For a long time, I was making a ton of mistakes training my core. Of course, I didn’t know it then.
Now I laugh when I reflect back on my early twenties when I believed that I had it all figured out. Sit-ups were “bad,” while all varieties of crunches were “superior”. There was still so much that I didn’t know that I didn’t know.
Well, that was over two decades ago. And in that time, I was hungry for more knowledge. Since then I’ve learned more and more about what I was doing wrong and how to fix it.
I quickly became humbled when I studied under some of the brightest minds in exercise science. What made their perspective unique was the experience they had as physical therapists. They saw many preventable athletic injuries caused by poor core function. These PT’s understood the deficiencies and how to correct them. And they developed the core exercise progressions used in today’s physical rehabilitation process.
Luckily, they shared this knowledge with the strength coach community. Now I use it to improve performance and prevent injuries with the pros I train.
Many of them were making the same mistakes with their core training that I once made.
Here are the top 10 ways to do it wrong:
- Using poor breathing mechanics
- Having poor posture and body positioning during any and all exercise
- Pushing the belly out instead of drawing it in
- Adopting sit-ups and crunches as the primary core exercises
- Using repetitive movements
- Skipping steps by trying advanced core exercises before you’re ready
- Using “abdominal” machines to strengthen the core
- Fixating on the myth of six-pack abs solely from exercise
- Not implementing corrective core exercises to improve imbalances and deficiencies
- Going through the motions without focus
Since I’ve gained an awareness of what I was doing wrong and how to fix it, my core has never been stronger.
So take an honest look at how you train your core. You may realize that there’s one or more mistakes you’re making in your own training.
Stay tuned for some simple tips as I expand on each mistake made and how to fix it. They’re guaranteed to improve your results and keep you from getting hurt.
You can find many of my go-to core training exercises in my 30-Day Get Lean Challenge. Get yours here.
Power to your core.
Adam