Most of us sit a perfect amount of the day, which then decreases the time the core is activated. As I sit here and write this, I can feel my shoulders and my back begin to round as my core fatigues and then deactivates.

It happens while I am standing and even driving. I slowly feel my head move forward as my shoulders round away from the seat. It is wild that as important as our core strength is to overall body movements, our core muscles have become lazy as a society. In this post, I will discuss the core, why it is essential, and how you can strengthen your core strength.

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What is the Coreand why is it important?

Core strength is essential for all aspects of everyday life. Not only does it help to protect your crucial internal organs, but it also helps support all simple movements and improves posture, balance, and stability. It includes the abdominals, hips and pelvis, and low back muscles. As you can see in the diagram below, the core consists of more than half of your torso.

Some signs of a weak core include:

• low back pain

• poor balance

• poor posture/rounded shoulders

• knee pain

• foot/ankle pain

How to Strengthen Your Core

Not only can you do various abdominal exercises, but you can also do various compound exercises that help strengthen your core. I love alternating a strength exercise with a core exercise as a superset. Creating a core strength circuit is also one of my favorite ways to help strengthen my heart. I tend to do core strength workouts five days a week. I superset core exercises with my strength training days and a circuit on one of my cardio days. See my previous post for my current workout split.

Some core exercises:

• deadlifts

• squats

• dead bugs

• glute bridges

• crunches

• plank

• bicycle situps

• laying leg lifts

• supermans

• cobra

It is super essential to strengthen your core not only for everyday functions but also for overall longevity.

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“Do something today that your future self will thank you for”

— unknown

I find that quote so inspiring. Hard work will pay off in the future, but you also have to live in the moment, and I feel like taking care of yourself is doing both. You are doing good for yourself now as well as for your future self.

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