Good Lifestyle

When building a home, you do not start with landscaping. You pour footing feet and put a base, the structural anchor of the American dream. The same principle applies to kinesiology, the science of muscle movement. The footer in the human body is the core, a strip of muscles that covers the hips, the abdominals, the back and the shoulders. Each move you do - sex to swing a golf club calls this support system at stake.

Funny thing about this critical muscle group: most men do not know it, says the physiologist Mark verstegen, president of the performance of athletes in Arizona and author ofBasic performance. He knows that most men take the approach of vanity to exercise, lead to muscles in arms, legs and chest. "That's good if you want your body to show," he says. "But the average third must be integrated, because it is the hub. If it is not composed in, things will break down."

Your basic network is composed of muscles that allow you to access a book without folding at the waist, open a door without turning back and bend to pick up a basketball without diving back to the yard. It stabilizes the movements of everyday life. It is also where all the movement begins.

Whenever your arms leave your sides or your legs bend on the knees, the muscle of the transverse abdominia is triggered in action. Once activated, it works in concert with the rest of your basic muscles to stabilize your hips, anchor the movements of your ends and efficiently transfer energy throughout the body.

Save your back

Being able to transfer energy efficiently to your members is particularly important if you play sports. Consider a sprinter as usain Bolt. As he runs, his torso hardly moves. Without granite core, Jamaican would not be the fastest man in the world. The pumping of his arms and the conduct of his legs would create a rotational force in his median, causing the energy to "flee" his system. This instability would not only slow down, but also wreak havoc on its joints. "Sooner or later, something would break," says Verstegen. That something is usually lower back.

The majority of all back pain can be attributed to weak core muscles, according to the surgeon in the column in the column, Richard Guyer, Mr.D., Defector of Texas Back Institute. "These are your hip flexors, hip expanders, rear extensors, abdominals and obliques that stabilize the spine," he says. "A weak link will affect all others."

Rethink

Develop a stronger core begins by redefining the situation. The traditional crunch focuses on the abdominals, resulting in mobilizing. What you want is an armada of stabilizers that wave from your hips to your shoulders. So, a perfect "situ" is a "situp" that challenges your stability and requires you to hang against gravity. The following exercises do exactly that. Use them to improve the posture, incur less injury and generate a higher total body power.

The main training

Crunch of the Swiss bullet

What he does: creates total stability of the heart and emphasizes your abs how to do it on a Swiss bullet with your feet flat on the floor and your back arched along the balloon curve. (Try to do your buttocks, your back and your shoulders touch the ball so your abs
are completely stretched.) With your fingers that touch your ears slightly, crunch from the top of your torso, roll your chest and hips by pulling in your navel. Hold for 1 second, then lower your hips and chest to the starting position. For further difficulty, keep a weight of 5-, 10- or 25 pounds behind your head while you exercise.

Taking verstegen: "The best exercise of ab cracker there."

Pillar bridge

What he does: strengthen the shoulder muscles, core and hip, and the smallest stabilizing conditions that support them

How to do it: lie face to face with your forearms resting on the floor and your elbows folded under your shoulders about 90 degrees. Push yourself on your elbows and support your weight on them and your toes. Store your chin so that your head is online with your back and pull your toes to your tibias. Hold for 30 seconds, relax and repeat. For more difficulty, lift an arm or leg, hold for 2 seconds, then move the arms or legs. When you are good at that, try to lift both your right arm and the left leg, then switch, lifting your left arm and your right leg.

Taking verstegen: "This is incredibly simple to do, but still extremely difficult."

Gluet deck

What he does: Works your glutaux muscles, improves the stability of your hips and protects your back

How to do it: Lie on the back with the curved knees 90 degrees and the fleet flat on the floor. Tap a rolled towel or a bullet between your knees. While tightening your abdominals, lift your hips toward the ceiling pulling your glutes, creating a straight line of the knee on the shoulder. Keep a few seconds, then lower your hips until they almost touch the ground. Repeat. Once you have mastered it, eliminate the towel and try "walk" in place by lifting one leg at a time.

Verstegen's Take: "The more you will learn how to use your hips and glutes, the more you protect yourself from the back of the back and improve the performance [athletic]."