Core stability is different to core strength and in the tutorial above I'm going to use one exercise to help you understand how building core stability is done. It's not just about the exercise in this tutorial as there are many exercises you can use. I'm going to focus on the how to do the exercise so you can take that into other exercises.

What is core strength?

Core strength is your ability to hold a posture while resisting fatigue. The longer your can hold the posture the better your core strength. Exercises you can use to improve this could be planks and side planks.

What is core stability?

Core stability is about muscle activation and your ability to remain stable in an unstable posture. The less you wobble in this unstable posture the better your core stability. The exercise I'm using in this tutorial to demonstrate core stability is the bird dog. It's a perfect exercise for core stability because it integrates the shoulder, spine and hip.

Does standing on one leg help core...

I’m sure you often hear people use the phrases core stability and core strength, but are you clear on what they actually mean and how they differ from one another? In this tutorial I discuss stabilising and strengthening muscles and how to make sure you’re doing the right exercises to get the right results.

 What is the difference between core strength and core stability?

 Core strength is the ability to hold a position or posture for a period of time and / or against a load.

Core stability is more about coordination and balance. It’s the extent to which we can exert control over our core muscles, engaging them or switching them on and off as necessary to support our movements.

 As you can see from this, the two are complementary but not the same, so it makes sense that we would concentrate on different exercises and movements to develop each one.

Exercises for core stability

Exercises that build up core stability focus on the small muscles, those around joints such as your hips,...

When you want to exercise your abdominals or core, it’s common to turn to sit ups, crunches and twists. After all, these are the exercises we’ve all been taught for years. And yes, perhaps you’ll see some benefits, providing you’re doing them correctly. But there is a trade-off – sit ups, crunches and twists can actually cause damage to your spine. 

There is a better way, however, and in this tutorial I show you how. 

What’s the problem with sit ups, crunches and twists?

There has been a tendency in the fitness industry over recent years to focus on body building techniques for core training, and even for rehabilitation. That is focusing on muscles individually and working them hard to strengthen them. But this is not how our bodies are design to work. We don’t use one muscle at a time, we use combinations of muscles to perform particular movements. This means that when we isolate a group of muscles to train them, we are in danger of using them in a way they were not intended, and i...

Your glutes are the big muscles of your hip, bottom and lower back - they’re the ones
you feel when you do a deep squat. And they are really important when it comes to
keeping your spine healthy. When working to their full potential, your glutes can
carry a lot of the load that would otherwise fall to your lower back meaning less risk
of injury to your spine or damage to the smaller back muscles.

The relationship between glutes and back pain
By making sure your glutes are working hard you can reduce stress and tension on
your lower back.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? It’s not necessarily!
Many people have something called gluteal amnesia meaning the glutes shut off
allowing other muscles to do all the work instead. This means that your spine may
not getting the protection it needs from the surrounding muscles day to day as you
move around. But worse than this, for many people, even when they are using the
correct exercise to build core strength and stability and reduce back pain, if the
glutes are no...

Your low back

 There are two main parts to your low back, your pelvis and spine. The aim of Exercise for low back pain is to protect your spine using your muscles, tendons and fascia. To protect it they should stiffen, creating a structure to hold it in place. The better is can stiffen the more protection your muscles, tendons and fascia can offer.

Your muscles, tendons and fascia

 Your core muscles are the ones that protect your spine, tendons attach your muscles to bone and fascia hold all your muscles in position. Your core muscles should all work together, so exercises that try to isolate single muscles (like sit-ups and crunches) don’t protect your spine.

 Your Core

 It’s one unit and the sum of your muscles, tendons and fascia. If you can learn to activate all the muscles of your core you’ll increase the protection around your spine. One such way to activate all this muscles is described in the tutorial above.

A six-pack is made visible by a low body fat percent; tight abdominal muscles come from a different method.  Your core muscles tighten when you can activate your entire core musculature.

The best exercises are ones that activate many core muscles. Popular exercises like sit-ups and crunches don’t make the grade, because they focus on single muscles and increases wear and tear on the spine. These best exercises are planks and side planks, because they activate your whole core.

If you are able to hold and plank or side plank for 1-minute or over I suggest adapting the exercise by lifting an arm (the plank) or leg (side plank). As you lift and arm or leg your focus is to keep centered hips.

What to look out for during the plank and arm raise

• Do your hips shift to the left or right?
• Do your hips rotate to the left or right?

What to look out for during the side plank and leg raise

• Do your hips drop?
• Do your shoulders roll forward?

If you happen to do any of these it doesn’t...

Core strength is considered an important part of physical health and fitness. It’s the foundation, as you are only as strong as your core. You may have seen many people lifting heavy weights but in many cases their core isn’t strong enough and eventually they’ll injure. They can lift these weights because they have very strong arm and legs but their core is left behind. This leaves them with a weaker foundation and a higher risk of injury.

In the tutorial above you’ll learn how to build a stronger core that’s healthier and fitter. You’ll learn this from 4 main points:

1. Definition of core strength
2. Simple anatomy of your core
3. Exercise for your core
4. Why is it important? 

Definition of core strength

It’s important to learn the definition of core strength because it helps you understand what exercises to do and how to do them.

Simple anatomy of your core

There are a few fundamentals that add to the definition. It’s the next layer of information you need to help you do the rig...

If you enjoy health and fitness, you might have come across the terms ‘Core Strength’ and ‘Core Stability’. In general, many people might be under an impression that both the Core Strength Stability means the same. It is no surprise if someone uses these words interchangeably. Therefore, missing the subtle difference between the two terms.

Core Strength

Kraemer and Knuttgen define the term ‘strength’ as the force a muscle or a group of muscles can generate in a specified movement pattern. Therefore, a person who is able to produce a better movement has more ‘core strength.’

It’s appropriate to refer to the core strength as core endurance. This includes the time you are able to hold in that movement pattern i.e. duration of the position. If you are able to perform the same task repeatedly over a period od time or a day, you have more core strength for a specific task. If you are able to resist fatigue, you will be recognized as having more core strength, but not necessarily core stab...