If you want to create the best core workout, you need both ab and back exercises. When most people think about the core, their first thought is ab exercises, but ab exercises by themselves won’t make a complete core workout. When you include lower back exercises and ab exercises in your workout, you will have a well rounded and balanced core.

Ab exercises help you to generate power moving forwards and prevent the spine from moving too far backwards.  Some of the best ab exercises are planks, crunches on a ball, side planks, sit ups, and leg raises. 

Planks are an isometric ab exercise in which you simply balance on your elbow and toes and hold that position.  Side planks are also an isometric ab exercise in which you are balanced on one elbow and your feet.  Crunches on a stability ball offer increased range of motion when compared to the floor and can help to improve balance.  Sit ups are a classic ab exercise and they are great for athletes, but they can put more pressure on the lower back than crunches on a ball.  Lastly, leg raises are also tough on the lower back, but they are great for improving core stability and pelvic control.

Lower back exercises help you to generate power moving backwards and while lifting and prevent the spine from moving too far forwards.  Lower back exercises are just as important as ab exercises for preventing lower back pain.

Some of the best lower back exercises are back extensions on a ball, back extensions on the floor, and back extensions on a slant board.  You can add a rotational movement to all of the previous exercises to add a more challenging element.  In addition to the back extension movement, you can also do the stiff leg dead lift or the conventional dead lift.

The dead lift position and motion is important for a well rounded core workout, because many lower back injuries occur when you are lifting.  So, it makes sense to practice the lifting motion and position during your core workouts.

The abdominal muscles and lower back muscles help to rotate and side bend the spine, and they both help to stabilize the lumbar spine and lower back.  Rotational exercises are very important to any core workout.  Functional activities and athletic activities happen in multiple directions and multiple planes.  Generally, our bodies are weakest in rotational directions, so it is important to include rotational movements in your core workout.  Some of the best rotational exercises are the Russian twist, standing cable lifts or chops, and standing cable rotations.

Both the abs and lower back are important for core workouts.  So, if you really want well-rounded core workouts, think abs and back.



By: Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT

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Body Weight Routine

Core Training is a very popular philosophy sweeping over fitness programs.  At a quick glance core training appears to be simply abdominal exercises and lower back exercises, but core training is so much more.  Core training is all about good alignment, joint stability, and efficient movement, and your core includes your entire spine, shoulder girdle, and hip girdle.

When you perform core exercises you can focus on 3 things: stability, strength, or power.  Although stability, strength, and power are all related you can emphasize a certain benefit by choosing specific exercises and performing them in a specific way.  Stability refers to the ability of your muscles to maintain a joint’s position, posture, and alignment.  Strength refers to the ability of your muscles to move a certain amount of resistance through the full range of motion.  And power refers to the ability of your muscles to move your body with speed.

In this article, I want to focus on developing core stability.  One possible cause of lower back pain is a lack of stability in the pelvis and lower back.  When your back is unstable, there is more pressure on the joints of your back.  In addition, when your back is unstable your sports performance is decreased.  So, developing core stability is important for everyone from people with desk jobs to elite athletes.

Let me ask you a question that speaks to the importance of core stability.  Is it easier to run on sand or grass?  Most people will say that it is easier to run on grass.  Since the grass is more stable than the sand it’s easier for your muscles to push you forward as you run.  Because the sand in unstable, your muscles have a harder time pushing your forward as you run.

You should think of your spine in the same way that you think about your running surface.  When your spine is stable, your muscles work more efficiently.  When your muscles work more efficiently, you have a lower risk of injury and perform at a higher level.

Well, you may be asking which type of exercises is best for core stabilization.  Some of the best core exercises for stabilization are isometric exercises.  Isometric simply means same length or no movement, so during isometric exercises the position of your spine does not change.  Two of the first core stabilization exercises that I teach my clients are the drawing in maneuver and the plank.

The drawing in maneuver is the best exercise for the transversus abdominus.  In movement studies, physiotherapists found that the transversus abdominus is the first abdominal muscle to fire when you move your arms are legs.  They also found that it lags behind in people with lower back pain.  To re-educate your transverse abdominus (your natural girdle) you must practice pulling your belly button in towards your spine.

You can practice the drawing in maneuver from many positions, but the key is to keep your spine in a neutral or balanced position when you pull in.  You can perform the drawing in maneuver while lying on your back, so gravity can assist you.  Then, you can progress to seated or standing where gravity is more neutral, and the most challenging position is lying face down or on your hands and knees where gravity pulls down against you.  No matter which position you choose, pull in your belly button and hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat for 10 repetitions.  When personal trainers or physical therapists say pull in your abs, they are referring to the drawing in maneuver.

Another great core exercise for stabilization is the plank.  The plank is a popular yoga pose that has crossed over into many other areas of fitness.  It involves balancing face down on your elbows and your toes.  There are two main keys when performing the plank.  First, you should keep good alignment through your spine and entire body.  And, second, you should pull in your belly button and use the drawing in maneuver throughout the entire set.

Attempt to hold the plank for 10 seconds to 60 seconds.  Repeat the exercise 2-3 times.  If you shake when you first try the plank, don’t worry about it.  As your coordination and strength improve you will shake less.  Also, if the full plank from your toes and elbows is too challenging, you can build up your strength using the half plank which is done from the knees and the elbows.

Once you have increased your core stabilization, move on to focus more on core strength.  Core strength is best improved by using exercises that move your spine through a large range of motion against resistance, but that is a topic for another article.

Check below for links to my website to learn more core training tips and view pictures of core exercises.



By: Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT

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Body Weight Fitness

The buzz about working “core” muscles seems like it will never go away. First of all, most people don’t even know what the word “core” means. As a matter of fact neither do I! The word ‘core’ does not come from any scientific anatomy text I have ever read. As far as I can tell it is a term created by the fitness industry to promote all kinds of ab training products.

I’m assuming core training is supposed to give you a hard flat stomach or possibly even a 6 pack. I think this myth about core training is also how much of the new athletic style workouts are becoming popular as may exercises athletes do seem to appeal to the people who think they are doing a core exercise. So what is your core anyway?

As far as I can tell, people think their core is their abs, the oblique muscles (the muscle that are on either side of your middle set of abs) and your lower back muscles. This collection of muscles makes up the mythical “core”. Now, if anyone besides a graduate trained biomechanist tells you they know exactly how these muscles work, they are lying, and probably haven’t done enough research to know that they are lying (so technically its not really their fault for misleading you). The muscles of the core are very complex and the truth is that scientists still aren’t sure exactly how they all work together. So now that we can see we don’t really know how all the core muscles work together, how can you possibly think you are training them in any intelligent way!

The truth so far is that any exercise works your core muscles to some degree or another. As soon as you stand up and get out of bed in the morning your core muscles have to be activated to prevent you from just flopping over at the waist. All forms of rigorous physical activity will work your core muscles. For example, one of the toughest core workouts you can do is a series of short all out sprints. Don’t believe me? Give this sprint interval routine a try and see how sore your ‘core’ and ‘abs’ are the next day.

20 yard sprints x 4

40 yard sprints x 4

60 yard sprints x 4

80 yard sprints x 4

100 yard sprints x 4

After each sprint walk back to the start and repeat until you have completed 4 sprints at that distance, then take 90-120 second rest and start the next distance. If you push these hard, your whole body should be sore the next day including of those ‘core’ muscles. I’ll bet this is not the image you had in your head of a ‘core’ workout.

You can train ‘core’ muscles every day if you want, which isn’t saying much because they are working all the time anyway. With that said there are core exercises that are better than others, and the exercises people typically think of for core should not be performed every day, and some of them like crunches should never be done at all. In the second part of this article I will discuss the right and wrong way to train this part of your body.



By: John Barban

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Body Weight Workout

Copyright (c) 2007 Greg Brookes

As a North London Personal Trainer I spend around 1000 hours a year training my clients and have discovered that 7 reoccurring mistakes are made on a frequent basis. Just by taking note and correcting these 7 issues will dramatically improve your results and prevent injury.

1. Learn to breathe

Breathing correctly is vital when exercising. Deep breaths provide more oxygen to the body and in turn provide you with the ability to work harder; they also prevent you from becoming dizzy or light headed. Breaths should be taken deeply and from the pit of the stomach or diaphragm. Get into a good habit of breathing out during the hardest part of the exercise and in during the easiest. For example, when performing a push up breathe in on the way down and out on the way up. Never hold your breath, even when stretching!

2. Take your time

This is one of the most common mistakes I see and the harder the exercise becomes the more tempted you are to rush through it. Muscles need time to work and be stimulated, unless you are training for speed. A good test is to ask yourself whether you would be able to pause at any part during the exercise movement, if not then you are moving too fast. Chances are no matter how slow you think you are moving, you are probably moving too fast. A squat should take around 5 seconds, 2 seconds down, pause for a second and 2 seconds up.

3. Think technique

Concentrating on your technique and good form will ensure that you target the correct muscles and don’t develop bad habits. Bad technique is a sure fire way to get injured, if your technique starts to fail then stop the exercise. The last thing you want to do is develop a motor pattern for an incorrect movement. Start off with the correct movement and concentrate on that movement the whole time, think about what muscles are working and how it feels.

4. Tighten your core

If you want to develop 6 pack abs, a strong core and prevent injury then you must switch on your core. By switch on I mean brace your stomach as if you were about to take a punch ‘ pull your navel in towards your spine and squeeze. Performing this action not only protects your spine but also gives your stomach muscles a thorough workout. If you switch on your core during every exercise the chances are you won’t need to do many individual core exercises to develop your stomach. The fact is that your core is working hard during most exercises (providing you are not lazy and using machines) and so the need for targeted stomach muscle exercises should be at a minimum.

5. Reduce your rest periods

I don’t believe in long cardio sessions, in fact research has shown that they don’t work anyway. If you want to get a good cardio workout then reduce the rest periods between your exercises. I see too many people at gyms idly standing around talking or reading magazines. To get the most out of your workouts reduce your resting times and increase the intensity. I like to put 2 or 3 exercises back to back with no rest periods to really get the heart rate up and lungs working.

6. Warm up the correct movement patterns

Starting your exercise programme without a warm is just asking for trouble. Not only do warm ups prepare your body physically but also prepare you mentally. The warm up should replicate the movements that you will be performing in the actual workout. If you are going to be pressing things over your head then make sure you push your arms up and down overhead a few times first. If you are going to be doing heavy squats then some body weight squats first will prepare you for this.

7. Stretch only the tight muscles

Everybody is designed differently and we all have some muscles that are tight and others that are more flexible. It is pointless performing a stretching routine that focuses on your most flexible areas; you should leave these alone and work on you most inflexible muscles. In order to neutralise your posture and improve your range of movement you should only stretch the areas that really need it.



By: Greg Brookes

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Body Weight Training

There are 3 phases of Core Training.   When you perform core exercises you can focus on 3 things: stability, strength, or power.  Although stability, strength, and power are all related you can emphasize a certain benefit by choosing specific exercises and performing them in a specific way.  Stability refers to the ability of your muscles to maintain a joint’s position, posture, and alignment.  Strength refers to the ability of your muscles to move a certain amount of resistance through the full range of motion.  And power refers to the ability of your muscles to move your body with speed.

Core stabilization is best developed by isometric exercises.  Isometric exercises are exercises in which the core, pelvis, and spine have little to no movement. Core power is best developed when you perform exercises in a fast and explosive manner.  Core strength is best developed when you move through the full range of motion in a controlled way and sometimes against resistance.  In this article I want to talk about developing core strength. 

Stabilization is the foundation of core training, but as soon as you master stability exercises like the drawing in maneuver and the plank, you should then focus on exercises that challenge your abdominal muscles and lower back muscles through a greater range of motion.  Crunches on a ball and lower back extensions on a ball are both good core strengthening exercises.

Let’s talk about crunches.  Crunches on the floor are a good exercise for developing strength, but on the floor your range of motion is limited.  Because of decreased range of motion on the floor many physical therapists and personal trainers recommend doing crunches on an exercise ball.  When you perform crunches on the ball, your hips and spine are slightly extended, and this gives you more range of motion.  In regards to strengthening any muscle, the greater range of motion you use the greater gains in strength you will achieve.

Okay, now let’s talk about working the lower back muscles on the ball.  The same issues hold true when comparing back extensions on the floor and back extensions on the ball.  You have less range of motion on the floor, so you may not achieve the same improvement in strength.  If you don’t have access to a ball, back extensions on the floor are still a great lower back exercise, but you can enhance the range of motion using a ball.  When you think about core strength, your goal should be to develop your abdominal and lower back muscles through the greatest range of motion possible.  Of course, never compromise form, and always move in the pain free range of motion.

Here’s another tip for developing core strength.  If you want to maximize your strength gains, you must increase or add resistance to your core exercises once they become easy.  The abdominal muscles are just like other muscles.  In order to break strength plateaus, you must increase the challenge by adding resistance.  You can add resistance to your core exercises in many ways.  You can use dumbbells, weighted plates, cables, tubing, or ankle weights.

You can use dumbbells or weighted plates across your chest to add resistance to your crunches.  In addition, you can use cables or tubing to add resistance to your crunches or perform functional moves such as standing rotations, lifts, or chops.  You can even use ankle weights to add resistance to core moves that involve the legs.

Remember, that before you rush off to challenge your core muscles with resistance, you should first develop stability.  Also, begin light when you start to add resistance and build up slowly.  More resistance means more pressure on your muscles and joints, and more pressure can increase the risk of injury, especially if you have incorrect form or posture.

After you have developed adequate core strength, the next step is to develop your power and speed.  If you participate in sports developing speed is essential to performance and injury prevention.  However, if you are not an athlete, you might put less emphasis on developing power and more on stabilization and strength.



By: Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT

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Body Weight Workout

Core conditioning is a fitness buzz word these days but few are actually doing it correctly. Many confuse it with abdominal training when in fact the core covers your body from your groin to your shoulders (front, side, back and inside-out). Your core offers stability, balance and flexibility to all your movements. An improperly conditioned core will limit movement capabilities and predispose you to injury whether you are performing everday activities or complex sports movements.

The aim of working the core muscles is primarly one of stabilization and coordination versus strengthening. There are many muscles in the core including the lower back, superficial front and side abdominals, deep abdominals, deep back muscles, and the hip and pelvic muscles. It is the deep muscles that usualy get negleted. The ultimate aim of core conditioning is to insure the deep trunk muscles are working correctly to control the lumbar spine during dynamic movements such as lifting a box. The deep muscles act as stabiliizers and are isometrically contracted (contraction with no movement). Thus when training your core you should start with the inside and work outwards.

Exercises and products intended to train the core do so by creating resistance and instability so the core muscles must respond to maintain balance. Core exercises often imitate moves we employ in daily life or sports, reducing the strain we put on our limbs daily. Some popular core exercises come from Pilates which uses both the bodies own resistance as well as balance deivices such as foam rollers. The swiss ball provides an unstable platform to perform a variety of core strengthening moves on. Another newer balance and core developing device is the half domed shaped Bosu. Whatever type of exercises and equipment you choose start slowly. Even if you are a finely tuned athlete chances are you do not have a well developed core. Core strength is important for all ages and fitness abilities. Incorporating core training into your exercise routine can reduce muscular fatigue, avoid muscle strain and injury, improve posture and improve strength and mobility.



By: Dr.lanny Schaffer

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Body Weight Fitness

Forget about crunches, sit ups, or leg raises.  The drawing-in maneuver to engage the transversus abdominus is the most important core exercise to master if you want to develop core stability.

If you’ve never heard of the transversus abdominus I wouldn’t be surprised.  It the deepest of the abdominal muscles and so you can’t see it.  As its name implies, it runs across the abdomen.  It is often referred to as your natural girdle because it’s only job is to brace your lower back and pull in your belly button, like a girdle.

Why is targeting the Transverse Abdominus so important?

A group of physiotherapists in Australia studied back pain by looking at muscle coordination patterns.  They wanted to see if there were difference between people with no lower back pain and those with chronic lower back pain.  What they found is that when healthy people with no lower back pain move their arms or legs the transverse abdominus is the first muscle to fire.

That’s right… If you move your arm, this core muscle contracts before your arm contracts.  Your body is naturally wired to be stable around the center first before you can move.

In contrast, people with chronic lower back pain displayed an inability to contract the core muscles before the arm muscles.  When you start to move before your spine is stable, more pressure is placed on the joints of the lower back.

This is one reason core training has become so popular.  Core training can help to stabilize the pelvis and lower back while taking pressure off the spine.

The drawing-in maneuver is very easy to do.  Simply pull in your belly button so that it moves towards your back.  Hold for 10 seconds, relax and repeat 5-10 times.

This simple core exercise can help to improve your core stability and it’s the most important core exercise to master!



By: Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT

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Bodyweight Exercise

Balance exercises are often neglected in fitness routines, but having good balance is an important part of overall joint health and injury prevention.  One of the reasons that balance training is left out of fitness programs is that it has little impact on how your body looks.  Instead, balance training is all about how well your body moves.  There are a lot of good looking people whose bodies do work well.

Core Training and functional training is all about getting your body to move more efficiently.  When your body moves more efficiently, you are less likely to get injured and you will perform regular activities and athletic activities at a higher level.

A balance exercise is an exercise that is done standing on 1 leg.  Your center of gravity shifts when you stand on one leg, so your core muscles must work harder to stabilize your entire body over the standing leg.  Running is a 1 legged exercise, so any sport or activity that involves running requires good balance.

Another hidden benefit of doing exercises while standing on one leg is ankle, knee and hip stability and strengthening.  The small muscles around the foot and ankle really get challenged during balance exercises, and standing on one foot can strengthen the arch muscles.  In addition, the small hip stabilizer muscles are strengthened when you stand on one leg, and strong hip stabilizers help to control and protect the knee from excessive stress.

When you have injuries to your legs, your coordination and balance on the injured side generally diminishes unless you work on restoring it.  If you have twisted your ankle in the past, chances are that your balance on the side you injured is worse than the side that was never injured.  The same holds true for knee and hip injuries.  Generally speaking when you have a leg injury, you avoid putting pressure on the injured side, and this leads to decreased coordination, decreased strength, and decreased balance.  It is important to practice balance exercises if you have had leg injuries in the past.

Some simple balance exercises include, just standing on 1 leg for 30-60 seconds.  In addition, you can stand on one leg while moving your opposite leg to constantly change your center of gravity.  1 leg squats and 1 leg hip hinges are also good balancing exercises.

Once you’ve mastered standing on 1 leg and basic exercises such as the 1 legged squat, you can further challenge your balance by using a wobble board, core board, bosu ball, foam pad, or any other unstable surface.  Begin by just practicing standing on an unstable surface with 1 leg, and then progress to doing other exercises while standing on some type of core exercise equipment.  If you want to have a complete core training routine, include balance exercises into your workout.



By: Charles A. Inniss, Jr. DPT

About the Author:

Body Weight Routine