What are the core muscle exercises?

The core muscles mainly refer to the upper body, and more specifically the abdominal and back muscles. The reason why they are called core muscles is that if the muscles in these areas are well developed and well-shaped, the whole person will feel different. If the core muscle groups can become full and strong, they have basically reached a toned and shapely state. Next, let’s take a look at how to exercise your core muscles!

1. Hanging Leg Raise

The action essentials are:

Starting Position

Hold the horizontal bar with both hands and hang your body straight down under the bar.

Action process

Bend your knees and pull your calves up as far as you can. At the highest point, fully contract your rectus abdominis for one second. Then slowly lower your calf until it is fully straight.

Breathing method

Inhale as you raise your calves and exhale as you lower them.

Points to note

As you curl your calves, try to lift your knees upward. If you find it too difficult, you can start by doing supine leg raises.

The main exercise area is the rectus abdominis.

2. Lateral flexion

The action essentials are:

Stand with a dumbbell in one hand (or a barbell on your shoulder). Slowly tilt your body to about 35 degrees, then slowly return to the original position.

Inhale before the movement, exhale while lifting, and adjust your breathing when the movement ends.

Mainly exercises the external oblique muscles.

3. Start from both ends

Not much to say, it's a very good exercise. Lying on your back can exercise your abdominal muscles, and bending over can exercise your erector spinae muscles.

4. Deadlift

The action essentials are:

Stand with your feet in an "eight" shape, place the barbell in front of your body, bend your knees and bend over, grip the barbell with both hands about shoulder-width or shoulder-width apart, lift your head slightly, straighten your chest, back and waist, lift your hips, and lean your upper body forward about 45 degrees. Use your leg muscles to extend your knees and lift the bell, then pause. Then bend your knees and slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. To improve the training effect, bend your knees and lower the barbell without letting it touch the ground.

When you reach the highest point, stretch your shoulders as far as possible, lift your head and chest, and stay there for 3 seconds. Restore and repeat.

Be careful not to bend over to avoid damaging your spine.

Exercises that involve the entire body can be a great way to train your erector spinae muscles.

5. Push-ups

The action essentials are:

Lie on a prone mat or pommel horse, bend your upper body forward, fix your feet, hold your head with your hands or carry a barbell on your shoulders.

Inhale, slowly bend your upper body forward, and then use the strength of your waist and back muscles to straighten your body back to the original position. After returning to the original position, breathe naturally. Repeat the exercise.

During the movement, the waist and back must always be straight, and you are not allowed to relax the waist, hunch the chest, or arch the back. When bending the upper body forward, do it as slowly as possible, and avoid bending the body suddenly and quickly to prevent straining the waist and back muscles.

Mainly exercise the sacrospinal muscles and other lumbar muscles.

6. Bridge (lower back)

This movement requires very high body flexibility. It is best not to practice it alone without a certain foundation. When practicing this movement, you must have scientific methods and guidance, and also take protective measures.

The action is: stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, raise your arms up, straighten your hips, and lean your upper body back until your head is upside down, with your palms supporting the ground, and your whole body in the shape of an arch. The limbs are required to be stretched as straight as possible, and the distance between hands and feet is as close as possible. Beginners can do this by standing with their backs to the wall and then moving down by holding on to the wall with their hands; they can also do it by asking someone to hold their waist.

Bridge can exercise almost all the muscles around the spine. If you practice bridge well, you will have a spine as strong as a steel whip.

If you are into fitness, then it can be said that your core muscles should be the main position you exercise. Imagine that if a person has full muscles in other parts of his body but weak core muscles, he will still look thin. Only when your core muscles are well developed will you not look thin. Therefore, we should also pay attention to the accumulation of fat during exercise, as fat can be gradually trained into muscle.