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Many people have become more sedentary in recent times with lockdowns and working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’re moving less, this may have impacted your core strength. Or, you may just be thinking you need to improve it.

So, what exactly is the core? And why is it important to have good core strength?

What is the core?

The core consists of the muscles in your midsection, or torso, surrounding the spine and pelvis. This includes the abdominal muscles at the front, but also muscles within the lower back, and around your sides.

The core muscles are not considered powerful, but they play a fundamental role in stabilising the spine and pelvis. They’re also key to maintaining good posture.

These functions are important to ensure you can move your limbs easily. Your core also protects you against injury — people with a weaker core are more likely to sustain a back injury. Core muscle strengthening is often an important part of rehabilitation after a back injury.

We use our core muscles while performing daily tasks like getting up from a chair, standing, walking, vacuuming and lifting things.

The core muscles are also important for athletic activities like running, jumping, tackling and lifting weights.

Some signs you might need to work on your core

As with other muscles, if we don’t use our core muscles enough, they become weak. When our core becomes weak, our movements are less supported, which can put pressure on other parts of our bodies.

Weakness in the core muscles can be associated with lower back pain, particularly among older people.

Knee pain is another possible sign the core muscles are too weak. Research has shown a core strength training program with physiotherapy has a greater effect on reducing knee pain than standard physiotherapy alone.

If you haven’t been exercising for a while, and you’re experiencing lower back pain or knee pain, it may be a sign your core muscles have become too weak and it’s time to do some work on strengthening them.

The good news is, we can improve core strength with exercise. And there’s no one exercise that is best — you can choose which approach works best for you.

If you do have back or knee pain, or have recently had a baby, consult your doctor or physiotherapist before getting started.

How to strengthen your core: exercises you can do at home

While walking and running do involve activating the core muscles to some degree, to really target the core we can look to some specific exercises like the traditional sit-up or stomach crunch. These exercises work well to strengthen the muscles on the front of the torso and carry a very low risk of injury.

Modified versions can enhance the effects. For example, exercising on an unstable surface like a Swiss ball can increase the demands on the muscles.

Think of how much your ankle moves when you stand on one leg, for example. Being in this unstable position forces the muscles of your lower leg to work harder to keep your balance. It’s similar to the way your muscles tighten up when you’re walking on a slippery surface.

So, when you do sit-ups while sitting on a Swiss ball or a BOSU ball you find you must engage your core muscles to stay on the device. This increases the intensity of the exercise.

The traditional crunch or sit-up predominantly work the muscles at the front of the torso, the rectus abdominis, commonly known as the abs.

A standard plank is also good for your abs, and engages other muscles of the torso as well. And you can engage the core muscles at the side of the torso, called the obliques, even further with a side plank.

You can also try getting into a push up position and raising one leg at a time from the hip while keeping the knee straight.

You can make this more challenging by raising the opposite arm at the same time, so your only points of contact are the ball of one foot and the other hand.

This is a good workout for your core, which is working hard to keep you in position. You can make it easier by doing this on hands and knees.

Any exercise that activates the core muscles more than usual will help improve core strength. Sit-ups, crunches and planks will target these muscles directly, and adding unstable surfaces like Swiss balls can enhance the activation.

But remember, other types of physical activity, like going for a jog or doing squats, can help your core strength too.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article by Andrew Lavender Senior Lecturer, School of Science, Psychology and Sport, Federation University Australia.

How to stay motivated to exercise in winter

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Every winter you can guarantee you’ll see a headline – or 20 – suggesting you pull on your sneakers on the coldest morning and get exercising because you’ll burn more calories if it’s nippy outside.

The idea comes from the fact that when we are cold – particularly when we are shivering – our body uses more energy to keep us warm, namely through muscle clenching.

So the theory goes that if you added the calorie-burning of exercise to the calorie-burning of being cold, you’d get a double-whammy calorie burner.

Unfortunately, experts tell 9Honey Coach that’s probably taking the science a tad too far.

“When we get cold, one of the ways we defend our body temperature is to shiver, which uses oxygen and therefore uses energy to generate those contractions,” explains Dr Ollie Jay, a thermoregulatory physiologist from the University of Sydney.

And exercising does the same thing.

“You can do that either through physical activity and contracting your muscles or if you’re not moving, you’ll start shivering a little bit and that will do the same thing,” Dr Jay explains.

So effectively it’s a one-or-the-other situation – exercising doesn’t compound the effects of shivering in the cold.

That said, you should definitely keep exercising in the cold because shivering won’t burn nearly the number of calories that running will.

“The most intense shivering recorded has been up to five times the resting metabolic rate,” Dr Jay explains.

“But if you go for a run and you’re relatively fit, you’re going to be at 10 times the metabolic rate at least.”

RELATED: Do cold temperatures really make your body store fat?

If you want to take advantage of the calorie-burning aspect of being cold, you need to make the most of it when you’re sitting still, either by dialling down the heating so you feel cooler or having a cold shower – this has to do with brown fat activation.

Unlike the “white” fat we’re familiar with that makes our flabby bits, brown fat is “biologically active” and kicks into gear to help us warm up in the cold.

“Intermittent cold exposure can increase brown fat abundance and may have a beneficial effect on metabolism,” Dr Paul Lee, a clinical scientist at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, told Coach recently.

“Because of this energy-burning nature of brown fat, individuals with more brown fat are leaner.”

That said, experts say you’d need cold exposure for several hours a day to get noticeable metabolic benefits.

So the moral of the story seems to be to keep exercising in winter — not just because it’s cold but because exercise is good for you, whatever the weather.

RELATED: Struggling to stay active and motivated in winter? Get a dog

Your favourite vegetables ranked by their carb content

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“The way I was going, I probably wouldn’t have made 70,” Ray Hadley admits, talking about life leading up to his impressive 18kg weight loss.

During a routine GP visit in September 2020, Hadley tipped the scales at 114.5kg. Telling Men’s Health, the “embarrassed” 2GB talkback radio broadcaster says he was ordered to do something about it, as his health was on the inevitable decline if nothing were to change.

Hadley reveals his diet consisted of “Whatever I could fit on my plate,” and a typical day would see him put away three-quarters of a loaf of bread — an impressive feat, but not when your doctor sounds the warning alarm for type 2 diabetes.

Working with a weight loss coach, Hadley focussed on moving more and incorporating walking into his routine, even eventually ditching the golf cart on the course to get his steps up — something he now finds therapeutic.

“I don’t wear a headset. I just find I think about things. Not always deep thoughts — maybe about the next show, my grandchildren, my wife. Other times I don’t think at all … I’m just moving.”

Together with his coach he overhauled his diet, but nothing too wild. Instead of the trainer’s 3-4 litres of water (daily) recommendation, Hadley agreed to two litres of a flavoured variety. His plate changed to a low-carb focus with mealtime rejigged to encourage more of an overnight fast, and the results were impressive.

He dropped to 96.5kg — that’s a loss of 18.5kg in six months — and his blood pressure dipped to 128/80 from 160/95 allowing him to come off his antihypertensive medication.

The 66-year-old recalls he stunned guests at his wedding with his transformation. “It was, ‘Jesus, where’s the rest of you?'”

Hadley said ‘I do’ to his PA, Sophie, in March, in an outdoor ceremony.

“And that acknowledgement makes you feel good about doing it.”

Celebrity workouts ranked by calories burned

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