Build Core Strength with These Exercises

by Chris Wolff, certified personal trainer

While increasing your core strength can create a flat stomach, it also has many other health benefits. Core strength helps improve your posture, provides better balance and can reduce back pain. Chris Wolff, a certified personal trainer, gives examples of three simple core strength exercises to help build the muscles of your midsection.

Today I'm going to talk to you about core strength, why it's important, and demonstrate a few exercises that you can do at home or in the office to really strengthen up your core.

Core strength – core – is the foundation of your body. It's going to build all kinds of muscles for you. And it's really going to help you in your fitness goals.

The first exercise I would like to show you is a plank. For this exercise, you can use a mat or the ground. I'm going to go ahead and use a mat. The first thing you're going to do is lay prone on the ground, or on your belly, ensuring your elbow is underneath your shoulder and your forearms are parallel with each other. Next, raise your hips up off the ground and think about pulling in your abdominals to your spine. Sit for a period of 20 to 30 seconds. Rest for about 10 seconds. And perform it again.

The next exercise I would like to show you is called a mountain climber. This is a great total body workout, but it's really going to hit the core. To start out, ensure your hands are underneath your shoulders. You're going to bring your hips up in that push-up plank position, again ensuring that your core is nice and tight by sucking the belly button up into the spine. Raise one leg to your chest. Then rotate. And just keep switching. You can perform this activity for a period of time – 20 to 30 seconds – or repetitions. One would be raising one leg, then the other.

I'd like to show you one more. It's a very simple one. I just want to ensure that everybody's doing it right. And this one is your abdominal crunch. To perform this, lay on your back on the ground or a mat. Place your hands around your chest. And raise your shoulder blades up off the ground, hold, slow and controlled back down. Again, raise up. Raise those shoulder blades up. Back down.

These are just a couple abdominal and core exercises that you can do at home to really maximize your workouts. But before working out and starting an exercise program, please consult a physician.