Five Reasons Why Your Core Is Your Most Important Muscle Group
Ask anyone what do they mean by their core muscles. Chances are, they’ll point towards their abs. People are obsessed with having six-pack abs and spend hours toning and strengthening their ab muscles. Even the most die-hard fitness fanatics aren’t aware that the core muscle group isn’t just the abdomen that they constantly strive to make aesthetically appealing!
You’ll be surprised to know that core is made of your abdomen, middle, and lower back, hips, and thighs. From helping us in our daily movements to protecting us from various back and digestive problems, it is time to get a deeper understanding of the core and why strengthening and training it is critical to your health.
What Does Your Core Consist of?
A person doing plank exercise, Credits: Pixabay
Your core primarily includes your ab muscles, lower back muscles, glutes (hips), and thigh muscles. It does a variety of functions.
Impart stability to your body.
It helps you to perform everyday activities like walking, running, cycling, bending efficiently.
Directs energy from lower body to the upper body and vice versa.
It supports your spine, pelvis, and ribs.
They align the parts of your upper and lower body like skull, spine, and tailbone.
Reasons Why Your Core Strength Is Important?
Provides stabilization to your body.
It enables you to move efficiently.
Protects you against back injuries.
It helps you to expel waste from your body.
Core strength is crucial to building strength in any other body part.
1. Provides Stabilization to Your Body
A person standing upright, Credits: Pixabay
Your body can balance itself only through strong core muscles. They support your whole body, including your spine and pelvis, and connect the upper and lower body. Hence, without their adequate strength, you will not be able to stand erect and upright.
2. Enables You to Move Effeciently
People walking, Credits: Pixabay
Core strength is essential for your daily movements. Without a stable base, you cannot move forwards, backward, and sidewards. Every type of activity requires core stability. How efficiently you can walk up and down a rugged hill without falling is determined by your core muscle group strength.
3. Protects You Against Back Injuries
Adiagram depicting human back, Credits: Pixabay
Since the core is the foundation of support for your entire body, strengthening the core muscle group protects you from injuries and accidents that can adversely affect your lower back. Weak core muscles can make you prone to various injuries, lower back pain, and other digestive ailments.
4. Helps You to Expel Waste from Your Body
A diagram represing human intestine, Credits: Pixabay
When your core muscle group contract, it leads you to unimportant and undigested food portions from your body. It is why good core strength is crucial for your digestive health. It is needed to expel the deoxygenated air, feces, urine from your body. The more core strength you have, the more easily you will be able to accomplish this process.
5. Core Strength Is Crucial to Build Strength In Any Other Body Part
A person doing lunges, Credits: Pixabay
As you already know, without adequate core strength, you won’t be able to perform movements that engage other body parts like arms, shoulders, and hamstrings. Core stability and strong abs are needed to strengthen different parts of your body. If you find it difficult to perform exercises like plank, pushups, and bicep curls, you likely have weak core strength. As you build your core strength, you’ll find that you can better perform all these different exercises.
Core Muscle Workout – Exercises for a Rock Solid Core
Some of the best exercises for building a strong core are:
Russian twists
Plank
Squats
Lunges
1. Russian Twists
A person doing russian twists, Credits: Pixabay
Keep your feet flat on the floor. Bend backward and lift your feet slightly up from the floor. Clasp both of your hands and start twisting from side to side. You can even hold something in your hands for added resistance. Look straight ahead and keep your ab muscles constantly engaged.
2. Plank
A person doing plank exercise, Credits: Pixabay
Come down on your forearms and keep your body as straight as possible. You can bend your knees and let them touch the floor if you’re performing this exercise for the first time. If you’re up for a challenge, you can lift your knees off the floor. Remain in this position for about 30-60 seconds, depending on your fitness level.
3. Squats
A person doing squats, Credits: Pixabay
Keep your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise your hands forward and bend down as if you’re sitting on a chair. Keep your knees behind your toes as you bend down. Suck your ab muscles in and go as low as you can. Remain in this position for a second and slowly come back up. Perform this exercise atleast ten times.
4. Lunges
A person doing lunges, Credits: Pixabay
Start by keeping one foot in front of the other. Bend down while keeping your knees behind your toes and then get back up. Don’t bend forward instead of going down. Keep your upper body straight and pull your shoulders back. Repeat this exercise for around ten times on each leg.
By now, you must have found out how important your core muscles are for your overall well-being. Next time you do any exercise, remember to engage your core muscles, and by core, you already know that we don’t mean just your abs.
Comments