5 Reasons Why You Should Focus on Building Your Core

Building a strong core takes more than a few crunches…
Just because you’re strong, doesn’t mean you have a strong core!

Your core is not just those six-pack abs, but the stability your deep internal core muscles also provide, it’s your body’s powerhouse and it’s foundation. I like to think of humans having two cores.

First, our “outer” core. Those abs everyone sees on the outside which can appear all strong and muscular looking. And second, our “inner” core. The deeper, internal core muscles close to our spine, providing our trunk with stability. These “inner and outer” cores work together to create our powerhouse and help us pretty much do everything. But, if one portion is doing more work than the other, we don’t know how to properly use our core, or don’t have the strength and control in our core, we lose that strong support system and our whole body can be negatively affected!

Here are 5 Important benefits of building your core:

1. Help prevent injuries. Building a stronger core builds a stronger foundation and the more stable you are, the better it can help us move and protect us through motions.
2. Improve your posture: Improving your core stability and strength can help you maintain a better functional posture in your trunk, build your confidence, and provide you with the support a healthy posture needs.
3. Lift Heavier, Perform Better: Improving your core activation, stability, and strength will provide you with more trunk stability, and stronger foundation to lift and move with, and better muscle recruitment that can help make you lift, play, move more efficiently!
4. Protect your internal organs & CNS: Improving your core health can help to keep your internals protected too! Building muscular strength and stability of your deep core muscles can help improve the environment around your body and with all the pressures we put on our bodies everyday, can help to provide better support to our trunk every time we move.
5. Move better daily: Learning to use your core properly and building its stability will help you move better daily. From carrying the groceries to bending down and tying your shoes, having a strong core can help improve you day to day activities.

What steps you should take to improve your core health:

1. Learn how to properly activate and use your core..
2. Build control first and increase your core stability
3. Once you have the stability, build your muscular tolerance and increase your core strength.

Here are three of my favourite intermediate core exercises for building core stability and strength:

1. Rotational planks
2. Reverse Crunches
3. A well-executed dead bug

Remember, just because you’re strong, doesn’t mean you have a strong core.Think about working from the inside out. It really is something everyone can work on.
In health,