Free Core Strength ExercisesThe Real Way to Firm & Flatten Your Abs
There are many myths about core strength exercises. In this section of our website, we reveal the truths and dispel the myths about abs and core exercises. Core strength exercises are designed to improve the stability and function of your midsection. While improving the functional strength of your midsection, you'll improve how you look and how you feel.What's the number one patient complaint in America? Lower back pain. If you condition your midsection properly, you will not only look better you will also decrease your risk of suffering from lower back pain. You'll additionally decrease your risk of neck pain, ruptured disks, strained muscles and sprained ligaments.
Myths about Core TrainingThere are too many myths about core strength exercises even to mention here. Here is just a sample of the many falsehoods:a. The abs and other muscles of your midsection are different than the muscle tissues of your other body parts. b. Sit-ups are the best of the core strength exercises. c. If you do enough crunches, you don't need to do any other exercises for your midsection. d. Having a well-defined midsection such as a "six-pack" is more about genetics than exercising and eating properly. e. Twists and side bends are the only midsection exercises you need to do to reduce "love handles." f. Midsection exercises done on machines are superior to other kinds of core strength exercises. g. "Fat-burning" supplements are superior to exercising and eating properly for defining your midsection. h. You need to go on a starvation diet or eat fat-free foods to define your midsection.
Eliminating Some Muscle GroupsThink of all the different muscles of your midsection that enable you to twist in either direction, bend forward, bend backward, and bend to either side. Frankly, there are too many to consider as just one muscle group.So trainers typically separate out some of those muscles such as the spinal erectors (erector spinae), the lats (latissimus dorsi), the iliopsoas, and others from the midsection muscles. We do the same. You'll find the best exercises to strengthen those muscles (such as deadlifts, squats, and rows) considered in other sections of our website. Primarily, core strength exercises target the transverse abdominis, the internal and external obliques, and the rectus abdominis.
A Key Difference about Core TrainingPlease notice an important difference between the muscles of your midsection and some of your other muscles.When you bend and then straighten an arm at the elbow or a leg at the knee, your arm or leg moves through one plane of motion. It's a simple motion: some muscle fibers (such as your biceps) contract to move the limb and then opposing muscles (such as your triceps) contract to move it back where it was. Your midsection does not move in such a simple way. Unlike your arms or legs, your midsection can rotate and bend in a full circle instead of just through one plane of motion. After a moment's thought, you'll realize that this simple insight is directly relevant to the effectiveness of midsection exercises. This is why training your midsection is not simple. Instead of one effective exercise, there are dozens of effective midsection exercises!
Training Your MidsectionActually, this is good news. Yes, it does mean that you'll have to learn plenty of new movements if you want to train your midsection effectively.However, it also means that you never need to be stuck using just a few core exercises when training your midsection. If you regularly change the midsection exercises that you are using, your midsection routine will never become boring. If you have never trained your midsection with endless crunches or side bends, this may not seem like a big deal—until you hit the gym!
How to Master Core Strength ExercisesWe face at this website a similar problem with respect to weight training technique. The subject matter is too comprehensive and detailed to be presented effectively here on the pages of lasting-weight-loss.com.We solved that problem by recommending that you purchase one of McRobert's books on weight training technique. We recommended them because they are simply the best books on that topic available. Similarly, the subject matter of training your midsection is too comprehensive and detailed to be presented effectively here. A book we recommend for midsection training is David Grisaffi's FIRM & FLATTEN YOUR ABS. We have a copy of the book in our own library; we never recommend anything that we do not use.
This completes the core strength exercises page. For more on this topic, see the following section of our website:
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