Life becomes easier with a well-toned core. Because, it will result in you having a better balance, posture, and stability. And your core consists of the muscles in and around your trunk. They altogether play a great role to support your spine and influence your overall fitness.
Best Beginner Friendly Core Exercises
If you are a beginner and want to put more focus on your core while working out, there are a lot of moves you can do all by yourself without much effort, or any equipment.
Let’s have a look at some moves that you can do as a beginner to strengthen your core.
Crunches
Crunches are typical and well known in the fitness world as one of the core exercises. Here what you will do is to lift your upper body muscle and it works well on your abs. But you need to be careful while doing crunches. As doing it incorrectly will result in adverse effects like back pain or neck pain.
Steps to follow:
- Lie down on your back. Fold your knees keeping both of your feet on the floor with the width of your hips. Put your head and spine in a straight line, and keep both of your arms crossed on your chest.
- Keep your core tight and your neck and shoulders relaxed. Lift your upper back while tucking in your chin and keeping your lower back pelvis and feet on the floor.
- Pause for a second and slowly come back to the initial position.
- Do 8-12 reps.
Planks
Planks involve your whole body, especially your core. It is great to strengthen your core as well as your arms, shoulders, back, pelvis, and legs. But you have to watch out for giving more pressure accidentally on your joints. It is better to have a mirror also to check whether you are doing it the right way.
Steps to follow:
- Lie down on your front while placing your elbows under your shoulders. Keep your forearms flat on the ground pointed forward.
- Keep your feet together and raise your core, keeping your body in a straight line.
- Ensure that you are not lifting the hips nor bending the knees.
- Try to remain in this position for about 20 seconds in the beginning. (You can gradually increase the time up to 1-2 minutes.)
Superman
This simple move is great to strengthen your lower back, erector spinae muscles, and glutes as well. Performing them will give good support to your spine and let you have a good posture.
Steps to follow:
- Lie down on your front, keeping both of your arms and legs extended.
- Lift your head, right arm, and left leg 10-15 cm off from the floor.
- Hold the position for 3 seconds and come back to the starting point.
- Repeat on the other side.
- Do 10 reps on each side.
Bridge
The bridge move will focus your lower back, hamstrings, abs, and glutes. Since it is not giving any pressure to your lower back, it can even be performed by those who have lower back pain too. Besides, it brings a lot of benefits that are similar to performing squats.
Steps to follow:
- Lie down on your back, folding your legs in 90 degrees, and putting your feet flat on the ground.
- Lift your back and hips off the ground, and keep them in a straight line from your shoulders to the knees.
- Hold this form for 5-10 seconds.
- Come back to the starting position
- Repeat 10-12 times.
Dead Bug
It is a safe and effective move to strengthen and stabilize your abs, spine, and back muscles. Doing it regularly will help you to prevent and relieve back pain, as well as improve your coordination, balance, and posture.
Steps to follow:
- Lie on your back.
- Lift your arms extended straight upwards while keeping your legs raised, knees bent and lower leg parallel to the floor.
- Bring down your right arm and left leg simultaneously until they are slightly above the ground.
- Return to the initial position
- Repeat on the other side.
- Do 10-14 reps on each side.
Training on your core is not just a matter of building six-packs, but it greatly benefits your overall strength. Once you can do the moves effortlessly as a beginner, you can move on to the next level with more advanced movies with the help of professional training. He will ensure that you are doing it precisely, without hurting your back.