Importance of Core Exercises
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So the core is our core foundation of our body. That's the best way to remember it. It's the foundation in the centre of the body that supports us and keep us upright. All movement that hinges through the middle of the body is all controlled through your core muscles. Your obliques are responsible for lateral movement on the sides and your upper and your lower are responsible for flexion upper and lower part of the body.
If your core is not strong, it's gonna basically put lots of strain on your lower back. So for people with lower back pain are massively advised to increase the strength of their core. Your core muscles are very important for your posture. So for example, when you were younger and you were told to stand upright and push your chest out, that was keeping the pressure off your lower back. Okay, so when you lean forwards, all your lower back muscles are under tension. So by pushing your chest out, it keeps your posture better and it keeps your core under more control of your body position. Now, your core muscles, lots of people neglect them, they're your foundation to your mid-section of your body.
Any weakness in the body that's not looked after, will be the first place that will basically take on board an injury. You're only as strong as your weakest place. When it comes to core muscles, we have our upper core and our lower, and our obliques run all the way down to the top of the pelvis. They're your mid-section. So they basically look after your body positioning and make sure that you've always got the good posture that we're trying to achieve when performing good physical activity.
When it comes to engaging your core muscles, there's other muscles that you have to basically switch off to engage your core muscles better. Your hip flexor is responsible for pulling your leg forwards.
When it comes to doing an example, a leg raise, all you do is you think about throwing your legs in the air. Now, but what you're trying to do is you're trying to engage your lower core to lift your legs up into the air. If you do it too fast, your hip flexor will trigger and will do that movement for you. And you will encourage your hip flexors to get stronger, and your lower core will not increase in strength as much as if you were under far more control with your lower core and not your hip flexor.