The Top Benefits of Increasing Core Strength
When people hear “core,” they often think of six-pack abs—but core strength is about so much more than aesthetics, and involves a lot more than just your abs! Your core includes all the muscles around your trunk and hips, and strengthening it can have a huge impact on how you move, feel, and function every day. If your core is unstable, that’s going to affect every movement you do as a human!
Here are some of the top benefits of building a stronger core:
1. Better Balance & Stability
Whether you’re climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or doing a lunge at the gym, your core helps keep you stable. A strong core supports good posture and improves coordination, making everyday movements feel easier and safer.
2. Reduced Risk of Injury
A stable core protects your spine and helps your body move in better alignment. That means less strain on your back and joints—both during workouts and in daily life. We need to be able to pick things up, carry them, and put them back down again in our everyday life, without blowing up our back!
3. Support for Other Exercises
Strong core muscles support nearly every other movement you do—whether you’re squatting, pressing, or doing cardio. A solid core means you can lift more efficiently and with better form. As we like to say in the gym — most movements are full-body movements if we do them correctly.
4. Enhanced Confidence & Body Awareness
Feeling strong in your center can help you feel more grounded and confident. Plus, core training can improve your connection to your body and help you move with more intention and control.
What does it actually mean to have a strong core?
It’s not about being able to do 100 sit ups in a row. A strong core, in the majority of everyday life scenarios means resisting movement in your spine, while you’re moving a load. For example, when we pick up a heavy object from the ground, we want our spine to stay in it’s normal shape & alignment as we lift it up, rather than rounding and flexing under the strain. We need to be able to set our spine in it’s “neutral” position, and keep it there! Strong muscles all the way around your trunk — including abs, obliques, spinal erectors, and glutes — make this possible.
The functional strength training we do at Ripple Effect builds core strength every day! Learning how to lift safely teaches us how to find the right positions, how to engage our muscles to keep the position, and also helps the muscles get stronger to be able to keep the position under heavier loads and for longer periods of time.
Some of our favorite core exercises:
— Traditional lifts like squats & deadlifts
— Weighted carries like suitcase carries, farmer carries, and sandbag carries
— Anti-rotation exercises like Paloff presses
— Static holds like hollow holds, planks, and side planks
— Glute bridges
You may have been expecting to see sit ups or crunches on that list! There’s nothing wrong with sit ups, and it’s a movement we want to be able to do as humans — you want to be able to get up out of bed, right? But at our gym we often focus on the more neglected muscle groups with in the core (like pretty much everything besides your abs), so we can be strong all the way around the middle of the body.
Strengthening your core will make EVERY movement better! Upgrading these muscle groups can be downright life-changing.
If this is something you need some help with, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Sign up for a Free Intro to learn more about our personal training options.
