Three ways to develop your core strength.

Having talked in the last couple of Posts about the benefits of the 'Plank' and the 'BOSU Ball', here are a few other areas that you may have looked into already, or are considering as an alternative to your weight/cardio/resistance training that you are doing at home, at the gym at the beach or at the park. At the same time those are great options for developing that core strength and will give you another focus that could aid your fitness programme and your weight loss objectives. Written by Rich Carroll again (http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Carroll) and sourced at 'ezinearticles' (http://EzineArticles.com/8093856) this might provide you with ism further inspiration.


Keeping your core muscles strong and flexible are an important part to maintaining an active lifestyle, particularly as we age. Core muscle strength not only can help relieve lower back pain, but improves flexibility and balance, which makes things that we love to do like travel and sports a pleasure to do. Plus keeping better balance prevent injury from falls and pulled muscles, aggravations that can put a damper on our lifestyle.

So with that in mind, let's examine three exercise routines that have been widely accepted as great ways to build core muscles, and some of the limitations each may have.

1. Yoga. There are many forms of yoga, and more than most forms of exercise it integrates physical, mental and spiritual elements to strengthen the body and improve circulation. It has been around for about 5,000 years and has spawned many variations, from exercises that are gentle designed to soothe muscles and joints to those routines that are quite intensive. This adaptability is one reason why many seniors are using this as central to their exercise routine. Yoga instructors can offer routines specifically designed for people suffering back pain or arthritis.

Studies have demonstrated that just by doing yoga without any other resistance training that people were able to substantially increase their strength, particularly in the core area. One area that those who practice yoga to work on back issues must realize that creating muscle flexibility is a good thing, but creating lax ligaments in the back area is not. So it is important to know just how these exercises should be conducted to help your lower back area and not injure it.

2. Pilates. Pilates receives its name from fitness trainer Joseph Pilates, and the emphasis is on quality of balanced movements that assist core strength, grace and flexibility. For example, an Auburn University study found that people who did ten repetitions of Pilates abdominal exercises did more for the abdominals than the same number of regular crunches. For strengthening the midsection Pilates is an excellent choice.

For alleviating back pain, however, Pilates is not considered that effective. A 2012 study didn't reduce pain or improve functionality as compared to other forms of back exercises. Perhaps the reason for this is that for improving back pain, which normally comes from poor posture and poor body mechanics. Therefore for back pain simply doing core exercises might not be sufficient. Plus Pilates is not deemed to strengthen large sections of the body as yoga does.

3. Foundation Training. Developed by chiropractor Dr. Eric Goodman, this takes a different approach to core training. The concept is to teach the integrated chains of muscles that connect to the core to work together in coordination. These muscles that are trained are any that connect to the pelvis, which includes the glutes, hamstrings and adductor muscles. The emphasis for these exercises is in the hips, and if you are trouble with back pain (and so many people are), I would strongly suggest you check out Foundation Training.

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