CORE Exercises

Exercises specifically designed to strengthen your body's "core" have a remarkable range of benefits. Balance, strength, flexibility, and coordination are all improved by these essential exercises. The main muscle trained is the transversus abdominis, a wide band of muscle encircling the abdomen and lower back. This muscle has been called the body's built-in weight belt.

Core training and core strengthening provide the cornerstones on which all your fitness activities are based. Yet until about five years ago, core training was a well-kept secret known only to dances and gymnasts, who were totally unaware the routines they'd been doing all their lives were about to go mainstream.

Core muscles are just that - the core of your body. And like a nuclear core reactor, these muscles are the power plant that drives the activities of everything else your body is doing. Core muscles - when trained and strong - provide a firm platform, a solid internal foundation, from which all movements and action can flow gracefully and purposefully.

Three basic core exercises are torso twists (done lying on your back), the plank, and pelvic bridges.