Core Exercises

Core exercises are one of the most popular types of individual exercises next to cardio and sports.

The six pack look is on everyone’s wish list so it’s no wonder more exercises and fitness products are geared towards your abdominals.

Your core is the center of your body’s physical movements, strength, and power. It supports you in everything you do from walking and dancing to sitting in a chair. Keeping it strong and functional can help you in everyday activities.

Who Should Do them?

You can do them every day if you want. You'll know when you should go easy or pick up the pace.

Benefits of Core Exercises

Core exercises will no doubt help to reduce excess fat and strengthen your core and back. It is important that as you strengthen the core, you also strengthen the back and vice versa. This is so that one set of muscles does not overpower the other. The exercises I show below do just that.

Top 10 Core Exercises

Isometric Crunch

This is one of the best core exercises there is. You can do it anywhere, anytime.

1. If you're standing, stand upright, back straight, and your hands in front of you.
2. Breath in a full breath through your nose and into your chest; don't do deep breathing, letting your stomach expand.
3. Now, flex and tighten your core, tightening up your fists, arms and chest while you exhale slowly out your mouth with a hissingsound; restrict the air coming out like you're trying to push it through a tiny hole you form with your lips and tongue.
4. When most to all of the air is out or you need to stop, take a breath a or two and relax.
5. Repeat 10 times.

V-Ups

Lay on your back, your legs straight, feet together, and your arms straight above you, also lying on the ground.

In one motion, bring your legs up without bending your knees and your arms forward and try to touch your feet somewhere above you in the air.

Then bring your legs and arms back down the way they came.

Repeat 10-15 times.

Plank/Bridge

Rest your forearms on the ground, right underneath your chest, and have your legs straight out, feet together, like you’re in a pushup position. Back is straight. Hold this position for as long as you can; try for 30-60 seconds.

In the next variation, turn to the side such that one side of your body faces the ground, (the other facing the sky), having only one forearm bracing your body. This really works the obliques. Try for 30-60 seconds; switch sides.

Vacuum

This core exercise is not done so often. It works the inner abdominals that help keep your abs in instead of bulging out.

You can do this either standing or on hands & knees. Either way, exhale all the air out of your lungs, then pull in your stomach as much as possible, like its getting sucked into your chest, then hold for a five count. Relax and breathe in. Repeat 8-10 times.

You may feel light-headed if you’re not used to doing them. It’s OK, just take the time to breathe normally between each rep and do fewer reps until you get enough workouts in.

Hanging Leg Raises

You’ll need a pull-up bar, or some kind of secure overhead bar that you can hang from with your hands.

Start hanging. Keeping your knees and feet together, legs straight, raise your feet up so your legs are parallel with the floor. Then slowly lower them back down.

This one is not easy at first, and oddly enough, I’ve seen women do better at this than men at first

Repeat 10 times.

Ab Wheel Exercises

Ok, so this would make the list more than 10, but any exercise with an ab wheel should always part of your core regimen.

Side Bends

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Raise one arm straight up, then continue to bend the body towards that direction (if you lifted your right arm, you bend to the left), until you get a full stretch. Then bend back, bringing the arm down, and repeat for the other arm. You can do this at a quick pace, but try to get an isometric squeeze of your side/oblique at the end of the bend/stretch each time.

Another way of doing these is, at the end of the bend/stretch, just bounce back and forth one or two inches for up to 50 reps; these are like mini side crunches. Then come back all the way and switch arms.

Straight Leg Rotators

Lie on your back and bring your legs straight up towards the sky; your feet are together. Now, swing your legs side to side, as far down towards the ground as possible, under control. Once you bring your legs towards one side, go back up and rotate to the other side. Repeat 10-20 times.

Bicycle Crunches

Yes, the good old crunch. Lying on your back, act as if you are pedaling a bicycle, bringing one knee up towards your chest, extending the other leg straight out, then switch in a fluid motion.

There are a few variations for what you do with your hands/arms. You could punch the sky, switch each arm in sync with each leg pedal. Another way is to hold your hands to your head and try to touch the knee that comes up to the chest with the opposite side’s elbow.

Keep the pace up and go for bouts of up to a minute or two, or more.

Handstands

Another isometric core exercise that trains many things—the handstand can help solidify your core in a new way by stretching the whole abdominal area and having it work intensely to hold your body upright. This is another one of my favorites. This helps to work the area around the rib cage too.