Core Training???

I cannot count the times that I have been asked the question "When are we going to do abs?" My answer to this question is always: everyday. Think of every exercise that we do in the gym. There is not one that forces your "core" to do work. What is your core? It is all of the muscles in the center of your body in which all movements generate strength from. This is not limited to your abdominal muscles alone. It includes the muscles in and around your hips including your glutes, the muscles that hold your spine together and connect your spine and shoulders. We want a strong core because with a weak core, all movements become less strong. With weak core muscles comes susceptibility to injury and nobody wants that now do we. What I want all of you to do is think about what muscles you are working on each and every exercise. Consciously think about what is being engaged and if it not the right muscles to force yourself to engage them. On top of that contract your abdominals and the other major muscles on every exercise regardless of the movement. Do an experiment for me: Get yourself in a simple pillar (plank) position and hold it without consciously contracting anything. Where do you feel it? You will most likely feel your shoulders weaken and pressure on your lower back. Now do the same exercise but this time contract your abdominals by pulling your navel towards your spine, contract your glutes by squeezing your buns together, contract your hip flexors by shifting your hips forward without moving the rest of your body. Now keep your head forward and pull your shoulder blades together and contract your rhomboids and lats (the major muscles that hold your shoulder in place). Now what do you feel? You should feel your entire "core" working on one single exercise. If a pillar is done correctly and the position is held you should be able to get 5 minutes worth of work done in 45 seconds. That is what we are trying to accomplish on every single exercise: as much work as possible in as short amount of time as possible. When we force ourselves to recruit more muscles in the proper way we have a much more efficient workout. Very simple and easy put, the more work our muscles do the more calories we can burn and the more strength we can develop. So when you want to work your abs, just know what you are getting yourself into!