The Atkins Diet has been in existence for over 30 years and has enjoyed a surge in popularity over last few years.

Pioneered by Dr. Robert Atkins, theory behind Atkins Diet is simple. Your body prefers to utilize carbohydrates (such as in grains, cereals, breads, etc.) for energy and will burn them first prior to body fat. By cutting down dramatically on carbohydrates in your diet, you force your body to burn fat for energy.

Reducing carbohydrates in your diet puts your body into a state called "ketosis." This word is derived from "ketones" that are used by your body for energy when sugars/carbs aren’t available. When you are in this state of ketosis, your body is producing ketones from your fat that is being burned for energy. Ketones are essentially leftovers from this process and are used in place of sugar in body.

For more information on ketosis, go to

http://www.ketosis-ketoacidosis-difference.com/

One of major misconceptions about Atkins Diet that has been widely reported is that you can or should eat extremely unhealthy, fatty foods all time. This is not actually true. Dr. Atkins recommends that you limit your intake of these types of foods (e.g. butter, sausage, bacon, etc.) and instead focus on healthy fats such as olive oil, fish oil, nuts, etc.

The Atkins Diet has many positives and negatives that have been associated with it. Some of positives include:

Rapid Weight Loss - though first couple of days majority of weight lost is water, your body does become more efficient at fat burning and you do lose fat.

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).