The importance of core stability (for everybody)
How can we strengthen the core muscles?
As I said before the function of the core muscles is to support our centre in order to develop efficient movement. This should be a constant in our daily life for dancers, athletes and indeed everyone.
It doesn’t make much sense to follow a regular training regime if afterwards we then go back slouching or swaying for the rest of the day! So we need to understand how to engage the core muscles and how to use them in our daily life.
We can start by walking in a more active way. By using our feet to roll away from the ground rather than sink in it, every step will help to engage the core muscles as well as the whole dorsal leg and gluteal muscles. MBT shoes are the optimal shoes to achieve this activity with each step.
A simple exercise which I use a lot is as follows:
- Stand with feet hip width and toes pointing to the front and imagine your feet are stuck in a cement block that you are desperate to get out of!
- Without moving or twisting your feet try to increasingly rotate your thighs outwards while keeping your knees unlocked.
- You should feel the arch of your feet lifting a bit (keep the ball of the big toe on the ground), tension in the inner thighs, buttocks and…lower abdominal. The upper body should be upright and the pelvis slightly tilted backwards so that the seat bones are pointing to the heels.
- Keep the tension for 6 seconds and relax. Repeat at least x10
- Once you feel familiar with this, shift the weight onto one foot only without side bending the upper body. Move the other leg or your arms or your upper body to challenge your balance.
- You can do this exercise when brushing your teeth, washing the dishes etc.
