Posts Tagged ‘Chest Muscles’
Your body’s core is the midsection, from your groin to your shoulders. The core includes the pelvis, abs, back and chest muscles. It is this core that offers stability, balance and flexibility. If the core is not properly conditioned it will limit your physical abilities. Core training supplies a solid base for strength, stamina, correct posture and top form in most sports. Simply put, core training strengthens the muscles of the torso, pelvis, and back, allowing them to work together creating a strong physical foundation. From the power of that centre, the arms and legs can move fully and freely without additional strain. That’s core strength.
The muscles involved start with the abdominals: the rectus abdominis—the “six pack”; the obliques—running diagonally toward the pubic bone; and the transverse abdominis—deep below the six-pack.
The back contains a crucial stabilizing musculature: the spinal erectors—dual muscular columns on either side of the spine; the trapezius and rhomboids—to stabilize the shoulder blades; and the latissimus dorsi—“lats” to you—which involve arm movement.
In the pelvic area, there are the hip flexors that allow you to raise your leg, as well as hip rotators. The hamstrings, abductors, and adductors provide an important pelvic-leg connection. And finally, there are the gluteals, which allow for powerful backward kicking—and much, much more. The saying you are only as strong as your weakest link holds true in the case of your core.
Abdominals get all the credit for protecting the back and being the foundation of strength, but they are only a small part of what makes up the core. In fact, it is weak and unbalanced core muscles that are linked to low back pain. Weak core muscles result in a loss of the appropriate lumbar curve and a swayback posture. Stronger, balanced core muscles help maintain appropriate posture and reduce strain on the spine. Training the muscles of the core also corrects postural imbalances that can lead to injuries.
There are a variety of exercises and equipment available for core training. The most important exercises—in my opinion—are body-weight exercises. They are very effective for developing core strength, and can be done anywhere.
Bridges are a great example of a perfect core exercise. Here are three examples to try on a floor mat:
Prone bridge: In a prone position—face down—balance on the tips of the toes and elbows and maintain a straight line from your head to your feet. This makes the front and back muscles of the trunk work together.
Lateral bridge: In a sideways position, balance on one elbow and the side of one foot. This requires a co-ordination of the abs and the pelvis.
Supine bridge: Lying face up, raise the hips so that only the head, shoulders, and feet touch the mat. This strengthens the glutes.
Push ups, squats, hip lifts, lunges and back extensions are all great exercises to help develop a strong core.
Using Equipment
A variety of exercise equipment is available that can be used to train the core. Some of the best products for developing core strength include medicine balls, kettle bells, stability balls, bosu balls, balance boards and dumbbells. These types of fitness equipment create instability needed to engage the core muscles to maintain balance. They are challenging, fun but gentle. You will be amazed at how quickly you feel the muscles being used.
Pilates and yoga are two forms of exercise that will help develop core strength. The biggest benefit of core training is to develop functional fitness—that is, fitness that is essential to both daily living and regular activities.
Good core strength is important at every age and fitness level. Whatever your goals, find a way to incorporate body-core conditioning into your routine to reduce fatigue, avoid muscle strain and improve your strength and mobility.
Guelph-Based Personal Trainer Marla Arndt Owns and Operates Frameworks Fitness Studio. She Can Be Reached Via Her Website at Www.Frameworksfitness.Com. Her Column Appears Every Other Week.
Before, we were used to seeing new models of treadmills, stationary bikes, even dumbbells and other gym equipment that allow us to perform cardiovascular and strength exercises. Now, a vast majority of products being sold on TV are those that target one specific area, our abdominals.
This is because of the emphasis being put by fitness experts on our CORE muscles. The core is the midsection of our body, from the groin to the shoulder. It includes our pelvis, back, abs and chest muscles. Every movement we make originates from it. Therefore, if the core is not conditioned, it will affect the strength of our other muscles.
Think of yourself as a car. No matter how much you spend and how well you take care of the hood, wheels, and even the upholstery, if you don’t take good care of your engine, then your car will not do you any good. It might look good, but if it doesn’t even run decently, then it doesn’t amount to much, right?
Same thing goes for your body. Even if you are able to perform a thousand bicep curls and a hundred leg curls, if your core is not strong enough, you will not be able to optimize the strength of your limbs, and worse, it can even lead to injuries.
So what do you do now? Strengthen your core. Lucky for you, there are very simple ways to do it. Pilates and the Swiss Ball are two of them.
Here’s how they are different from one another.
The Pilates makes use of our own body for resistance. It mixes proper breathing with slow and controlled movements while lying on the floor most of the time. In this way, the core muscles are strengthened.
The Swiss Ball, meanwhile, provides instability and engages the core as you try to balance on it. There are many fun and easy exercises that you can do with it; and each one of them helps make our core muscles stronger.
Even without core exercises, having the proper posture when lifting weights will help out a lot to strengthen the core. Straightening your body while doing push ups can also help.
While core exercises are very easy to perform, many are discouraged because they get hurt easily and are unable to do as many repetitions as they could.
Note that it’s supposed to be like that. You will feel some discomfort in your abdominals because you are engaging your muscles there. But then again, it’s always best to seek a trainer’s advice to ensure that you are doing things right.
By: Dian Sia
About the Author:
Rosemount fitness trainerin The Body Project Studio has become popular in weight loss program in and around Eagan. They guarantee the best weight loss program around the city. You can visit them here http://thebodyprojectstudio.com/
Push ups are a great exercise that can be performed anywhere. The basic push up is performed lying face down on the floor and then raising and lowering the body using just the arms. Push ups are meant to strengthen the pectorals, triceps and, to some extent, the deltoids, but are also good as core body strength exercises.
If you really want to put pressure on your shoulder and chest muscles you can try the press ups, which are the military or athletic version of the push ups. Press ups are performed with the back and legs straight and off the floor. If you are at home, you can put your feet on a low chair or armchair. If you’re in the park, you can use a bench to prop up your feet. Try not to raise your legs too high above the shoulder line.
Other variations include push ups performed using just four fingers at each hand, using only one hand, clapping the hands (requires strong pushes that raise the body higher than usual), or pressing against a wall instead of using the floor (the farther your feet are from the wall, the harder the exercise). Take care not to injure yourself while performing some of the more exotic variations.
If you’re an overweight person looking to get back into shape, you should not avoid push ups. This exercise can teach you something about carrying your own weight.
By: MAIKEL WOOD
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As we all are aware, the exercise is very simple. However, we have also to admit that it is very effective. It is great because you can perform it virtually anywhere and anytime you want. Basically you lie face down on the floor and then you will raise and lower you body. You can only use your arms to do so. Push ups are excellent to train your pectorals and triceps. It can also train your deltoids.
Some people will go further in order to train the shoulder and chest muscles. In this case they will do perform the press ups exercise. You can consider press ups as an athletic version of the push ups exercise. Performing press ups is basically the similar to push ups. However, in the case of press ups you will your back and legs straight and off the floor.
In the case that you are performing press ups at home, you can put your feet on a chair. As an essential tip he chair should not be too high. You may put your feet on a bench if you are performing it in a park. In both case you should never raise your legs above your shoulder line.
Interestingly, there are a lot of variations of push ups. For example, there are people who will use only use four fingers at each hand when they are performing push ups. Some may even use only one hand when they are performing the exercise. In some cases people will try to clapping the hands when doing the exercise. Of course you will need to raise the body higher than usual in this case. No matter what kind of variations you will take, you should be very carefully when you are doing that. Safety is always the first priority. You should never hurt yourself when you are performing exercise. It will be totally nonsense to injure yourself!
For people who are overweight, push ups exercise is just perfect in order to lose weight or get back into shape. It helps you to lose fat and at the same time train your muscles. It will be even better if you can combine push ups with other exercises such as sit-ups.
By: Jerry Leung
About the Author:
The Author has a website on Keeping Fit and Healthy. Be sure to check Thyroid Health and Yoga and Studies on Super CitriMax Weight Loss Tablet.
