Top 5 Reasons to Strengthen Your Core

While it may be good motivation rocking a beach-worthy bod isn’t the only reason to get your torso in shape. After all, your core is about more than just your ab muscles, it’s your body’s powerhouse. Not only does it facilitate movement, but it also houses your inner organs and central nervous system. In other words, it helps you do just about everything. Here are five reasons to strengthen your core.

“It’s important to build core stability first, and then build core strength,” Purdy explains. “You want to get the deeper muscles working first.” Purdy says that when you’ve got a strong core,” everything else will fit into place on top of it,”  meaning you will improve, making you less prone to injury down the road. Even though it’s easy to presume that when we’re moving, our extremities do most of the work, the opposite is true: most movement starts at the center and moves outward. A rock-solid center will help ensure that your movements are strong and pain-free.

A simple but effective exercise for building core stability is to draw in the abdominal (think about your belly button pulling away from your painting), hold for five breaths, and then relax. Repeat 10 times. Purdy recommends doing this 10 times a day.

She also suggests women practice Kegel exercises, drawing in the pelvic floor to strengthen the lower end of your core (with the added bonus of better bladder control).

How Strength Training Impacts Metabolism

Strength training (or resistance training) does much more than build strong muscles and bones. Research in the past few years has confirmed that lifting weights changes human metabolism in ways that improve health and well-being. Resistance training improves resting metabolic rate and cardiorespiratory fitness. Indeed, some authors call this type of training an exercise therapy program (Strasser & Schobersberger 2011). That’s a powerful swing of the pendulum from days when pushing barbells and mastering squats were seen primarily as ways to boost strength, muscular endurance and bone density.

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Abs Exercise 4 (draft)

the 6th most effective ab exercise, changing the traditional floor crunch by straightening the arms behind you. This adds a longer lever to the move, adding a bit more challenge and difficulty. This move also emphasizes the upper part of the abs, although it's important to remember that your rectus abdominis is actually one long muscle that travels from your lower chest to your pelvis. While you can emphasize one part, any exercise you do will work the entire muscle.

How to:

1. Lie on a mat and extend the arms straight out behind the head with hands clasped, keeping the arms next to the ears.

2. Contract the abs and lift the shoulder blades off the floor.

3. Keep the arms straight and avoid straining the neck. If you feel neck pain, take one hand behind the head while keeping the other arm extended.

4. Lower and repeat for 1-3 sets of 12-16 reps.

5. You can add intensity by holding a light dumbbell if you need more of a challenge.

Categories: Abs Excercise

Rice Cake with Cheese

Top a low-cal rice cake with a slice of reduced-fat or fat-free cheese. The cheese adds protein to keep you satisfied, and the entire snack is still pretty low in carbohydrates, making this a great choice for dieters with diabetes.

85 calories, 7 g carbohydrates

Exchanges: 1 lean meat, ½ starch