward to catching up with those of you who are booked in next week.
Today’s Topic: This week we are looking at the core.
The term “Core” refers to the muscles in the lower trunk area of you. They work together and provide support and mobility enabling your whole body to move.
If you hear someone say “I have no core muscles” what they really mean is they feel those muscles aren’t trained enough to do their job. But if they aren’t doing their job on a daily basis you’d be a heap of jelly on the floor. The core is central to your body’s total movement and every single muscle in your body when fired will call upon the core.
You use your core to reach into cupboards, mow the lawn, put the shopping away as well as many other mundane chores.
The core doesn’t just get a workout when you are in the gym.
So what’s included in the core?
The rectus abdominis – the 6 pack which tenses the abdominal wall by contracting the abdominal muscles.
The internal and external obliques which surround your rectus abdominis and allow you to bend from side to side and rotate your torso.
The Erector Spinae which is shaped like a Christmas tree and situated behind the abdmonials at the lower back. This is responsible for spinal stabilisation and spinal movement.
The hip flexors act as the foundation of this muscular complex, supporting movement in the pelvic area.
What’s the aim here then?
Getting the most out of your core requires more than just the right daily diet.
Core exercises enable the skeleton, muscles and joints to work together properly. Also they offer a combination of strengthening, stretching, balancing, realigning and fat loss that nutrition alone would not achieve.
What is core training?
The muscles function as a unified whole rather than in isolation. Core exercises are movements and physical positions that target the core directly. They enhance your midsections muscular development.
What is core stability?
Movements and physical positions that help build a strong core that is ready for whatever you ask of it. The goal is greater functionality or real world performance. It’s possible to have great core stability without a sleek and defined midsection. And you may be strong physically but that does not necessary make you stable.
Strength is a factor but not the main function here.
Commonly used core stability exercises
Plank
4 pint balance or bird dog
Supine (lying on your back) abdominal exercises.
Fitness Fact of the week
Pelvic tilt. A women’s pelvis generally tilts more anteriority (forward) than a man’s. This anterior tilt pushes the glutes back and pulls the pubis in between the thighs. This gives the impression that the lower belly is pushed out slightly – the small, typically feminine belly.
This is to help the foetus to press some of its weight on the abdominal wall. Men have a more vertical abdominal wall as their pelvis is typically tilted to a lesser degree.
Quote of the week
“We can do anything we want to as long as we stick to it long enough”
