core

When to Engage Your Abs During Workouts
Fitness

Flat Abs: How to Sculpt Them in Every Workout

If there's no time to hit the Pilates mat, then learn to engage your abs during other workouts.
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If there's no time to hit the Pilates mat, then learn to engage your abs during other workouts. It's really simple to do, and all you have to think about is initiating your core (which really, you should be doing anyway!). The next time you find yourself at Zumba, on the treadmill, or in the weight room, learn the perfect time to start exhaling toward washboard abs.

running

Zumba: In this class and other dance-inspired workouts, think about your abs guiding the movement behind your hips. With each pivot and side step, lead with your core so that you utilize it for the whole hour. Stronger abdominals will take the pressure off your back, giving you that tall and effortless posture all dancers hope to achieve.

Barre: Although these classes already include an abdominal section, there are tons of other tricky ways to squeeze an ab workout in between the curls. Weights and thigh work are prime times to start working your core, not just because these exercises take up a large majority of the hour, but because engaging your abs can take your mind off the pain in other areas, as well.

Weight lifting: Think about contracting your abs in when the weights move one direction, then keeping them in as you inhale the other direction. You want to think about keeping your abs where you want them, which is in. By holding the contraction in your core, you can strengthen those muscles up to twice as much, gradually making them stronger.

Cycling: In cycling, you need to engage your abs on the fast runs, but the breaks in between are key to keeping a strong midsection. That time you get to lower the resistance and reset your stance is the same time you should focus on your abs. Since you don't need to focus on your feet tripping you up, use this "downtime" to initiate your abs the most. By the time you're ready to go back uphill, your core will already be warmed up, resulting in better posture.

Running: Using your abs during each stride is actually a principle of Chi running. The form of running, which blends the principles of T'ai Chi and forward locomotion, focuses on posture. Part of aligning your body means engaging your lower abs, so this action can help you make more efficient use of your energy while sculpting your midriff.

The Best Core Exercises For Runners
How To

5 Moves to Work Your Core

We all know that the elbow plank is a great core exercise.
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We all know that the elbow plank is a great core exercise. But this move, like any other, can get a bit stale. And if you're bored with an exercise, chances are high your body has become accustomed to the move and you're no longer benefiting from it.

If you're ready to add variation to your core routine, here are five moves to strengthen your mid-section courtesy of Core Performance Women. These exercises target the back, glutes, abs, and inner thighs. Add two to three of these exercises to your strength training sessions and you will notice a more toned middle and stronger core in all your activities.

Photos courtesy of Core Performance Women (Penguin)

Y's on the Floor Glute Bridge With Marching Plank With Diagonal Arm Reach Glute Bridge With Adduction and Knee Extension Side Plank With Marching
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Celebrity Workout Plan From The Hills Personal Trainer

How to Get a Celebrity Workout at Home — Tips From The Hills' Personal Trainer

When Lauren Conrad and the rest of The Hills cast want to get in top shape, they turn to celebrity fitness trainer Jarett del Bene.
by PopSugar LivingTV

When Lauren Conrad and the rest of The Hills cast want to get in top shape, they turn to celebrity fitness trainer Jarett del Bene. Watch our video to find out the celebrity workout plan he recommends to clients, as well as how to do two of his signature moves — "The Plank" for hot abs, and "The Squat & Press" for an allover body workout!

Cross Train by Sitting Up Straight
core

Cross Train by Sitting Up Straight

In all kinds of exercise — swimming, biking, lifting, running — a strong and connected core makes you more efficient, which means faster and less likely to suffer an overuse injury.
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In all kinds of exercise — swimming, biking, lifting, running — a strong and connected core makes you more efficient, which means faster and less likely to suffer an overuse injury. My Equinox swim coach Hannah is tweaking my stroke, but the most effective change by far is my rib cage. She wants it up and forward, which interestingly enough is the same postural correction I received from Danny Dreyer, creator of Chi Running, when I studied with him last Spring. Since I'll be unable to get into the pool before our next session, Hannah told me to work on my ribs and posture — to lengthen my torso and lift my chest.

Yes! I can cross train at my desk, while walking my daughter to school, and when doing the dishes. When I leave the slouching behind and lift my ribs, not only am I taller, but I feel my upper abs engage. I call that a double bonus. Are you slouching right now? Try a little desk cross training and sit up straight, with the ribs over the pelvis not behind it, and engage your abs. This should help your aching back too.

Why a Strong Core Helps You Run Faster
Running

Core Concepts: Running

Whether running for fun, fitness, or to be fast, efficiency is key.
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Whether running for fun, fitness, or to be fast, efficiency is key. Having a strong core plays an important part in translating the power of the legs to propelling the entire body forward through space. The deep abs, made up of the transversus abdominis (TVA) and internal obliques, are the keystone for core stabilization. Unfortunately, running bio-mechanics expert Michael Fredericson, Ph.D, found that about 90 percent of runners have weak abs leading to faulty running patterns. Having weak abs can easily translate into "running funny" with too long or too short of steps, or a pelvis that swings from side to side.

The deep abs stabilize the pelvis by keeping it in a neutral position, so that the back of the legs can push your entire body forward, rather than just wasting power just stretching the low abs. A strong core can help make your running more efficient as well as faster. When the weak low abs work in tandem with the spinal muscles these muscles support the torso and give you more endurance too.

Due to our modern and sedentary lifestyle, many folks have weak deep abs because sitting all day leads to slouching, which deactivates the deeps abs. To learn how to reactivate your TVA right now read more

Yep, Down There: Strengthening Your Pelvic Floor
core

Yep, Down There: Strengthening Your Pelvic Floor

No one ever brags about how hard they worked their pelvic floor.
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No one ever brags about how hard they worked their pelvic floor. It just sounds a wee bit smutty. These often neglected, little muscles that support your torso from the base of your pelvis need to be demystified so you can strengthen them correctly; since they are considered an important component of your core.

If you practice yoga you might refer to the pelvic floor (PF) as the mula bandha. Most ladies work their PF by doing kegels, but that just works a portion of the muscles and doesn't necessarily help pull the PF up. The muscles of the pelvic floor fill in the space between your pubic bone (front of your pelvis), your coccyx (tail bone), and your sits bones (ischial tuberosites in anatomy lingo). The overall shape is similar to a kite and contains many different muscles. To activate the pelvic floor you want to imagine those above mentioned bones coming closer to one another as the muscles attached to them activate and pull up. It helps to think of the PF as similar to your diaphragm that moves up and down as you inhale and exhale.

To learn a a simple exercise to just read more

Pilates 101: Finding Neutral Spine
Fitness

Pilates 101: Finding Neutral Spine

The concept of neutral spine may sound simple, but this important Pilates concept can be elusive.
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The concept of neutral spine may sound simple, but this important Pilates concept can be elusive. To keep a neutral shade of spine, you maintain the natural curves of your back while doing an exercise, such as an upper abdominal curl (aka crunches). Keeping neutral means the muscles in your back are working in conjunction with your abs, and when you get your abs and back to fire together, you are working your core. Maintaining those natural curves keeps your ab work honest and makes it more difficult to cheat.

Although the concept of leaving things as they are sounds simple, when the majority of people lie on their backs, they automatically press their low spines into the floor. This, my friends, is not neutral.

To find your neutral spine:

  • Lie down on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, with your heels about a foot from your bum.
  • Rock your pelvis up and down so you can feel the top and bottom of your sacrum, the bony back of your pelvis.
  • Stop rocking and feel the entire sacrum on the ground, allowing the five vertebrae in your lumbar spine to make a gentle curve away from the floor. It will not be big curve!
  • Your bottom rib should also be making contact with the floor.
  • The curve of your neck should mirror the curve of your low spine, so it pulls away from the floor as well.

To learn how to find neutral spine from the front of your body, simply read more

Core Knowledge
Fitness

Core Knowledge

Fitness types toss the term "core" around with little explanation, leaving many people confused and believing that ab work, like crunches, is strengthening their core.
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Fitness types toss the term "core" around with little explanation, leaving many people confused and believing that ab work, like crunches, is strengthening their core. But this is not the case; the core is not simply the muscles on the front of your body. Nope. The core is three-dimensional, and in general terms you can think of it as your torso. One of my favorite definitions of the core is that it runs from your nipples to your knees.

Essentially, the core stabilizes your pelvis, low back, and rib cage, and it is made up of many muscle groups: all four layers of your abdominal muscles, including the obliques and transversus; the muscles on either side of the spine; the little muscles that run vertebrae to vertebrae know as the multifidi; as well as your glutes, hip flexors, and inner thighs. In Pilates, we also include the pelvic floor as part of the core; these small deep muscles help stabilize the pelvis.

To see how these muscles work together read more

DVD Review: Shiva Rea — Creative Core + Lower Body
Yoga

DVD Review: Shiva Rea — Creative Core + Lower Body

I loved Shiva Rea's Creative Core Abs video, so I was excited to try her newest DVD, Creative Core + Lower Body ($10).
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I loved Shiva Rea's Creative Core Abs video, so I was excited to try her newest DVD, Creative Core + Lower Body ($10). It focuses on a combination of fluid movements and holding of postures that targets your abs, thighs, lower back, and bum. I learned variations of poses that in my eight years of teaching yoga I've never seen before, so this DVD was a breath of fresh air and insanely challenging too. Although this sequence was short (only 22 minutes long), my thighs and bum were burning (in a positive way), and my lower back felt open and calm.

This is a great video to pop in if you only have a short time to work out, or if you want to do a little lower body stretching after a run or bike ride. Creative Core + Lower Body is one of the best yoga DVDs I've ever tried. I just wish it was longer!

If you want to see a preview of this DVD then read more