Crunches and planks arent everything.
If you want to strengthen your core, you gotta think bigger.
Your core includes all the muscles in your torso, from your shoulders down to your hips.
And it does a lot more than help you sit up.
Why a Weak Core Is a Liability
This weekend I took aTRXclass.
Its an amazing full-body workout.
As a result, he wasnt getting the most out of the exercises.
A strong core is important for runners and swimmers, too.
Your body twists with every footstep or every stroke, so you better keep your torso steady and strong.
Without a strong core, you cant swim or run your best.
When I played roller derby, a strong core was essential to delivering a powerful hit.
Even if you arent body-checking people for a hobby, a strong core is important for everyday life.
With it, you’re able to move couches and shovel snow without hurting your back.
you might easily push pop crack open the heaviest doors.
(Ask me how I know.)
Youll do crappy pushups.
Youll do crappy deadlifts.
Youll have bad posture.
As you get older, youll have a harder time getting out of bed or up from the toilet.
Youll bemore prone to falls.
The stronger you are now, the better off youll be throughout your life.
And yes, it’s possible for you to feel that muscle tightening when you do crunches.
But how does that train us for real life?
Bending forward is just not something we need to do with a lot of force.
Each muscle is contracting, providing resistance for another muscle.
The end result is a rock solid core.
But there are far more ways to work your core than the old standbys of the plank and crunch.
Theerector spinae, or back extensors, run lengthwise along your spine.
Theybend you backward at the waist.
Theinternal and external obliquesare two layers of muscle that wrap around your waist.
Theirmuscle fibers are diagonal, so they are involved in twisting motions.
Thetransverse abdominisis the muscle that helps you suck your stomach in.
Think of it like a natural weightlifting belt: ithelps to stabilize your spine.
Themultifidiare a series of muscles thatconnect the bones of your spine to each other.
Thequadratus lumborumlives deep inside your abdomen, andconnects your pelvis to your spine.
You use them, for example, when you do sit-ups.
That includespush-ups,pull-ups, andbanging on a tractor tire with a sledgehammer.
It also includes inverted rows, like in the video above.
You hold a weight on one side of your body, to amp up the one-arm or one-leg challenge.
For a more extreme example, check out theTurkish get-up, or do one-sidedfarmers walks.
You twist your body to make the move happen.
A classic example here is awoodchopper, where a dumbbell or cable machine mimics the weight of an axe.
You pull it diagonally across your body as if you are chopping wood.
you might, of course, chop some actual wood for a similar workout.
Or try aRussian twist(with or without a medicine ball) in place of sit-ups.
You use an unstable platform.
