8 Essential Core Exercises
These core strengthening exercises will help tone your midsection while improving your posture, balance, and back health
Core exercises are popular mainly because everybody wants the small waist and six pack abs. And who wouldn’t? But the advantages of a strong core go way beyond aesthetics. How about these benefits (just to name a few)?
- Better posture
- Reduced risk of lower back pain
- Improved back health
- Spine injury prevention
- Improved strength and power in the extremities
- Increased mobility
- Upgraded athletic performance
- Even improved breathing
- And oh yeah, don't forget about the strong sexy abs you'll have after the fat is burned off.
Plank Exercise - One Of The Greatest Core ExercisesPlank exercises are outstanding for building strength in your entire core, not just the abs, but also the obliques, lower back, and hips. You almost always see people either with their butt way up in the air, or their hips sagging to the ground when they're trying to do what they call "planks". To do the plank exercise right, your body has to be a straight line. Simple enough, right? From the back of your head, to your back, to your butt, to your heels is a straight line. Check out the plank exercise page for more coaching tips and a lot of great modifiers. You can do more with planks than you may think. |
Side Plank Exercise - You Will Even Feel Your Glutes Kick In.The side plank exercise is great for the entire core. It will help tighten the abs and obliques, while it strengthens the back and hips. Again, straight line. Believe me, it's not a bad idea to have your friend check you for form or at least check your shadow when doing the side plank. Your hips or your head can be more out of line that you realize. To get the benefit, you have to be perfectly straight. Just like with the plank exercise, there are a lot of core exercises you can do with side planks. Read on to get some ideas you may not have thought of yet. |
Quadurped - For The Core And A Whole Lot MoreThe quadruped is a simple and effective exercise that works your core and ab muscles without the strain on your back that sit ups and crunches and cause. |
Mountain Climber Exercise - An Exercise For The Whole BodyThe basic mountain climber exercise is a calisthenic exercise that is great for the core. The movement is pretty basic and the modifiers are easy to pick up. Like all stability exercises, though, form is the key to getting the benefit |
These exercises work all of the abdominal muscles, but really target your obliques. They also help your abdominal muscles work with the muscles in your hips and lower back. That will allow you to rotate your body with more power.
Did you catch that last part tennis players? Baseball players? Softball players? Racquetball players? Golfers?
Russian Twist - Focus On The CoreThe Russian Twist exercise is a classic core exercise. It is normally associated with the obliques, but it really works the entire core. This exercise can be modified to be effective for everyone from the beginner to the seasoned athlete by simply adjusting the angle of the upper body and adding weight. |
Hip Crossover - Abs, Legs, Obliques, Hips, and BackThe Hip Crossover works all of the muscles of the core including the obliques and the lower back. It will also improve flexibility. This is a great warm up exercise before any sport that requires powerful rotation. |
Oblique Crunches - Attack the Waistline: Work The Obliques
The six pack abs are great, but you can't have them without all of the core muscles looking great together. Have you ever seen someone with six pack abs but really flabby love handles? Of course you haven't. Here are the coaching tips you need to get the maximum benefit without adding unwanted back and neck strain. Plus 4 variations of oblique crunches for you to choose from. |
Bicycle Exercise - Best of the Best Ab and Core ExercisesThe Bicycle Exercise is the BEST ab and core exercises you can do. It works all of the abdominal muscle groups. It works the rectis abdominis (the six pack abs region) and the interior and exterior obliques. This exercise requires some strength and coordination to do correctly. But don't worry. If you're not quite at the point where you can do these right yet, there are modifiers that make the movement easier so you can work your way up. |
Keep in mind that as important as core strengthening exercises are when it comes to looking your best, the idea that you can tone one part of your body in isolation is a myth. If you work hard on your abs and want them to show, you have to burn fat off of your whole body.
If you’re over 30% body fat now, all the sit-ups, crunches, or ab equipment reps in the world aren’t going to make your abs show. At least not within the 6 weeks that a lot of exercise equipment peddlers ridiculously promise.
With that in mind, keep your motivation up by keeping your expectations in line with reality. Then set goals accordingly. For your abs to show there has to be very little fat between your muscles and your skin. That means a low body fat percentage all over the body. That means strength training including core exercises, PLUS nutrition, PLUS cardio.
More good news. Most of the fat in the body gathers around the midsection, especially for men. So you really have to burn most of the fat off of your whole body before you even start noticing a decrease around your waist.
You can do it. Be realistic about where you are now and make a goal to get to the next step. Make a goal you can reach, whether it’s 10 pounds or 5% body fat, work to reach that goal, then set the next one. It’s a process.
You’ll notice an overlap between core exercises and ab exercises. That’s because the abdominals are part of the core. That means abdominal exercises are really just a subset of core exercises.
This page will cover some great stability and rotational exercises. The ab exercises page will cover other great trunk and hip flexion exercises. You can count them all as highly effective core strengthening exercises.
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