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It’s important to incorporate core strengthening exercises in your workout routine. The more you work on your core muscles, the better it is for your overall physique. Moreover, a strong set of core muscles help with balance and stability, and provide support during compound and CrossFit exercises.
As a beginner, you should incorporate core strengthening exercises into your workout routine, especially the basic ones. That will enable you to understand how to engage your core muscles during the workout and which muscles should be used.
Best Core Strengthening Exercises for Beginners
There are several core exercises you can do as a beginner, but it’s important to start with the ones that help with building your foundation. On that note, here's a look at six best core-strengthening exercises for beginners:
1) Sit-up
Sit-ups are an extremely important exercise for the ab muscles. When doing sit-ups, keep your hand behind your head. Ensure that you’re pulling your upper body towards your knees using your core muscles and not pushing your head using your hand.
Moreover, if you have your arms in front of you, do not use the arm or body’s momentum to do the exercise.
Here’s a guide on how to do sit-ups.
2) Bicycle
Bicycles are another common core strengthening exercise. One of the biggest benefits of this workout is that it helps you work one side at a time, but in the same set.
It means you can have a continuous motion while engaging both sides of your core muscles with equal intensity. That can help fix any strength or muscle imbalance in your core muscles.
Like sit-ups, use the core muscles to hold your upper and lower body together instead of pushing your torso using your hands.
3) Side Bending
When you’re doing core exercises, you need to work on your sides as well. It’s imperative that all parts of a muscle group are paid attention to. Only then you will understand how your core muscles develop.
You can do side bending using dumbbells or cables, depending on what you’re comfortable with. The only aspect in side bending is that you need to bend towards the side you’re holding the weight, and pull yourself back up using the opposite side’s side muscles.
4) Oblique Crunch
Staying on the topic of side muscles, another core strengthening exercise that help with the same are oblique crunches.
To do this exercise, lie on the floor with your legs folded from your knees. Put one hand on the side and the other behind your head, and pull yourself towards the side where your arm is on the floor.
Ensure that you’re using your core muscles to pull instead of pushing your head or body with your hand.
5) Leg Lift
When you’re doing core muscle exercises, the legs play an important role as well. The lower part of the core muscles are used in leg exercises. So, it’s important to do exercises that strengthen these muscles.
Leg lifts are a great exercise for this purpose. To do leg lifts, either lie on the floor, or sit on a bench. Lift your legs while engaging your abdominal muscles and keeping your back straight. Hold the position for a second or two before lowering your legs.
6) Plank
If you can only do one core strengthening exercise, it should be planks. It works on your entire core and helps develop massive strength in the region.
Ideally, you should hold the planks for as long as you can without cramping yourself. However, it’s best to start with a comfortable time span before moving to a longer one.
Bottom Line
Core strengthening exercises are a must, just like it’s important to work on every muscle group.
When you train the core muscles, it’s best to not overexert yourself. An extremely fatigued set of core muscles can lead to problems, such as cramps. Finally, constant hydration reduces the chances of cramps when you do core strengthening exercises.
