The 5 Minute Core Workout
Our abdominal wall of muscles are critical to every day life. You really use your core in doing so many things like sitting up from a laying down position, picking up heavy items, walking, sitting, standing, running . . . you name it, your core has something to do with it.
Your "CORE" is made up of your abdominal muscles (also know as rectus abdominis) in the front of your stomach, you obliques which are the muscles along each side and your low back or your lumbar area. Studies show that strengthening your core can relieve lower back pain that people have experienced for years.
Let's do a little trunk warm up first then get into a 5 minute Workout you can do 3 to 4 times per week to strengthen that CORE.
Warm Up:
Plank Walk Out: Start from a standing position, bend at the hips and slight bend in the knees, take hands to the ground and walk them out to the end of your mat, stopping for a second in that high plank position, then walk them back and stand up. REPEAT this for 1 minute.
REST 15 seconds
Sit on the ground knees bent, leaning back slightly, twist slightly side to side for 30 seconds.
REST 15 seconds
REPEAT the side to side but get a little deeper into the twist.
REST 15 seconds
Repeat the walk out.
5 Minute Core Workout
1 minute of plank on your hands
REST 30 seconds
1 minute of side plank (30 seconds each side)
REST 30 seconds
1 minute of elbow plank
REST 30 seconds
1 minute of plank push up (in elbow plank, push up on right hand then left, back down on right elbow, then left elbow, repeat.)
REST 30 seconds
1 minute of walking plank (on hands, walk hands the length of you mat laterally and back for the whole minute)
If you can't hold the entire minute, time yourself and hold as long as you can. The next time try to beat that hold by 10 seconds until you work your way up to 1 minute.
Eventually, as you get stronger, you can decrease the rest to 15 seconds or take it out completely.