Weight Training Tips and Articles

Building A Stronger Core

April 9, 2008 on 4:14 am | In Weight Training Routines, Weight Training Exercises, Lower Back, Abdominals, Build Muscle |

  If you’re into weight training it’s very important to have a strong core. The core is made up of the muscles in the midsection area of the body, including the abdominals, obliques, and lower back. Strengthening these muscles will help your body support and stabilize more weight on many major weight training exercises for other muscles, especially ones that involve many muscle groups like squats and deadlifts. Strengthening your core will also help you avoid injuries and improve your posture.

  To build a stronger core you need to perform abdominal and lower back workouts regularly. For your ab workouts do exercises such as crunches and leg raises, along with some ab training on a core ball. The abdominals recover quicker than most muscle groups so you can train them as much as every other day. For the obliques you should do some ab exercises where you twist on the way up, whether it’s on an upper ab or lower ab exercise. You can also do some side bends with a dumbbell in one hand or on a cable machine, or on an ab machine that allows you to do some more direct oblique training. Deadlifts and hyperextensions are great for building strength in the lower back. Some exercises for other muscles like dumbbell bench presses for the chest can be done on a core ball to build more core strength. Training the abdominals and lower back will also help you get a ripped midsection if you don’t have too much body fat covering them up.

  Even you’re more concerned with lifting as much weight as possible than getting ripped you’ll still need to strengthen your core so you can handle those weights. You’ll be glad you did.