CORE STRENGTH

When you think of strengthening your core, you

might instantly think of doing crunches or sit ups to

target your abdominal muscles. Your core includes

not only your abdominals, but also the muscles that

link your pelvis and spine. This includes your gluteus

maximus, hip adductors and abductors, obliques,

and more.

Because your core includes a wide range of muscles, Because your core includes a wide range of muscles,

it impacts almost every movement you do daily -

from picking up heavy objects to simply sitting down

and standing up. Here are 3 exercises you can do to

help strength your core that aren't your average

crunches and sit ups.

3 Core Exercises Other Than Crunches:

1. Bear Crawl: 1. Bear Crawl: Start on your hands and knees in table top position. Lift your knees slightly off the

ground (about an inch). Lift opposite arm/opposite

leg and place slightly in front of their starting

position, alternate this on each side and you'll travel

forward. Keep your hips level and back flat like a

table (imagine balancing something on the small of

your lower back and not letting it fall off as you move your lower back and not letting it fall off as you move

forward - or test yourself by balancing your shoe on

your back and not letting it drop).

2. Hip Bridge: Lay down on your back. Bend your knees and plant your feet flat on the ground about

hip width apart. Drive your feet into the ground while

you lift your hips up off the ground. Do this slowly

and hold your hips at the top for as long as you can;

then slowly lower your hips back down to the ground.

(If you feel any pain or serious discomfort do not

complete this movement). complete this movement).

3. High Plank: Begin at the top of your push up position with straight arms and your hands directly

under your shoulders. Hold that position for as long

as you can or a desired period of time. As you hold

the high plank, pull your shoulder blades down your

back, engage your abdominals and drive your heels

back behind you to engage your glutes. This

movement helps work on strength and stability and movement helps work on strength and stability and

there are many different modifications including

adding rotations.

Bonus Exercise: Turkish Get Up - these will add in shoulder stability along with core strength, muscles

control, and they are a full body movement that will

help build both strength and stability.

Check out the O2X Exercise Gallery for more options

on how to build your core strength, and keep an eye

out for these movements in the O2X workouts.

Remember, it's about training smart and making

small, incremental changes that will lead to major

improvements!