Suppose that at a distance you see a short, stooped figure shuffling with short, slow steps. Most likely, you will conclude that the person is old. The hunched posture gives you the clue. Why does aging contort our bodies this way?
Well, one reason is that throughout their lives, many people never extend their neck to its’ full range. As a consequence, the muscles shorten. Long hours of reading, typing, standing at a workbench, or constantly answering smartphones take their toll. Eventually, deposits of calcium salts in the joints complete the process of immobilization. Unfortunately, once this calcification takes place, nothing can be done to reverse it.
Fortunately, we can take preventative action before it’s too late. The best protection is regular exercise that stretches the muscles and improves flexibility, with special consideration of the abdominal and core muscles. Working your core is vitally important for a number of factors that, when taken for granted, will eventually lead to serious health problems.
Core Muscles Aren’t Just Abs
The core muscles include those found at the obliques, abdominals, lower back, and the glutes. These four areas of the body are what usually frame the posture. Hence, a good posture usually reflects the good condition of these muscle areas. The core muscles are actually the structural center responsible for the strength needed to perform different physical movements. This means that if the core muscles are physically powerful, they will maintain body equilibrium and will stabilize the system while working out and moving.
Strengthening Core Muscles
The primary responsibility of the core muscles are to provide enough stabilizing power to enable the body to cope with the dynamic challenges of physical activity. For this reason, many health and fitness experts have realized that it is vitally important to strengthen the core muscles greater than the other muscles in the body. Through experiments and research, they have found that having a stronger core may lessen many health problems concerning posture.
For instance, while well-conditioned core muscles can project good posture, they can also improve the endurance of the back muscles throughout the day. Muscles included in the group of core muscles are actually responsible for initiating proper connection and stabilization of the whole upper and lower torso. So, to understand why working your core muscles, here is a list of some benefits to use as references:
Posture
Working your core muscles will improve posture and help prevent low back pain of muscular origin. This means that as you incorporate stretching exercises in your routine, particularly focusing on the muscles of the upper and front part of the trunk, including the abdominal and trunk muscles, the activity has the tendency to strengthen the muscles of the back that extend to the spine.
Improved Strength & Recovery
It helps tone the muscles and reduce muscle soreness, thereby, avoiding further back injury. Exercising your core muscles will strengthen and tone your lower back muscles and buttocks while stretching the hip flexors and the muscles on the front of the thighs. This strengthening will help protect you from future serious lower back injury.
Physical Performance Benefits
Strengthening your core improves physical performance. Working the core muscles while incorporating slow, static stretching is effective in relieving stiffness and enhances flexibility. Once a persons’ flexibility has improved, it follows that they will be able to perform physical activities with more fluidity and range of motion.
Reduced Soreness
Static stretching does not cause sore aching muscles. Static stretching for core muscles is best for the muscles and connective tissues. Because it employs slow stretches only, it will not cause any soreness, as do the quick, bouncing exercises that rely on ballistic muscle contractions.
Improved Balance
Lengthening muscles helps avoid unbalanced footing as you age. Core muscle exercises lengthen the muscles that might have contracted as a result of pain, injury, or misuse. Stretching may also prevent pain from vigorous exercise if it is included at the end of each workout.
Health and fitness experts highly recommend starting core work immediately and repeating the routine at least 2 times a week. The process can be performed after your usual workout for about 10 to 20 minutes only. Indeed, core muscles are absolutely essential in determining the good body posture. Strengthening them can absolutely address those nuisances of back pain.
