But what is core?

The core, as it’s known in strength training circles, consists of all muscles in your abdominal and lower back areas. This includes all abdominal muscles (rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques, transverse abdominus and intercostals) as well as muscles associated with spine (the erector spinae group) and hip flexors (iliacus and psoas, collectively known as iliopsoas).

These muscles all work in harmony to provide stabilization for your body and to transfer power from legs to upper body and vice versa. The core muscles also function to keep your insides in, where they belong!

And why is strengthening core so important?

Weak core muscles contribute to all kinds of problems in body, most prevalent of which is lower back pain. By strengthening muscles that help support spine and improve posture, you can dramatically decrease symptoms of lower back pain.

Picture your spine as a column of soda cans stacked one on top of other. If you wanted to keep that column standing up under stress, what do you think would work better: a "tenser" bandage (as is used for wrapping injured ankles) or Scotch tape? Sure tape would keep cans together but cans wouldn’t receive a whole lot support, would they?

When you strengthen muscles of core, you are in effect turning that Scotch tape into a nice, tight "tenser" bandage, increasing amount of support that your spine gets.

Core training also has potential to greatly improve sports performance. Watch a baseball pitcher throw a pitch in slow motion. The power of throw starts at legs, gets transferred through abdominal area (a.k.a. core) then ends up in arm where ball is released. Imagine how much speed and power would be lost from that throw if core muscles couldn’t efficiently transfer force from legs to throwing arm.

The core is one area of body that will always give you a great return on your investment.

So how do I train my core muscles?

Exercises that work abdominals and lower back are staples of core training. Also, exercises that target stabilization and power-transfer duties of core muscles are very effective.

The most basic abdominal training exercise is standard crunch. You can go to following URL to see proper technique for this exercise:

http://www.fitstep.com/Library/Exercises/Crunches.htm

But I’ve got an exercise for you that blows standard crunch right out of water. The equipment required for this exercise: one rolled-up towel.

The exercise is known as Abdominal Sit-Up. It uses a sit-up-like movement but focuses directly on abdominal muscles rather than hip flexors (which a regular sit-up does). It is also very safe for your lower back. Another advantage it has over standard crunch is that it targets stretched (arched back) range of motion of abs, which is totally missed in standard floor crunch.

How To Do It:

Lie on your back on floor. Roll up a towel or mat and slip it underneath your lower back, just above waistband (the size of towel affects your body position during this movement - use a fairly large towel).