Your Core  is a Tube, Not a Washboard.....

We have all seen the talk about the core in fitness magazines or during late night infomercials. Most of what you see there is not correct and even damaging to your body and your results.

There has been a lot of research on your abdominal or “core”, but unless you are a trainer or a physical therapist, most people have no idea what their core is.

Let me explain to you what the core is.

Think of your body as a tube. From your hips to the bottom of your rib cage there is not much structure holding you together.  In fact, there are 12 muscles that wrap around your midsection, and they are vital to every movement you make!

Your core stabilizes and controls the force of your movements.

All you have are skin and muscle around your midsection, and like any tube, the thinner the wall the less it can hold. Most importantly, your core muscles anchor most of the major muscle groups in your body and stabilize every move you make. And this is why it is crucial for you to exercise and strengthen these muscles.

Your Core Needs to Be Like Bamboo...

If you put an empty paper towel roll next to a piece of bamboo, you can see and feel the difference in thickness and strength. The paper towel roll is weak and will collapse with very little pressure. On the other hand, the bamboo has thicker walls consisting of tough fibers. Bamboo, as you know is extremely strong yet flexible. It can bend over and over and still stay strong.

Your core needs to be equally strong all the way around your body, not just in front. You don’t see bamboo bulging on one side do you? Strengthening only one part of your body creates Muscular Imbalance, but we’ll talk more about that later on. The problem is, as you age your core muscles get weaker and thinner.

Move Like a Baby and Have Abs Like an Athlete...

Researchers have discovered an important lesson while studying infant growth. Infants move in specific sequences in order to strengthen their core muscles. The core muscles are the first major muscle group to develop enabling the body to progress from the crawl, stand, walk and run.

Once we master the act of walking our focus shifts from strengthening our core muscles to other parts of the body, neglecting our core muscles. Over time, we can just look down to see the obvious result pouring over the top of our jeans.

As I dug in the research, there are 3 Core Training Essentials that you must follow...

You can see them on this page .

Keep training hard,

Mike Westerdal
CriticalBench.com