3 Exercises to Strengthen Core

Ever been told you have a weak core? In today's video, I'm going to show you 3 moves that you can do to strengthen your core and get rid of lower back stiffness for good. Hi, I'm Glenn Dawson with Reset U Fitness, and if you've been experiencing lower back issues, you've probably been told you have a weak core. That's not necessarily true. Most people that I see have a pretty strong core. The problem is their hips are out of alignment, and when those hips are out of alignment, it causes more shearing and pressure on the lower back. Imagine if this is how my hips were looking. Look at this. This lower back is already trashed. So the goal whenever you're doing core work isn't just to do sit-ups and crunches and planks. It's to do exercise like I'm going to show you that actually work from the knees to the shoulders and stabilize it all together. So here we go. First exercise we're going to do is a hip thrust or a single leg hip thrust if you can handle it. So how it works, you're going to put this bench here right at the bottom of your shoulder blades. Now I just stabilize myself by putting my arms out. If you want to use more of your core, put your hands in and you're going to thrust through your heels in this motion and thrust your hips up. Now you want to start and try to keep your shins as perpendicular to the floor as possible. So there's not a lot of movement forward and backwards for them. And then the goal would be to do a pause with this movement. So you'd come up, pause, hold, squeeze your glutes, turn your abs on, and then slowly lower back down. Now, if you're going to do the single leg variation of this, you kind of want to split your body and put all your weight on this one hip and this one leg. Press up, hold again, and then slowly lower. And this is working your glutes, your core all at the same time and putting basically everything in alignment to fire around your pelvis to prevent lower back pain. Now, if at any moment during this exercise you feel your lower back flare up, it means your glutes aren't activating. So either your position is off, you're you're not pushing through your heels, or your glutes have gotten so tired that they're no longer working. So back it down, no pun intended, and do less reps. All right, the next thing we're going to do is connect your shoulders, your knees, your hips, and your core all together without compromising your spine. So if you're doing like sit-ups, a lot of times you're going to round your spine when you're doing it. If we put our back flat and doesn't move, you can work your core without aggravating your spine or causing even more inflammation. So grab a ball. We're going to do dead bugs with the ball. This exercise will work without the ball, but with the ball, you get to squeeze it a little bit and activate your pelvic floor, which is actually really important for hip stability. Now, from here, I'm going to squeeze with all 4 pieces— hands, knees. All those 4 points of impact are going to be touching. So I'm going to press. And I'm going to let go with one hand and the other opposite foot. Extend, hold, and then bring it back in. As you're doing this, you're going to feel your core light up. If you start to feel it in your lower back again, stop. It means you started to extend too much in your lower spine or your abs have turned off. They're no longer working. Again, do this till failure and then release. Last but not least, power press walkouts. So from here, you're going to take your cable, your band, make sure that it's pulling away from you, and you're going to press straight out. Activate your core and hold. Now look at my knees. Notice how the knees are pushed out away from center. This is clutch because it means that my glutes out here are turned on. Now what we're going to do is a small walkout. So I'm going to take one step in, one step out, one step in, one step out, and then return and press back out. Now you don't have to get the timing and coordination down perfectly, but what we're doing here is we're activating your core through a sequence that would mirror an athletic movement. Like playing basketball and getting bumped, running and having someone bump into you in football, or just simply getting stimuli on your lower back from a different angle. Make sure you do both sides and keep your knees apart the whole time. Now that you have actual core moves and your hips are in alignment and everything's working from your shoulders to your knees, You should easily avoid lower back pain. If you don't, leave a comment. Let me know how else I can help you. And, you know, if you're wondering, Glenn, what can I do to help you? You've helped me so much. Click the subscribe link and share this with your friends. That's all I ask. Like tipping your waiter. Just do it because you're a good person. Thank you.