Gain Better Balance With A Strong Core
When most people think of core strength, they tend to think of stomach muscles and endless sessions of grueling situps. The truth is core muscles are about more than just abdominal muscles. The core consists of the deep muscles of the trunk. Think shoulders, back, hips and yes, stomach muscles, too.
“A strong core provides a foundation from which all movement occurs,” explains Ellen Wilson, PT, director, UCLA Department of Rehabilitation Services. “If the core isn’t strong, it doesn’t matter how strong the arms and legs are—it will be very difficult to maintain balance.”
The following core exercises can easily be done at home and do not require any special equipment. In all of them, imagine that you are wearing a corset that wraps around your torso and keeps trunk muscles drawn in and your spine long. Those same trunk muscles pull in automatically if you cough or sneeze. So, if you have trouble finding them, cough a few times and notice how your muscles pull inward.
The pelvic floor is also a core muscle. By contracting it (like you’re trying to stop the flow of urine), you are also strengthening an important core muscle. Pelvic floor muscular engagement, like the trunk muscles, should be gently drawn in to support the body before you move. If you grip too hard and tight, it will be difficult to move. Dancers move with ease and grace with a supportive, but not iron-stiff core.
Stabilize and Strengthen Shoulders
With freedom comes responsibility is an old cliché that applies aptly to the shoulders. The ball and socket joint of the shoulders enables a wide variety of movements: hitting tennis balls, reaching up into cabinets, and wrapping your arms around your loved ones. Injuries occur when the shoulder joint isn’t properly stabilized by supporting muscles. That’s one reason why micro tears in the rotator cuff are so common. To better anchor movements, you need the support of the muscles under your arms (serratus anterior) and between the shoulder blades (rhomboids). Target those muscles with the scapular push exercise shown at the bottom of the page.
A Healthy Strong Back
The muscles along your spine form a beautiful chevron pattern connecting all the vertebrae. These muscles go from smaller to larger, providing flexibility and stability to the spine. In the Jet Airplane exercise on the next page, the goal is to lengthen and lift the spine as well as to open the front of the body. Essentially, it’s a mini backbend. It’s an ideal exercise to counterbalance constant upper back forward motions such as working at the computer and driving.
In this exercise, the upper back will arch but only slightly (it usually feels really good to do so). It’s tempting to arch back higher but the sensation of length is also every bit as important to avoid excess stress to the lower back muscles. Once you gain more flexibility and strength in your upper back, you will backbend more easily.
Strengthening Hips and Lower Belly
The Toe Dips exercise targets the deep abdominals or the corset (transversus abdominis) and strengthens the hip flexor muscle (psoas), a muscle that connects from the lower back and inserts into the front of the thigh. In this exercise, sometimes, the front of the thigh will overwork until the deep core and psoas muscle are properly developed.
These exercises can all be done daily. Be sure to tighten the trunk muscles and then perform the exercise. Doing so builds the right firing sequence of muscles, and it also creates muscle memory. Repeat each exercise 8-10 times. As you get stronger, increase repetitions.
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