core workout

Total Core

All movement comes from your core – even movement from your feet is connected to the middle of you. Without a strong core your body is operating at a loss. Here’s a workout to make your core strong and ready for anything.

Workout Basics and Warm Up

To plan your workouts think about doing something focused 3-6 times a week and taking 1-3 days of what’s called active rest (clean house, walk the golf course, go for a hike, take the dog for a long walk, do squats throughout the day – link it to every time you go to the bathroom for example.

This movement is important for recovery and allows your body to do something active for fun, wellness, blood flow to the sore spots from your focused workout, etc. This keeps the body oriented toward energy flow and movement.

Making sure to get a weekend workout in is a great way to make sure your active rest days are not consecutive. Consecutive days off can make it harder to return to your focused workouts on Monday.

Make sure to warm up. Spend 5-10minutes doing easy movement, stretching, and allow the muscles you are going to work to “wake up”. Work to include all the big joints and major muscle groups. It’s a great time to get your music right, your shoes tightened or loosened, or make sure you hair is out of your way. By fixing these things now, you are more likely to stay focused on the work portion.

When you complete the round, give yourself a pat on the back, a fist pump, something that celebrates your accomplishment. This is a big deal for helping habits stick, and helps you be realistic about all the hard work you are doing.

If you are unclear about a movement, look it up (Check out my YouTube Tutorials Here). There are lots of resources online that allow you to make sure you have good form. Always work up to adding weight or making a movement less stable. Good form comes first.

Core Starts

Dead Bug – Lying on Back (supine) bring knees up over the hips, bent at 90 degrees. Stretch arms out above your shoulders. Lower one foot and the opposite arm to the ground. Lift and repeat on the other side. Work to keep the abdomen strong and the lower back pressed into the floor. To make it harder straighten leg as you lower the foot, and then increase difficulty by hovering the leg and arm just above the ground before lifting back up.
Alternating Crunches – hold medicine ball in hands, feet high/above hips. Lift the shoulders off the ground as you bring the medicine ball to the outside of one thigh. Alternate sides
Full Stretch Sit-ups – place medicine ball between feet on the floor, knees bent. Sit up and grab medicine ball, roll down bringing the medicine ball above head to the floor with straight arms.
SuperMans – laying prone (on your stomach) on the floor, stretch your arms out in front of you. Lift one arm and the opposite leg off the ground. Alternate sides
Locust Lifts – lay prone with arms outstretched above your head. Lift both legs and arms off the floor at the same time. Hold briefly and lower.

Medicine Ball Plank Set

Stability Plank – place both hands on the medicine ball beneath chest. Hold in high plank position for 30 seconds. Rest. Repeat.
Medicine Ball Pike Rolls – Place both feet on the medicine ball. Lift from the hips and roll into a pike position. Return to plank position.
Quadruped (on all fours) Crunches – Lift and extend one arm and opposite foot. Stretch to move the hand and foot as far apart as you can while keeping the core tight, belly button pulled up to the spine, and hips level.
Reverse Table Top Hold – turn over, place hands behind butt on the floor, fingers pointing away from the body. Feet flat on the floor knees bent. Lift hips up and try to flatten out front of body. For extra challenge aim to straighten legs and point toes or place toes on the medicine ball and hold for stability up level.

Finish Strong

YOU DID IT!! Now that you have finished the “work” portion, it is time for flexibility training. Spend some time stretching all the muscles you worked – in this workout, it’s full body so give all your major muscles a good stretch. Then grab a good post workout snack. Together these get your muscles ready for tomorrow’s movement and make sure you are ready to meet your goals.

Words of Caution …

Please make sure to follow your body. Do not push through pain. Discomfort/Challenge are different than pain. We want to challenge ourselves we do not want to hurt ourselves. Find the level that is right for you and move at that level. Make sure to choose weight and stances that support your body style – if you have to use the wall to do your push ups do that, if you need a chair or a bench use those. Make sure you are doing what you need to do for your body type and current personal level of fitness.

As always have fun living in your body today!

Planks and Lunges

Ready to crush your lower body and core goals? Upgrade your personal power today with a core and leg workout.

Workout Basics and Warm Up

Making sure to get a weekend workout in is a great way to make sure your active rest days are not consecutive. Consecutive days off can make it harder to return to your focused workouts on Monday.

Workout Starters

30 seconds – Wall Sits with Lateral Shuffle – make sure you have enough wall space to shuffle 1-3 spaces to each side. If you do not, just do a squat and shuffle with your butt low.
Single Leg Hop Overs – 10 to each leg
Butt Drops – No weight, work on form here to get ready for below
10 total – Suicide Press Ups – go slow, work on form

Lunge Set #1

Perform 10 repetitions and alternate legs for each exercise below.

Side lunges – Sweep arms low and side to side, like you are skating for speed.
Cross over lunges
Back lunges with lateral torso flexion

Plank Set – Alternate each leg

Knee to elbow
Knee to center
Knee to opposite elbow

Want some video guidance on Planks? Check this post out.

Butt Lifts- Backside Builders

10 repetitions of each exercise below – place your feet on a medicine ball or other unstable surface

Both feet on the ball
1 Leg raised, toe pointed toward sky
Both feet on the ball
Opposite leg raised, toe pointed toward sky

Lunge Set #2

Perform 10 repetitions and alternate legs for each exercise below.

Side Lunges, sweep arms low and side to side, like you are skating for speed.
Cross over lunges
Back Lunges with lateral torso flexion

Plank Holds

Hold for 30 seconds each exercise. Keep the belly button pulled toward the spine and the core tight to protect the low back. Take rest as needed.

Table Top
Elbow Hold
High Plank alternate leg lifts

Finish Strong

Words of Caution …

As always have fun living in your body today!

Metabolic Core

Ready to get your ab workout on. This one will exhaust your core and leave you feeling strong – ready for any challenges you might face.

Workout Basics and Warm Up

Making sure to get a weekend workout in is a great way to make sure your active rest days are not consecutive. Consecutive days off can make it harder to return to your focused workouts on Monday.

If you are unclear about a movement, look it up. There are lots of resources online that allow you to make sure you have good form. Always work up to adding weight or making a movement less stable. Good form comes first.

Metabolic Core

Do 2 sets of 15 reps for each exercise below. I have included video clips of each since the names alone can be confusing.

Egg Rolls
Ninja Get Up
Side Lying V Up
Prone Knee to Elbow (Wide)
Forward / Backward Crawl
Suicide Press Ups
Plank Toe Rolls – 1 set of 15 each
- Double Legs – 15 total
- Single Legs – 15 for each leg

Finish Strong

Words of Caution …

As always have a fun living in your body today!

Train for Your Game – Softball Workouts.

Smell the summer air, what goes great with summer? Softball! No matter what your summer sport, it is better to train prior to your game to maximize your strength, endurance, and skills.
Softball, like golf draws much of its power from rotational force. As you swing the bat your core strength determines how powerful you hit the ball. Once the ball is in flight, your body must use explosive speed to get you on base, ok, for some we wouldn’t put explosive and speed in the same sentence, but that is the idea.

Any softball workout program is enhanced by basic strength training.When we begin training we need to develop conditioning strength before beginning more specific activity. Once you’ve cleared your plans with your health care provider, start with basic strength training. Choose one to two exercises per muscle group and lift weight heavy enough to fatigue your muscles in eight to ten repetitions. Once you’ve built a base of strength you can begin adding activities specific to softball.

Core is important in this sport. All your power comes from your middle. You want to train these muscle groups in tri-planar movement, with overload. Translation: Move in many different directions and use something to add weight to your movement. It is important to have significant strength through the core before you add external weight, which is why you want base strength. Try using something to create an unstable surface to work from. For example: Using your bat begin with both feet flat on the floor, legs a little further than hip distance apart, knees bent. Begin gently swinging your bat side to side to warm up rotational muscles Next, try the same movement on a BOSU ball (a piece of equipment used for training on an unstable surface.), Finally, take the same movement and add weight to the bat. Notice the difference between the different movements. What happens to the abdominal muscles when asked to work on an unstable surface? Remember, you must be able to maintain good form. Once you can no longer maintain good form you know you’ve reach your limit and you must begin to build strength and endurance in those muscle groups before going further into the movement pattern.

To train the core in multi-planar movement get creative. What types of movement mimics the skills you will need during your game? Begin with these movements and then build on them. Try doing the movements on one foot or while shifting your weight from side to side. Keep the abdominals tight to protect your back and notice how these muscle groups work together. Think of ways to engage these muscle groups as a unit to effectively build your power.

Most of us not only need to hit the ball but we need to be able to get on base. Running the bases takes explosive speed. We go from standing still to moving quickly and then we stop as quickly as we started. This type of movement requires some training to keep injury at bay. Once, again a baseline of strength is necessary before tackling too much, and talk with your health care professional before beginning any exercise program. Set up a sprint course during your workout. Begin by walking for one to two minutes, warm-up and move with purpose; get your heart rate going, then all out run for thirty to forty-five seconds, recover while walking and then repeat. Parking lots are good for sprint courses; find a parking lot with empty slots and use the lines as your markers. You can develop different workouts to keep you interested. It is also important to cross train. Using other types of cardiovascular workouts (i.e. Different cardio machines, movements, or workout formats) use the sprint model to challenge your explosive speed. Cross training will keep you from over-training and you’ll be less likely to get injured or develop your speed without balance to your body.

Flexibility is incredibly important in this sport. If you work to develop strength without training flexibility you’ll end up with increased strength, but limited movement patterns due to limited range of motion. This sets you up for injury and you will not maximize your new strength or skills.

When training for softball this summer, think about the movements you do during your game, then mimic those during your workouts while adding challenge, by increasing your speed or weight while performing the movement. After developing your base strength through general strength training, pay extra attention to your core and get creative with movements in many directions, on unstable surfaces,followed with stretching after every workout. Swing batter, batter, Swing!

Learning To Balance

Balance is something many of us take for granted. Think about how you balance. Has anything ever taken away your balance? An injury or loss of hearing, sight, or a case of vertigo? Have you tried incorporating balance into your fitness training and noticed how much your core engages? Balance can be a great way to begin adding functional activity into your daily life.

Balance is learned. Many of us don’t remember learning because we were little when we learned to walk. If we can learn it, we can unlearn it, so we must keep doing it to keep our balance strong. Balance is done not only with the body, but the eyes and ears. If we lose a sense, we will have to adjust how we balance.
Start noticing when do you need to hold onto the railings, walls, things around you? Begin trying to hold on less. If you already have great balance begin incorporating unstable surfaces into your workouts, such as the BOSU, balance discs, and foam rollers.

Balance can be incorporated into many different movements, but my favorite way to teach balance is to have people brush their teeth while standing on one leg. Your body will adapt very quickly, as this is more a nervous system adaptation. Once you’ve got it on one leg move to your other. You may find you balance easier on one leg than the other. Each of us has a dominant side so it is normal to feel as though you are better at balancing or using one side or the other. By practicing balance on both sides of the body you are creating freedom to move.

More freedom in movement will translate into moving more, and you’ll be feeling great about your body’s ability to move. Once again, your body – absolutely amazing!