A strong core creates strength and stability in your body, but if you’re not varying the core exercises in your routine, you may be leaving some of your muscles unworked.
“In general, working muscles through as many different patterns and ranges of motion is great for our overall health and functional ability,” says Danny King, Master Trainer and manager of performance and recovery at Life Time.
Building strength in your core prepares your body not only for the demands of other types of training, but also, importantly, for the needs of everyday life. “Specifically, there are five movement patterns that allow you to hit the majority of core muscles,” shares King. “These patterns include stabilization, anti-rotation, reverse crunch, spinal flexion, and rotation. Completing movements in these patterns will make sure you’re supporting the main function areas of the core, and they carryover to a lot of different movements and general needs.”
These are the core exercises King recommends for hitting each of the five movement patterns.
1. Dead Bug
Core movement pattern: Stabilization
“Learning how to properly engage your core muscles to stabilize your midsection will help improve your athletic performance,” says King. “For example, if you’re strength training, you need a strong, stable core to properly execute lifts. It’s also necessary for reducing the risk of injury as stabilization prevents us from collapsing when we encounter load.”
- Lie on your back with your arms straight up (fingers pointing toward the ceiling and palms facing forward), both legs in a tabletop position, with knees bent at a 90-degree angle directly over your hips. Position a workout ball so it’s being held in place between your palms and knees.
- You may feel a small space between your lower back and the floor. Draw your navel toward your rib cage, tilting your pelvis back, to close this space.
- Exhale as you slowly extend your right leg so that it hovers about 6 inches above the floor. As you do this, extend your left arm straight back behind your head. Let your left knee and right palm press into the ball. Hold this position for up to three seconds, or for as long as you are able, while maintaining a flat back. Inhale as you return your arm and leg to the starting position.
- Immediately perform the same movement with the opposite leg and arm.
- Repeat, alternating sides, for 12 to 15 reps; complete a total of two to three sets.
2. Half Kneeling Pallof
Core movement pattern: Anti-rotation
“This movement pattern is similar to stabilization, just in the transverse plane,” says King. “Learning to resist rotation and keep the hips and shoulders aligned translates really well to a lot of sports and everyday life movements.”
- Start in a kneeling position with your left knee on the ground directly below your hip and your right knee out in front of you at a 90-degree angle.
- Extend your arms straight in front of you and use both hands to hold onto one end of a band. Either ask a partner to hold onto the other end of the band or fasten it to a machine or surface to your left so it’s at chest height when you’re in this kneeling position; the band should be taut.
- If you have a partner holding the band, have them begin to put pressure on the rope, gently pulling and/or slightly moving it around. While they’re doing this, engage your core and keep your hands and arms in the same position, refusing to move from the pressure.
- If you’ve fastened the band to a machine or surface, simply press out and hold, engaging your core and keeping your hands and arms in the same position. (Though you lose the dynamic stabilization without the partner moving the rope, it’s still a beneficial exercise and allows you to execute on your own.)
- Repeat, alternating sides, for 20 to 45 seconds on each side; complete a total of two to three sets per side.
3. Reverse Crunch
Core movement pattern: Reverse crunch
“The internal obliques are an important muscle for helping to posterior [backward] tilt the pelvis and stabilize the spine,” explains King. “Because most people sit in an anterior (forward) tilt all day, strengthening the internal obliques and learning to move through a posterior tilt can be important for changing the orientation of the pelvis to obtain a more neutral alignment and improved posture.”
- Start by lying flat on your back on an ab bench. If you’d like to add challenge, you can increase the angle of the bench. Place your arms behind your head and hold onto the handle on the bench. Pull your knees up toward your stomach.
- Bracing your abs and glutes, pull your knees in farther as you lift your lower body up and back until your feet are above your hips. Focus on curling your hips up one segment at a time and let your arms pull tight to create a stable base.
- Lower to the starting position with control.
- Repeat for 15 reps; complete a total of two or three sets.
4. Crunch
Core movement pattern: Spinal flexion
“Over the last few years, core stabilization work has gained popularity, and a lot of trainers have decreased or removed the amount of movement-based core work, like crunches, that they have clients do — I believe this is a mistake,” says King. “While stability is important, the spine is built to move through flexion and extension, and the ab muscles are still a muscle and should be trained through a range of motion for optimal hypertrophy and function.”
- With your torso positioned on a workout ball, place your legs out in front of you, feet flat on the floor, knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Interlock your hands behind your head.
- Lean all the way back so your back wraps around the ball.
- Using your core, lift your chest up toward your legs to complete the “crunch” motion; aim to feel as if you’re bringing your ribs to your hips.
- Lower with control so your back is once again wrapped around the ball.
- Repeat 12 to 15 reps; complete a total of two or three sets.
5. Resistance Band Rotation
Core movement pattern: Rotation
“Rotation is a great way to integrate the core into larger, more complex movements,” says King. “It helps teach a person how to dynamically stabilize the midsection while transferring force from the upper-to-lower or the lower-to-upper body. The obliques, which are a big, powerful muscle, are responsible for creating rotation at the midsection and training that pattern while in a standing position is the optimal way to hit that muscle.”
- Anchor a resistance band (or a D handle if using a cable machine) at chest height. Position yourself so the band is in a taut and straight horizontal line when your arms are outstretched in front of you, palms gripping the band or handle. Assume a wide stance.
- Brace your core and rotate your upper body away from the anchor point to pull the band to the side of your body. Keep your arms straight and rotate on the toe of your inner foot (the one closest to the anchor point) as needed.
- Rotate back to the center with control.
- Repeat, alternating sides, for 8 to 12 reps; complete a total of two sets.
