Your core is essential to nearly everything in your daily life. Think about some of the actions that you perform everyday. Getting out of bed, sweeping the floor, or taking out the trash. Your core strength is vital to not only perform these tasks but to do so without injury.
Linking Your Upper and Lower Body
Your body is built like a long chain. If one link is weak, the chain will not function properly. But what happens if the center link is dysfunctional? The core serves as the nucleus of the chain, wrapping around your torso and sending out a ripple effect to the rest of the body when performing an action. If there is a weakness in the core, it can affect how well your arms, legs, neck, and rest of your body can perform.
Let’s use the example of picking up your child out of the car. You open the door, lean over the carseat, unclick the seatbelt, and use your strength to lift your child, stand up, and step away from the car safely.
Each and every part of this process relies heavily on your core muscles. Without a strong and functional core, your back may not function properly when bending down, your arms and legs may not maintain the strength to lift, and your hips may fail when hinging, loading the stress onto your lower back. Sounds pretty important, right?
For Both Simple Tasks and Athletic Movements
Core strength is crucial in some of your body's simplest functions too. Maintaining a healthy core will improve balance, posture, stability, breathing, and the list can go on and on.
Now, let’s not forget about physical activity. To put it simply, your core is responsible for nearly every movement you make during a workout, athletic event, or any type of physical activity. Jumping, ducking, spinning, twisting, swinging, or even tying your shoes before the big game can all be attributed to your core muscles. Okay, tying your shoes is not heavily reliant on your core, but you get the point.
According to many studies, building up your core is also one of the best ways to reduce pain. This is especially true for lower back pain, a chronic issue popular in today’s sedentary world. The stronger your core, the less pressure being placed on your lower back throughout the day. This, and many other factors make core strength a big step in injury prevention and rehabilitation.
For All Ages
As with most muscle groups, core strength becomes even more important as you age. Maintaining a strong core into your 50s, 60s, and even 70s will allow you to safely play with your grandkids, maintain an independent lifestyle, and continue to enjoy your everyday life.
Core strength is important for everyone. No matter your age or fitness level, don’t forget to train those core muscles. The rest of your body will thank you every single day.
Looking for a fun and effective way to train your core? Check out the Chopper from ChopFit.