Maintaining a strong core (the group of muscles in your trunk and torso) is of utmost importance to all of your efforts in the gym. They consist of more than just your abdominals, so doing sit-ups and crunches is not going to work your entire core and give you the benefits I’m talking about. To do this, you’ll need to incorporate a full core workout including the rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, hip flexors, and others! Here I’m going to discuss the benefits that having a strong core offers to your overall strength and conditioning program.

• By stabilizing the spine and pelvis, it allows you to stand up and walk around. These are the most basic benefits, but without them your movement and flexibility would be very limited because you wouldn’t be able to do much of anything.
• Helps to you transfer energy between body parts. This is crucial in weight lifting because you are always transferring energy, and this centers around your core. When you are bench pressing, if you have a strong core it makes the shift of weight easier when you are reversing the direction of the bar (from downwards to upwards).
• Stabilizes your body so you can exercise one side at a time. It’s a lot more difficult to do one arm dumbbell curls with 60 lb. weights if you cannot support your own bodyweight.
• Distributes the stresses of weight lifting throughout your body. The greatest benefit of this is that it protects your back. The lower back is one of the most often injured locations, so keeping it healthy should be of great importance to you. In compound exercises, where you are working several muscle groups at a time through multiple joints, you really need a strong core to help you distribute the weight.
• A set of strong and ripped abs and obliques to show off at the beach!

In my next post I’ll discuss best exercises for developing a strong set of core muscles, and how to incorporate them into your workout for maximum effectiveness.