I thought it would be important to make sure my followers know how to properly train their core. For you who have heard the terms core training or training your core, and think they know what that means, then good. For those who do not know what that means, the "core" section of your body refers to all your abdominal muscles, lower back muscles, butt muscles, hip and pelvic. Your core accounts for about 80% of your total strength and power. For example, when you do a pull-up, you work your upper back muscles, but you also work your core muscles. When executing a pull-up, you strain your body to pull your body up, you are automatically engaging your core muscles.
Now when training your core muscles, what kind of Ab exercises do you have incorporated into your workout? Do you over train your Abs? Or do not train your abs at all? Well, I am here to tell you, you should train your abs at least 3-4 times weekly. You can either mix in your core exercises or add them to the end of your workouts.
Now that you have decided you are now going to start training your core, let me give you a few tips that will help you see maximal results. Its important to have 3 or 4 core exercises in each of your workouts. When choosing your exercises, make sure you are training your lower abs, upper abs, obliques (side abs), and lower back. This ensures that you are working all parts or your abdominal region and lower back muscles, which will ensure proper muscle balance for posture and performance. If you currently have a "leg" day in your regimen, you are training your leg muscles which are also part of your core muscle group. (These leg exercises include squats, lunges, side lunges, step-ups, and on all fours (position on the ground) - lateral knee raises, straight leg raises, side kicks, and donkey kicks). As long as you are working your legs, all you have to do is add the core exercises that work the complete ranges of the core muscle group. See below for a sample core workout.
In your upcoming training sessions, try making adjustments to ensure you are working all parts of your core muscles. As the weeks go on, increase your intensity and repetitions, and you will see the results you desire.
Sample Core Workout:
1 - Toe Touches (upper abs) - Laying flat on your back, keep your legs together, holding them in the air and make sure there is no bend in your knees, begin touching your toes, making sure you are exhaling each time you reach up for your toes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I4Q134UCcw
2 - Bicycle Crunches (obliques) - Laying flat on your back, hands at the side of your head and keeping your toes flexed to the ceiling, bring one knee to your chest at a time and touching your opposite elbow to the opposite knee, Continue this motion for 30 secs - 1 minute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFv5InCwneE
3 - Plank (lower back) - Starting in the push-up position and instead of on your hands, start on your elbows, you want to hold yourself off the ground, keeping your core and abs as tight as possible, sucking your stomach in towards your spine, and keeping a straight line from your heels all the way up to your shoulders. Don't let your hips drop toward the ground or come up too high.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHQmRINu4jU
4 - Ab Pulses (lower abs) - Start flat on your back with your legs together straight in the air like the toe touches, you want pulse your tailbone straight off the ground which will push your legs in the air. Think about small kicks through the heels and don't rock up on your back, if you do this right, it will feel like something is bursting out of your lower ab region. (No Video)
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