Strengthen Your Core for Better Balance and Stability

If your idea of a muscle-strengthening workout focuses mostly on your legs and arms, you may be overlooking an important set of muscles. Your core is a group of muscles that surround and stabilize your spine. They include your abdominal muscles in front, the paraspinal muscles in back, and several other muscle groups from your buttocks to your sternum.

Maintaining a strong core takes pressure off of your lower back and can help with balance and stability. Toned core muscles also make you look and feel fitter.

“If your waistline is starting to hang over your pants, you’re either gaining weight or not using your abdominal muscles, or both,” says Robert Turner, PT, OCS, MS, manager of the Orthopedic Physical Therapy Center at the Weill-Cornell affiliated Hospital for Special Surgery.

“Regardless of the cause, you need to strengthen your abdominals and your core or that drooping waistline will put stress on your lower back. That, in turn, will lead to overall postural decline and fatigue, as gravity weighs you down,” he warns. “Think of it this way: Strengthening your core means strengthening your anti-gravity muscles.”

What Is Your “Core”?

Think of your core as “a cylinder that wraps around your body from the back to the front, from your pelvis up to your rib cage,” says Turner. This means  that your core includes your abdominal and pelvic muscles, as well as the lower back muscles. “All of those muscles have to be ‘turned on’ in order to help keep your spine in a neutral position, which is critical when you’re doing core strengthening.”

Keep It in Balance

Too often, people think that all they have to do to strengthen their abdominals is a series of “crunches,” but “that’s only one small piece of the whole package,” Turner emphasizes.  “If you focus only on the abs and doing crunches, you’re going to develop imbalances.” For one thing, many people do crunches incorrectly and end up overusing the hip flexors, which makes those small muscles in front of the hips tight and pulls your spine forward. In addition, crunches only work the muscles you can see, Turner says. “You end up overdoing it on the muscles in the front of your body and neglecting those in the back, which sets the stage for hip pain, back pain, and other problems.”

Instead, do exercises such as the two shown in Moves of the Month, which engage the entire core, front and back, Turner advises. You can also strengthen your core with simple balance exercises, such as standing on one leg (hold onto a wall or tabletop at first to avoid falling, and make sure all the core muscles stay engaged).

Keep Breathing

“No matter what exercises you do for your core, remember to keep breathing normally,” Turner stresses. “There’s a tendency to want to hold your breath while engaging your abs and/or back muscles. Don’t. Holding your breath generates internal forces and pressure that can lead to injury. And, ultimately, you want to be able to move freely while keeping your whole core engaged—and that means you have to breathe.”

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