Or rather, what exercises for core strength?

My back seems to be doing a lot of work lately and I feel like my core stability is not good. My abs are clearly slack so I was thinking sit-ups..

I have access to a gym though during the week and I was wondering if there'd be some other wizzo machine that is better, or is it just the traditional situps. And yes I've been taught to do them properly at gyms etc before 🙂

the Plank.
Link here

chin ups.

EDIT: sorry you want a wizzo machine? what about one of them muscle electrocuting things then you can stay on the sofa eating pizza and get a six pack in six weeks.

Strengthening your six pack muscles will do nothing for core stability. Get yourself a swiss ball and learn to sit in various positions on it, then kneeling, standing etc then build in dumbell exercises. It's good fun too.

Pilates or Yoga works well, even at only one session a week.

There is a lad at my gym who does sit ups on a swiss ball they are harder than he makes them look. Also legs raises and perhaps some kind of medicine ball exercise.

EDIT: sorry you want a wizzo machine?

No, I was asking if there WAS one. I don't necessarily WANT one!

The reason I thought about abs was that they feel slack whilst my back does all the work.. if that makes sense.

Sooballas – how exactly would chin ups work your core muscles?

as highclimber says…planks & side planks!

and sideways dumbell bends to work the obliques

i hate sit ups with a passion but happily do both of these.

Obi_Twa – Member
Strengthening your six pack muscles will do nothing for core stability. Get yourself a swiss ball and learn to sit in various positions on it, then kneeling, standing etc then build in dumbell exercises. It's good fun too.

Spot on, swiss balls are perfect for strengthening your core as every excercise you do on one works your core even if you are just doing something like flys, plus they are a convienant replacement for a bench and you can do specific core excercises on them like planks, side planks, sit ups on them target your core and there are many varients you can do on them and as above kneeling or standing on them will do wonders for your core. They are an essential peice of gym kit imo.

Iain

P90X

Anyone recomend a good swiss/medicien/excercise ball? The one I got from Argos was crap, however much pressure you put in, it just got bigger rather than firmer.

http://www.physioroom.com/catalog/Swiss_Balls_Gym_Balls/2028.html

it just got bigger rather than firmer.

<snigger>

Men's Health magazine has a bit of an abs obssesion. I assume the web site will have some advice

This is very good, but it will hurt. It's also mtb specific.

Misread "Rip my abs" and thought this was a thread on hot man love.

Obi, if you can do chin ups withour using your abs, I'd be impressed.

molgrips, if you want to have fun while you improve your core strenght, try rock climbing. Do you know if there's a wall near you?

Oooh.. me and rock climbing go way back.

Always did but petered out about age 25 ish – never could find anyone to go with.. plus had a fall and didn't get back on the horse at all, so started getting the fear.. combined with the mates I did manage to go out with being obsessed with leading and refusing to do any top roping.

But I think I could be quite desperate to get back into it. Although it's hard to get time out nowadays – spend enough time on the bike as it is away from the family.

If you are a member of a gym, why not try some of the classes they put on as many of them work on core exercises e.g. Body Balance. Plus you have the added benefit of loads of lovely young ladies in lycra 😉

It takes a while to get core strength from climbing, you first need to learn how to climb in such a way that it engages your core as the only angle that the core plays a major part is past 90deg. I'm not saying don't try it but it would be quicker to do some of the exercises suggested before taking up a new sport!

What r979 wrote – tho' a lot of Pilates is specifically aimed at core strength/stability and dealing with muscles imbalance (I suspect that happens more as a by-product of yoga, but I've never done enough to find out, so don't take my word for it…). A lot of the exercises don't actually use a large range of motion, so are safe to do if the muscles are a little weak already.

Traditional situps are potentially bad for your lower back and can put a lot of strain on it unless your core's already strong – not to mention they tend to use the hip flexors – I imagine all gym instructors nowadays would recommend you *don't* do them.
Plank/prone is good as a whole – make sure you 'zip up' your core muscles, particularly pulling your belly button back towards your spine*, that helps engage the deeper core muscles which support the spine (google for transvers abdominus ). In fact you can even just do that while waiting for the bus 😉

Crunches work the upper abs – ie at/near the top of the rib cage.
You also need to work your lower abs (reverse crunch) and pelvic floor.
(TBH if you're doing that lot there's other back stuff that ought to be thrown in…)

Ah, just (re)read this bit:
>And yes I've been taught to do them properly at gyms etc before
I'm curious, what exactly did they teach you ?

Core based Circuit sessions are good. As already mentioned, there's more to core strength than abs.

A few questions first:

What do you want stronger core muscles for? What have you done to make you feel your core stability isn't up to par?

If its for appearance purposes, a 6/8-pack is predominantly based on bodyfat percentage and you will gain little from excessive abdominal exercises.

Re swiss ball recommendations – this is gym-level standard
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001BZEEXM/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001BZC14G&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1R9B717YW2DMWWWT9QT7

(Ledragomma swiss/stability ball
http://en.ledragomma.com/web/swiss-ball/
– ignore the birthing ball nonsense)

– you ought to get one appropriate to your height, I'm about 5'10 and have the 65cm version.

If you do use one with dumbells, etc, remember to zip up/engage your core to stabilise everything, which is half the point of using one.

What do you want stronger core muscles for? What have you done to make you feel your core stability isn't up to par?

I feel.. well.. stiff and old, basically. Not on the bike, but when moving around sometimes, lifting stuff about, that kind of thing.

My belly does stick out a bit, which I could do without from a body image point of view too. Although there's only an inch or so of fat under the skin.

I reckon there's plenty of fat around my organs tho – when I lose weight my belly gets flatter without appearing to lose much subcutaneous fat, and without doing any sit-ups 🙂

A six pack is made in the kitchen.

I'm curious, what exactly did they teach you ?

When I signed up for a gym, they taught me to lie on my back lifting my hips slightly so that my lower back was flat, which is comfortable. Then I do 3×5 ten second bouts of lifting my shoulders as much as I can. So it's basically crunches I suppose. Then same again but with my legs up in the air, thrusting my pelvis upwards.

It's tough to do, but doesn't leave me with a hard-exercised feeling particularly.

As far as carry over to the real world, crunches are pretty high in bs.

If you're feeling stiff and old, maybe mobility drills are the way you should be going. If you want to improve your ability at lifting stuff then I'd suggest working the muscles that make up your posterior chain; hamstrings, glutes and back.

To improve your core stability or 'midline stabilisation' I'd go with exercises like planks and leg raises (from a dip or pull-up style hanging position).

Maybe going back to the climbing wall would be best eh?

>lifting my hips slightly so that my lower back was flat

Curious – I'd expect you'd do that for the second bit (which is a bit like a reverse curl), normally crunches are done with a neutral spine so that you get some tension in the middle section to hold everying still, whist you're working the upper abs (they're not bs, but only a part of a bunch of stuff worth doing).

>It's tough to do, but doesn't leave me with a hard-exercised feeling particularly.
Could try engaging the upper abs a little harder, or do more reps.

Leg raises – a bit extreme without having a decent amount of core strength already, I'd have thought.

>Maybe going back to the climbing wall would be best eh?
Downside is that it's not very targetted.

>If you want to improve your ability at lifting stuff then I'd suggest working the muscles that make up your posterior chain; hamstrings, glutes and back.

Kinda….but that comes back to his original point – he's been doing a lot of back work but thinks his core is weak – which it probably is without doing anything specific for it – you need balance between muscle groups, no sense in concentrating on one lot and ignoring everything, the whole lot needs to have some balance to it.

As mentioned, I'd get yerself along to Pilates short course in the gym (almost certainly they'll do 'em). Or a mebbe core stability class if they offer one.
Gym instructors are a bit variable tho' – there's one personal trainer in the gym I use that I overheard saying something like 'I did a Pilates course once but couldn't feel anything'. Fail…you engage your brain as well as your muscles, if you're not feeling anything either you probably don't understand what you're doing or you need the next 'level' up..but usually it's the former.

so that you get some tension in the middle section to hold everying still

I think that's what I meant. Flattening out my lower back a little bit. I have a big arse which sometimes makes it uncomfortable to lie on the floor.

Downside is that it's not very targetted.

Good fun tho, and also a great upper body workout which I also lack these days.

I also have always wanted to do some kind of martial art…

Good advice tho thanks folks.

crunches with rotation using a weight on your chest

5 seconds up, 5 seconds down

to exhaustion

2 x week

that will be all

obviously any muscle developed may be hidden under a layer of fat

Just to add to jond's comments:

tho' a lot of Pilates is specifically aimed at core strength/stability and dealing with muscles imbalance

True but it does seem highly dependent on the instructor. There seems to be several 'styles' people teach; some aimed more at the dancer, others for more remedial work.

What I find good about pilates, apart from the increase in strength and balance, is you learn how to use your core, rather than your back, to stabilise yourself. That's why this comment makes me shudder:

they feel slack whilst my back does all the work

As a cricketer I found it really help my bowling, both with speed and accuracy (without getting any lower back pain). And I feel it significantly improved my cycling: gates for BMX and general better feeling on the MTB.

There also tends to be a stretching component in there which is helpful for us cyclist who have horribly tight hamstrings.

obviously any muscle developed may be hidden under a layer of fat

Naturally 🙂 But this more about how I feel than how I look.

they feel slack whilst my back does all the work

I said that's how I felt not what was happening underneath the fat.

I improved my core stability by following this one weird rule….

Alternatively, if you're feeling old and stiff, try swimming. You can go as hard or as easy as you need / are in the mood for, and can really get that "good workout" feel without unduly stressing anything (apart from maybe your sinuses and your family's ability to tolerate the whole water-running-from-your-nose-at-the-table thing).

… or is that just me?

I've swum a fair bit lately.. not very satisfying and doesn't seem to help the stiff feeling. But thanks for calling 🙂

Nah I intend to swim also for calorie-burning reasons and in case I ever enter a triathlon.

You may benefit from watching this, there are lots of other clips by the same instructor and I have studied them carefully.

Best Abs – Hanging Leg Raise Exercise

currently studying my gym course: the following will give you a ripped stomach and abs.

Sit ups
Abdominal curls (1/3rd sit up)
Abdominal twists
Back extensions
Prone fly's
Burpee's

I would also suggest 5kg star jumps (5kg dumbbell in each hand)
Chin ups will work incredibly well.

For best results do reps of 20 and then move on, try to complete 3 sets of these in one go.

Good Luck

Ab Ripper X Part 1. Part 2 is out there somewhere.

Just every other day and it's doing me good. Can't see the 6(8?) pack yet, but that's cos I'm still eating like a relative slob. Under the padding, though, there are muscles that didn't use to be there.