Core Muscle Strengthening and Its Importance
Core muscle strengthening is vital for stability, good posture and keeping your body younger for longer.
Your body's core muscles are in your back and abdominals; imagine a corset made of muscles just under your skin.
Having a weak core can result in having bad posture, having a bad back and/or neck and being more prone to injury.
There are a huge range of core strengthening exercises available for anyone to do and the best ones predominantly use your own body's weight to do the strengthening.
Core muscle strengthening is very important to weightlifters, especially heavy weightlifters.
This is because lifting weights only focuses on certain muscle groups, i.
e.
the bench press focuses largely on strengthening the chest and pectoral muscles.
Whereas, if you don't use a bench but do press-ups on the floor you will realise that you have to also work your core by tightening your abdominal muscles to keep your body aligned.
As a result, many weightlifters may be happy with results they are achieving - which is great; however their core muscles are not receiving the same amount of training which creates an in-balance between the core muscles and the other muscle groups.
The result of this is that the body can become more susceptible to injury.
If you have bulging biceps but have never worked on your core, then it can explain why when you try lifting a heavy suitcase, TV or box - that you feel a twinge in your back, or even pull a muscle in your back.
This is why the core muscles are important and its crucial that all training regimes include some exercises that will strengthen your core.
Any exercise that requires you to maneuver your own body weight means that you have to use your core muscles to shift and stabilise your weight.
Did you ever wonder why dancers have fantastic posture and stability when performing handstands, twists, jumps etc? This is because dancing uses the whole body and all of the core muscles for almost every movement performed.
Hopefully now you can understand that going to the gym and solely focussing on using weight machines is not that beneficial to your body's core nor building your core's strength.
Also, you may realise why free weights are considered better than weight machines, because it requires you to use the stability muscles in whatever muscles group you are weightlifting for.
Your body's core muscles are in your back and abdominals; imagine a corset made of muscles just under your skin.
Having a weak core can result in having bad posture, having a bad back and/or neck and being more prone to injury.
There are a huge range of core strengthening exercises available for anyone to do and the best ones predominantly use your own body's weight to do the strengthening.
Core muscle strengthening is very important to weightlifters, especially heavy weightlifters.
This is because lifting weights only focuses on certain muscle groups, i.
e.
the bench press focuses largely on strengthening the chest and pectoral muscles.
Whereas, if you don't use a bench but do press-ups on the floor you will realise that you have to also work your core by tightening your abdominal muscles to keep your body aligned.
As a result, many weightlifters may be happy with results they are achieving - which is great; however their core muscles are not receiving the same amount of training which creates an in-balance between the core muscles and the other muscle groups.
The result of this is that the body can become more susceptible to injury.
If you have bulging biceps but have never worked on your core, then it can explain why when you try lifting a heavy suitcase, TV or box - that you feel a twinge in your back, or even pull a muscle in your back.
This is why the core muscles are important and its crucial that all training regimes include some exercises that will strengthen your core.
Any exercise that requires you to maneuver your own body weight means that you have to use your core muscles to shift and stabilise your weight.
Did you ever wonder why dancers have fantastic posture and stability when performing handstands, twists, jumps etc? This is because dancing uses the whole body and all of the core muscles for almost every movement performed.
Hopefully now you can understand that going to the gym and solely focussing on using weight machines is not that beneficial to your body's core nor building your core's strength.
Also, you may realise why free weights are considered better than weight machines, because it requires you to use the stability muscles in whatever muscles group you are weightlifting for.
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