Weight lifting & strength building 9781422231562, 1422231569, 9781422231654, 1422231658

Table of contents :
Title Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: What Are Core Workouts?
Chapter Two: The Benefits of Core Workouts
Chapter Three: Core Workout Equipment and Safety
Chapter Four: Making a Plan to Strengthen Your Core
Find Out More
Series Glossary of Key Terms
Index
About the Author and the Consultant and Picture Credits
Blank Page

Citation preview

Core Workouts

An Integrated Life of Fitness Core Workouts Cross-Training Eating Right & Additional Supplements for Fitness Endurance & Cardio Training Exercise for Physical & Mental Health Flexibility & Agility Sports & Fitness Step Aerobics & Aerobic Dance Weightlifting & Strength Building Yoga & Pilates

An Integrated Life of Fitness

Core Workouts Z.B. HILL

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America. First printing 987654321 Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3156-2 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4222-3157-9 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3195-1 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8695-1 Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress.

CONTENTS Introduction 6 1. What Are Core Workouts? 9 2. The Benefits of Core Workouts 23 3. Core Workout Equipment & Safety 35 4. Making a Plan to Strengthen Your Core 47 Find Out More 58 Series Glossary of Key Terms 60 Index 62 About the Author and the Consultant & Picture Credits 64

INTRODUCTION Choosing fitness as a priority in your life is one of the smartest decisions you can make! This series of books will give you the tools you need to understand how your decisions about eating, sleeping, and physical activity can affect your health now and in the future. And speaking of the future: YOU are the future of our world. We who are older are depending on you to build something wonderful— and we, as lifelong advocates of good nutrition and physical activity, want the best for you throughout your whole life. Our hope in these books is to support and guide you to instill healthy behaviors beginning today. You are in a unique position to adopt healthy habits that will guide you toward better health right now and avoid health-related problems as an adult. You have the power of choice today. We recognize that it’s a very busy world filled with overwhelming choices that sometimes get in the way of you making wise decisions when choosing food or in being active. But no previous training or skills are needed to put this material into practice right away. We want you to have fun and build your confidence as you read these books. Your self-esteem will increase. LEARN, EXPLORE, and DISCOVER, using the books as your very own personal guide. A tremendous amount of research over the past thirty years has proven that the quality of your health and life will depend on the decisions you make today that affect your body, mind, and inner self. You are an individual, liking different foods, doing different things, having different interests, and growing up in different families. But you are not alone as you face these vital decisions in your life. Those of us in the fitness professions are working hard to get healthier foods into your schools; to make sure you have an opportunity to be physically active on a regular basis; to ensure that walking and biking are encouraged in your communities; and to build communities where healthy, affordable foods can be purchased close to home. We’re doing all we can to support you. We’ve got your back!

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Moving step by step to healthier eating habits and increasing physical activity requires change. Change happens in small steps, so be patient with yourself. Change takes time. But get started now. Lead an “action-packed” life! Your whole body will thank you by becoming stronger and healthier. You can look and do your best. You’ll feel good. You’ll have more energy. You’ll reap the benefits of smart lifestyle choices for a healthier future so you can achieve what’s important to you. Choose to become the best you can be! —Diana H. Hart, President National Association for Health and Fitness

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Words to Understand capacity: The maximum amount something can handle. repetitive: Done over and over again. duration: The length of time that something lasts.

Chapter One

W hat A re C ore W orkouts ?

Y

ou can do exercises for just about every part of your body. You can lift weights to strengthen your shoulders. You can run to get strong legs. You can even do stretches to keep your hands and feet healthy and flexible. What about the middle part of your body? That part of the body is called the torso. It’s the core of your body. The core is pretty much anything that isn’t your head, arms, or legs. Core means inner, or center. Think of the core of an apple or the core of the Earth. Cores provide

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Inside your torso—your core—are most of your body’s important organs.

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Core Workouts

Make Connections: Core Muscles Here are some of the main muscles that make up your core: • Transverse abdominals: Stomach muscles deep within the core. Abdominals connect the upper part of the core to the lower part. They also help you twist at the waist, and protect organs. • Obliques: Muscles that are located at the waist. They connect up and down the rib cage to help you twist and bend. There are some oblique muscles closer to the surface and some buried deeper. • Erector spinae: Tiny back muscles that are located up and down the spine. They help you stand up straight, twist, and bend. Many people have weak erector spinae muscles and end up with back pain. • Rectus abdominis: This is the muscle we think of as the “six pack” or abs. It is basically like two sheets of muscle running from the bottom of the chest to the lower abdomen. The rectus abdominis helps with breathing and contributes to bending.

stability. Other things are built around their cores. If you didn’t have a core, you’d just be a pile of arms and legs! Many exercises target the chest, stomach, and back, which all make up the torso, the core. Strengthening your core and keeping it healthy has a lot of benefits, plus core exercises can be fun.

YOUR CORE PARTS Your core contains most of your organs, like the stomach, heart, lungs, liver, and many more. Vital functions like breathing, digestion, and pumping blood happen in the core. Your organs and their functions are protected by muscles and by your ribs and spine.

What Are Core Workouts?

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Some of the body’s core muscles are shown here, including the muscles we usually call the abs. These muscles are important for breathing and for bending and lifting.

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Core Workouts

Core workouts, however, focus on the muscles in this part of your body, rather than the organs, bones, or other body systems. Core exercises strengthen the core muscles. You use those core muscles every day, to bend over, to stand back up, to open the refrigerator, to get out of a chair. Most everyday movements involve the core to some extent.

WHAT DOES EXERCISE DO, ANYWAY? We all know that exercise is good for us (even if we don’t exercise), but what’s less clear is what actually happens during exercise. When you move more, several things happen to the body. First, the lungs start taking in more oxygen, so breathing gets faster and deeper. Over time, exercise builds up lung capacity and the ability to take in oxygen. The heart also starts to beat faster and pump more blood. The muscles that are actually doing the exercise need more oxygen, so the lungs and heart work together to bring that oxygen to muscles throughout the body. The actual muscles doing the exercise work are moving more. They’re using up substances called glucose (basically sugar) and ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Glucose and ATP store and bring energy to muscles when they need it, so both get used up during exercise. The body needs oxygen to make more ATP when levels get low. Your bones and joints are also involved in exercise. When you’re exercising, you put a lot more pressure on your bones than you normally do. You also put pressure on your joints, where your bones are connected to each other with tissue such as tendons and ligaments. The increased pressure builds up strength over time. When you’re exercising regularly, you may notice that you’re happier and can think better afterward. The increased blood flow in the body also reaches the brain, which helps it work better overall. The brain then releases chemicals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters regulate our emotions. Exercise releases neurotransmitters called dopamine, serotonin, and more, which go along with positive emotions. That’s why exercise can improve your mood and help you feel better

What Are Core Workouts?

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Exercise doesn’t just make your muscles stronger. It also makes your circulatory system, shown here, work more efficiently. The heart pumps blood carrying oxygen and nutrients through the arteries, which carry it to every part of your body, including your brain. Exercise means that blood can reach all your body parts better—which makes them function better as well.

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Make Connections Core exercises can help keep your entire body strong. Core muscles and bones are connected to other parts of your body—your arms, legs, and neck. By strengthening your core muscles, you’re also doing a lot to help these other parts of the body as well. The best core workouts involve these other muscles that connect to the core muscles. You wouldn’t want to have a strong core and very weak legs!

about whatever is bothering you. Exercise even leads to the formation of new brain cells! Core exercises in particular target the muscles and bones in your torso. They make your muscles stronger and more stable, and keep your bones strong as well. Like all exercises, they also affect your lungs and heart, keeping both healthy. Core exercises are some of the most important activities you can do!

FROM EXERCISE TO WORKOUT Core exercises are a little different from core workouts. Exercises are structured sets of repetitive movements. Exercises target particular muscles to make them stronger. Doing five sets of ten crunches is an example of a core exercise. Workouts are combinations of various exercises. Instead of just doing crunches, a person doing a core workout would include other core exercises like holding a plank pose, or balancing on a medicine ball. Altogether, the exercises make up a whole workout. You could do one exercise for the whole duration of a workout, but you’d probably get pretty bored. Also, it’s not always healthy to do one movement over and over again, because you might injure whatever particular muscles you’re working on. You’re better off combining several exercises into a workout, so you’re strengthening multiple core muscles

What Are Core Workouts?

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Doing a certain number of crunches could be part of a core workout.

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Core Workouts

and avoiding injury. Plus, workouts are more interesting because you’re varying your movements. Core strength exercises can also be part of a workout that focuses on other parts of the body as well. Someone who is looking to increase overall strength may choose to also include exercises that strengthen arms, neck, and legs as well as the core. Workouts don’t have to be entirely about the core, but they can be if that’s what you want to focus on.

SOME CORE CHOICES When it comes to core workouts, there are a lot of choices. You can choose workouts that use special equipment, or workouts that use no equipment at all. You can work out your core in a group with other people or exercise alone. You could go to a gym or stay at home. Before staring out with core workouts, you should practice a technique called “drawing in,” or “bracing.” Start by sitting or standing and tightening the abdominal muscles. Imagine you are drawing your belly button back toward your spine. Tuck your tailbone in slightly to support your lower body. Then hold this position for about ten seconds. Be sure you’re still breathing! Then let go and shake out and practice again. By doing all this, you’re preparing your body for a better core workout. You could even do this exercise while sitting on the bus or in class, and no one will ever know! Once you’re ready for some exercises, you have many choices. Here are just a few individual exercises you can do: • Dead bug. This move imitates a dead bug, but you’ll definitely be moving a lot more than a dead bug would! Lie on your back with your knees bent but with your feet flat on the floor and your arms at your side. Lift your right knee toward your chest and bring your right arm toward the sky at the same time. Then slowly bring both your foot and your arm back down. Repeat a few times, then switch to the left side. You could also try lifting your opposite knee and hand at the same time (right knee and left arm).

What Are Core Workouts?

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Holding the plank position is a good way to strengthen core muscles.

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Core Workouts

• Plank. Lie face down on the floor, then get up on your elbows with your forearms flat on the floor. Your toes should curl under to lift your feet off the ground. See how long you can stay in the plank position. When you get strong enough to hold it for a minute, stretch your arms out to full length so you’re resting on your hands instead of your elbows. Finally, when you get good at that, do a plank lifting one leg at a time for a minute each. • Sit-ups. A good sit-up is done slowly, so your core muscles really work hard. Lie on your back on the floor with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent. Cross your arms on your chest or behind your head, and make sure they stay there. Using your core muscles, lift your top half off the floor, bringing your shoulders toward your knees. Then lower yourself slowly back down, using your muscles rather than letting gravity let you fall back to the floor. • Bridge. Lie flat on your back on the floor with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Have your arms against your sides on the floor too. Tighten your abdominal muscles and arch your hips and back away from the floor while keeping your arms on the ground. Your upper back and neck will still be on the floor, but your hips and lower back will not. Try to make a straight diagonal line from your shoulders through your hips to your knees. Hold for a few seconds and bring yourself gently back to the floor before lifting up again.

CORE ROUTINES Some types of exercises are especially great for your core. Pilates and yoga are two kinds of routines that will help build strength in the core muscles Pilates is a physical fitness system that was invented in the 1900s by a man named Joseph Pilates. Part of the purpose of Pilates is to build a stronger core, along with increasing flexibility, endurance, and balance. Since the early 1900s, millions of people around the world have discovered Pilates and started practicing it.

What Are Core Workouts?

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Research Project Find some more core exercises online. You should be able to find full descriptions of several different exercises, including photos, drawings, and videos. Search for a few that you think look fun and would work for you. Bookmark the websites you find or write down the exercises so that you can put them together into a core workout. Next, do the exercises for a month. Keep a journal recording how long you exercise and exactly what you do. Record in your journal any differences you notice in your body. At the end of the month, make a decision about whether you want to continue the exercises and why.

Pilates classes are taught by instructors and can be found in gyms, private studios, community education centers, and schools. You can also find Pilates classes online or on DVDs, so you could work out at home while watching a video. Some people like working out alone at home while others need the company of a class. Some Pilates classes use special equipment, and some just need a floor mat. Pilates is popular. People like the variation in movement Pilates offers. You’re not just doing repetitions of the same exercises over and over again. Pilates also includes a focus on what’s going on in the brain during exercise. Teachers tell their students to concentrate on breathing and their muscle movements. Yoga is another exercise method, though it is good for a lot more than just core workouts. Yoga unites the body and mind, and was first practiced in ancient India. Today, people use yoga both as a spiritual practice—a way to calm the mind and achieve peace—and as exercise. There are many different styles of yoga. Some are slower and more meditative, like yin yoga or restorative yoga. Other styles are more

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Core Workouts

Text-Dependent Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What part of your body contains the core muscles? What happens to your muscles during exercise? How are workouts different from exercises? Describe how to do a good sit-up. What are two types of workouts that are good for your core?

active and involve a lot of movement, such as vinyasa yoga. The more active styles are better for core workouts in general. Some specific yoga poses are great for your core. Plank pose is often a part of yoga practice. Boat pose is another one. In boat pose, you will balance on your sitting bones and tailbone while lifting up your legs and arms. The only thing you’re using to lift them up and keep them lifted are your core muscles! Kettlebell workouts are another core workout choice. Kettlebells are basically like bowling balls made out of iron, with a handle to replace the finger holes. Some are smaller and lighter and some are larger and heavier. The fact that kettlebells weigh so much more than regular balls means you can’t just use your arm muscles to lift and move them—you also have to use your core muscles.

BOTTOM LINE Core workouts are great for many reasons. If you’re interested in physical fitness—and you should be!—core workouts should be part of your weekly exercise routine. You’ll soon see the benefits of core workouts.

What Are Core Workouts?

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Words to Understand sedentary: Not moving very much. society: People living together in an organized way. chronic: Lasting a long time. physical therapists: People who help others recover from

disease or injury through exercise, massage, and other treatments other than medicine and surgery.

Chapter Two

The Benefits of Core Workouts

B

eing fit involves several things—and it also has several benefits. When core workouts are a part of your routine, you’ll start to see these.

PHYSICAL FITNESS Core workouts are part of general physical fitness. People who are physically fit can move around easily in everyday life. They don’t have

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Exercise doesn’t have to be sit-ups and jumping jacks. If you do a lot of physical work—like mowing lawns—you may be getting plenty of exercise. By strengthening your central muscles, however, core workouts could make your work a little easier.

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Core Workouts

trouble with everyday activities like climbing the stairs or walking a couple miles. Of course, some people take physical fitness even farther. They run marathons, they rock climb, and they play extreme sports. These people have gone beyond the levels of physical fitness necessary for normal life activities. They’re pushing their bodies to extremes. People achieve physical fitness either through exercise or just general physical activity. Some people have an active lifestyle. They do lots of movements as part of the ordinary things they do every day. Physical activity is any activity that involves significant movement. Reaching to grab the remote control for the TV is not physical activity, but running after little kids, yard work, walking around town, or swimming at the beach definitely is. Other people, though, have more sedentary lifestyles. These people will need to make an effort to get exercise into their lives. Exercises are structured and deliberate movements. People who want to improve their physical fitness may go to the gym, go for a run, or go to a Pilates class. Physical activity is more general than exercise, but also contributes to fitness. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports offers an even more in-depth definition of physical fitness that involves more factors than just the ability to healthfully and safely get through everyday activities. The Council includes things like bone integrity (strength), body composition (fat versus muscle), heart health, flexibility, muscle strength, agility, balance, coordination, reaction time, and more. Most people struggle in at least one form of fitness as defined by the Council, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not physically fit. Some people include mental and emotional fitness in overall fitness. Healthy thinking patterns and behaviors are an important part of living a healthy and fulfilling life. Physical, emotional, and mental fitness are all tied up with each other, so that a change in one may affect the others. For example, a very active person who gets a serious injury and must stop exercising might end up feeling depressed because she can’t do what she loves most.

The Benefits of Core Workouts

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Improving your core muscle strength will make you stronger and healthier—and it will also improve your self-esteem. It’s a great feeling to know your body is at its best.

SELF-ESTEEM AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH Self-esteem means believing that you are a worthwhile person and that you deserve love and respect from yourself and other people. Many people struggle with self-esteem at least some of the time. Luckily, there are things people can do to improve their self-esteem. Core workouts

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Make Connections One of the benef its of core workouts over other types of exercise is that it can be cheap! You don’t have to pay for lessons, classes at a gym, or to be on a sports team. With little or no equipment, you can work out your core at home for free.

are one choice that can improve self-esteem in a couple of different ways. First, you might feel better about your body once you can see what it can do. Lots of people want to change things about their bodies because they don’t like the way they look. Instead of focusing on looks, though, try focusing on what your body can do. Even without exercising, bodies can do all sorts of amazing things, like pump blood all day, every day, or turn food into energy. Core workouts can help your body do even more amazing things. As you get stronger and stronger through core workouts, your body will be able to do more. You’ll be able to do more repetitions of exercises and do them for longer. For example, when you start working out your core, you might only be able to hold a plank pose for a few seconds. (Plank pose involves laying out straight, lifting yourself up on your arms or elbows, and keeping your feet on the floor straight out behind you.) With practice and repetition, you’ll be able to hold the pose for thirty seconds. Then maybe a minute. After a while, you’ll be able to hold it for several minutes at a time! You should rightly be impressed with what you can do.

The Benefits of Core Workouts

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Many of us spend a lot of time sitting at desks in front of computers. Poor posture like this is hard on the back. By strengthening the muscles in your back and stomach, core workouts make it easier to sit up straight.

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The other way that core workouts can increase your self-esteem is through making your body look healthier. The shape of your body has nothing to do with how beautiful you are, or whether you’re a good person or not. Sometimes it does have something to do with your health, though. For many people, being overweight or obese puts strain on the body and keeps it from working as well as it could. Being overweight or obese also impacts self-esteem because our society tends to tell us that thin is beautiful. Core workouts can help people lose weight in a healthy way and also build up strength at the same time. Core exercises tone muscles and burn calories, which leads to weight loss. Remember, the best way to tell your body’s health is to think about how it feels doing things. If your body is working well and is strong, you’re well on your way to physical fitness. Exercise has a lot to do with emotional health too, not just physical health. Remember that your brain releases chemicals called neurotransmitters, which regulate moods. There are lots of different neurotransmitters, but several of the ones that go along with good moods are released during exercise. Core workouts can increase these good moods, both right away and also over time. So if you’re having a bad day, or even a bad month or two, try a core workout. You might see benefits right away, as well as over the long term.

GOOD POSTURE If you ever get told to sit up straight and stop slouching, core workouts could be just what you need. Bad posture is partly due to weak core muscles. People are more likely to slouch if it takes a lot of effort to actually sit up or stand up straight. Working on the core muscles should improve your posture. It won’t take as much energy to sit up straight because your muscles will be able to do more with less effort. Good posture is important for several reasons. People who slouch over with bad posture may seem like they have poor self-esteem or aren’t interested in what’s going on around them. Good posture, on the

The Benefits of Core Workouts

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Older people with strong core muscles are more flexible and healthier.

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other hand, might make you feel more confident and alert. It also helps you breathe better and get more oxygen to your body. That makes exercising even easier and more beneficial.

GET BETTER AT SPORTS Most sports involve some sort of core movement. Gymnastics definitely does! So do tennis, biking, swimming, volleyball, golfing, and more. Pretty much every sport involves using the core to some degree. Even sports that mostly rely on arm or leg strength, like running, are affected by core strength too. After you try some core workouts a few times, you may notice right away that playing sports is easier. All the benefits of core workouts can make you better at your chosen sport or sports. Exercise in general helps you breathe better and makes your heart stronger, which is always great for sports performance. Core workouts also strengthen muscles that are necessary for any movements in your torso. And because the core muscles connect to other muscles, your arm and leg movements may feel stronger too.

STAY INJURY-FREE AND PAIN-FREE Injuries happen while playing sports, while doing chores at home, or even just while walking around. Core exercises won’t prevent you from ever getting injured, but they will protect you from some of the more common kinds of pain and injuries. A strong core means more balance and stability for your body overall, as well as more flexibility. Injuries, especially those involving falls, are often caused by a bad sense of balance or a lack of flexibility. By getting better at those things through core exercises, you’re improving your body’s ability to stay strong overall. Some people’s jobs involve a lot of core strength. If you have to bend, twist, or stand all day at your job, you’re using your core muscles. Someone who works during the summer as a camp counselor is probably going to be running around a lot after campers. After weeks of

The Benefits of Core Workouts

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Research Project This chapter mentions that physical and mental health are often tied together. Do some more research into how the body and mind are connected and how they affect each other. Some topics you might consider include the placebo effect, depression, or the effect of stress on health. Write a short report about your findings.

being a counselor, your body might feel pretty tired. If your core is strong, you won’t have to worry about chronic pain or injuries. But if you have a weak core, you’ll probably find your summer is a lot harder than you thought it was going to be. One of the big reasons core workouts keep you from getting injuries is because they strengthen the back. Back pain and injuries are some of the most common complaints, and can keep you sedentary instead of doing what you love. Core workouts do a lot to strengthen back muscles, and they also make sure that the muscles in the front of your core are strong and are doing their share of the work. Weak front core muscles translate into making your back work overtime, which can end in pain and injury. In fact, doctors and physical therapists often recommend core exercises for people who suffer from back pain.

AGING WELL You might not care so much now, but core workouts can really help you age well. As people age, their muscles, bones, and more tend to get weaker. Like anything else, bodies can start to not work as well the longer we use them.

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Text-Dependent Questions 1. What is physical fitness? What are some of the components of physical fitness? 2. What is the difference between being physically active and exercise? 3. How do core workouts improve self-esteem? 4. Why are core workouts good for getting better at sports? 5. What sort of common injuries and pain can core workouts help you avoid?

Working on core strength will help you out in the long run. Your choices now directly affect your health in the future. You probably already know that choosing to eat junk food all the time might taste good now but will be bad for your health. Eating junk food could lead to unhealthy weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes. Similarly, not exercising now will impact your health later on. If you don’t strengthen your muscles and bones, you’ll get weaker as you age. In addition, getting into the habit of exercising now will make it easier to exercise later in life too. Once it becomes a part of your life, you can keep exercise going to benefit you at all ages. Core workouts are also great for people who are aging. The exercise helps support healthy aging and keep bones and muscles from weakening. That in turn prevents common injuries associated with age, like falling and breaking bones. You’ll thank yourself for exercising your core when you’re older and still physically fit!

The Benefits of Core Workouts

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Words to Understand vertical: Straight up and down. motivate: Encourage to do something. practitioners: People who perform a certain skill or art,

usually medicine. professionals: People who do something to make money from it, and are usually very good at it.

Chapter Three

Core Workout Equipment and Safety

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ow that you’re ready to do some core workouts, there are a couple more things to consider first. You may need some equipment, depending on what kind of core workout you want to try. And everyone who works out should consider ways to stay safe while exercising.

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You use your core muscles to keep your balance on an exercise ball.

EQUIPMENT AT HOME The equipment used for core exercises ranges from the simple and inexpensive to the complicated and very expensive. If your goal is to get a stronger core, but you don’t want to invest in a lot of equipment, you’ll have a lot of choices. Many core workouts simply involve a floor mat. If you’re planning on doing exercises like crunches, planks, or practicing Pilates or yoga, you should think about getting a floor mat. Doing these sorts of exercises directly on the ground can be uncomfortable and might encourage you to

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give up! Floor mats are flat pieces of foam material that fold or roll up for convenient storage. They’re pretty inexpensive, and can be bought at department stores or sports stores. Some people doing core workouts buy an exercise ball. Exercise balls are large, rubber balls that exercisers can use to practice balance and other movements. Make sure you’re using the right size—your feet should reach the floor and your knees should be bent at ninety-degree angles when you’re sitting on it. Exercise balls are great for improving balance. The core muscles have to do a lot of work when you’re balancing on the ball. Medicine balls are another option for core workouts. Medicine balls are weighted balls that come in a variety of sizes and weights. They weigh anywhere from 2 to 25 pounds. Adding a medicine ball to a core workout routine increases your weight and leads to even more strength. They can also be used to improve balance. You can hold on to a medicine ball while doing sit-ups or balance on one while holding a plank position. A BOSU ball is another choice for core workouts. BOSU stands for “both sides up.” It looks like a ball cut in half and stuck on a flat disk. Both sides can be used for exercising. The rounded side gives support for exercises like planks, while the flat side lets you practice balancing as it wobbles with the round side down.

EQUIPMENT AT THE GYM Some pieces of equipment you’ll only find at the gym (unless you want to pay a lot of money to create your own at-home gym). For example, rowing machines offer a good core workout, as well as working out your arms and legs. The rowing machine does what it sounds like—it reproduces the experience of rowing a boat in a gym. Gym machines may sound like pieces of equipment from a spaceship! How about the captain’s chair or the abdominal crunch machine? The captain’s chair is also known as a power tower, or a vertical knee raiser. This machine is great for strengthening the rectus abdominus muscles. The captain’s chair has supports and grips for your arms and

Core Workout Equipment and Safety

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Rowing a boat is a great workout for your core muscles. Since most of us don’t have access to a rowboat, though, a rowing machine at a gym offers a way to get the same exercise.

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hands. Exercisers use the arms and core muscles to raise the knees as far up as they’ll go, then bring them slowly back down to the ground. The abdominal crunch machine is a little more complicated. If you’re using one, hook your legs under the bottom supports. Grab the arm handles behind your head and place your elbows against the arm pads. Then push your elbows in, bend forward, and lift your legs to your chest all at the same time. Use your core muscles as much as possible when lifting and then letting go. While all these machines can be useful, you can also get a thorough and challenging workout at home without all the fancy equipment. Machines do make core workouts more interesting, though, if you’re bored with your regular routine and have access to a gym.

DO WHAT YOU CAN One of the biggest mistakes people new to exercise make is to try and do too much. You may want to try the hardest exercises right away, or work out for a long time. But core workouts build up strength over time. There aren’t any shortcuts, and trying to do too much too soon could end up in an injury. Then you won’t be able to do any exercise at all! Start off doing core exercises for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. You probably won’t get bored in such a short amount of time, and it’s easier to motivate yourself to exercise for a short period of time rather than a longer one. After fifteen or twenty minutes gets easy, add five minutes on your workouts for a week or two. Then add another five. Before you know it, you’ll be at forty-five minutes or an hour. You also want to start off slow so that you don’t burn out or get frustrated right away. People who try really hard exercises right away probably won’t be able to perform them properly. Then they might get discouraged from exercising at all, because they feel like they failed so soon. Instead, a beginning exerciser should start off with easier moves and work up to the harder ones. After a few months or a couple years, experienced exercisers can do those challenging moves with more ease and less danger of injury. You should also feel comfortable taking some days off from exercising.

Core Workout Equipment and Safety

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A fitness trainer can help you choose the right exercise routine for you.

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Make Connections: Exercising Too Much There is definitely such a thing as exercising too much. Besides risk of injury, exercise can lead to too much weight loss and an unhealthy relationship with the body. A small set of people suffer from a disease called exercise bulimia, in which they need to exercise in order to burn lots and lots of calories because they think they’re fat. They don’t eat enough food to keep themselves going, and they can do real damage to their bodies. People with exercise bulimia suffer from a disease and need help to get healthy.

Especially at first, working out might be really hard. Again, pushing yourself too hard could end up in injury and get in the way of long-term workout success. Try every other day at first, and see how you do. If you feel great and want to do more, you can exercise for more days once you get the hang of your workouts. If you wake up one day and are just too tired or you feel too sore to work out, skip it. The same goes if you’re injured. People who are injured and exercise anyway aren’t giving themselves time to heal.

TALK TO AN EXPERT A beginning exerciser doesn’t necessarily know the proper way to exercise. Just like with other things you’ve learned—like writing, sports, or reading music—you can benefit from getting some guidance from more experienced practitioners. First, you may want to talk to your doctor before you start an exercise routine of any kind. People who are generally healthy already usually have nothing to worry about. However, if you’re recovering from an injury or sickness, or if you have a medical condition that could get in the way of exercising, you should ask your doctor what she thinks. Your

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Staying hydrated—in other words, drinking water—is a vital part of any exercise plan. Your body can’t work without water!

doctor will be able to give you good medical advice about what kinds of exercise to do and how much you should exercise. Talking to a coach or a personal trainer is also a good idea. Professionals who know how to work with people and guide them through physical fitness will have great tips for you on what sorts of core exercises to do, how long to do them, and how often to do them. They’ll also be able to show you how to exercise safely and effectively. Everyone’s different, and a trainer or coach that listens to you and learns about how your body and mind work will give you some tips on exercising that work for you as an individual. Taking the time to talk to a

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Make Connections: Clothes and Shoes Besides equipment, wearing the right clothes and shoes will make your workout better. Wear comfortable clothes that don’t get in the way of your movements. Different forms of exercise have different clothing guidelines. Yoga practitioners usually wear close fitting pants (yoga pants), a tank top or t-shirt, and no socks or shoes. But if you’re working out on equipment at the gym, you’ll definitely want socks and sneakers. Dress in layers if it’s cold out, so that you can take some off once you get warm from your exercises.

professional when you start to exercise will make your workouts more productive and a lot safer!

AVOID INJURIES People who do strenuous exercise or play sports are at risk of getting injured. However, by taking care of yourself and following safety precautions, you can avoid serious injury while working out. Abdominal muscle strain is the most common injury that can happen with core workouts. Someone with abdominal muscle strain has stretched her abs too far. Small tears form in the muscles when they’re stretched beyond their limit. Most abdominal muscle strains are mild, but they can be severe. Depending on how serious they are, they can cause some discomfort or lots of pain. Luckily, all strains need is some rest. Applying ice to the area right away helps with the pain.

EAT THE RIGHT DIET Exercise is only part of the equation when it comes to health. Complementing your workouts with eating healthy is a great idea, and it will help you get more out of your exercise routines.

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Research Project Injuries and safety aren’t specific just to core workouts. Look into the types of injuries that can happen while playing sports or while doing other sorts of workouts. Come up with a list of at least four common injuries, how they occur, how to treat them, and what can be done to prevent them in the first place.

A healthy diet generally includes lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains like whole-wheat bread, oats, and brown rice. Lean meat and other protein sources like beans, nuts, and eggs are also important. Dairy, including milk and yogurt, rounds out a healthy diet as well. All together, all these healthy foods give the body the fuel it needs, along with the vitamins and minerals that keep it working right. Healthy diets don’t include tons of junk food like chips, candy, cookies, crackers, and soda. Junk foods pack in unhealthy things that aren’t great for your body. They have too much sugar, salt, and fat. People do need small amounts of these substances, but eating too many leads to health problems like weight gain, heart disease, and diabetes. When you exercise, you may need to eat more than you usually do. Exercising burns more calories than your body normally burns doing everyday things. Calories are a way to measure the amount of energy a food has, and the amount of energy your body burns. People need around 2,000 calories from food a day because the body burns about that much by walking, breathing, pumping blood, digesting, and performing other functions. A person who eats more calories than his body needs per day will gain weight. On the other hand, a person who eats fewer calories than his body needs will lose weight. That’s what

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Text-Dependent Questions 1. What sorts of core exercises would you need a f loor mat for? 2. Name two pieces of inexpensive equipment people can buy at home for core workouts. 3. Why should you start off slow when it comes to exercising for the first time? 4. According to this chapter, whom might you talk to before you start exercising? 5. What sorts of foods are and are not included in a healthy diet?

is happening when a person exercises but doesn’t eat more food. That person now needs more calories than before. But exercising isn’t a free pass for eating more junk food. You should choose healthy foods to add up to the extra calories you need when exercising. More junk food will just slow you down and won’t help your body be any healthier. More fruits, vegetables, and protein are the best way to give yourself the extra fuel you need. Water is also extremely important when exercising. In fact, water is every bit as important as food! Staying hydrated while working out will keep you going much longer than if you don’t drink any water. Dehydration isn’t good for your body, and will keep you from performing your best while working out. Stick with water rather than sports drinks that have a lot of sugar in them. Water gets the job done without the extra sugar. Now all you need to do is start exercising! The first step, though, is to make a plan.

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Words to Understand stamina: The ability to keep going for a long time. essential: The most important or necessary.

Chapter Four

Making a Plan to Strengthen Your Core

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any people start exercising and then lose motivation along the way. Think of the classic New Years’ resolution to get in shape or go to the gym more often. By February, most of those people who were so excited to work out have stopped exercising. It’s hard to stay motivated to exercise when there’s so much else going on!

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If you make a plan—and write it down—you’ll be more likely to stick to a core workout routine.

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To stick with your commitment to core workouts, you might want to consider making an exercise plan. You’ll be more likely to start exercising, keep exercising, and reach your goals.

SET SOME GOALS Before you even start working out, you may want to think about your goals. What do you hope to accomplish by working out your core? Some goals you might consider could build on the benefits of core workouts covered in chapter 2. Maybe you want to be a better athlete. Think about how a stronger core will help you at your chosen sport. Core workouts can make you a more powerful batter in baseball and hit more powerful swings and serves in tennis. You’ll have longer stamina when swimming, running, and playing soccer. You can improve your performance in pretty much any sport through core workouts. Or maybe you want to lose some weight. If you’re looking to lose weight through core workouts, you should definitely talk to your doctor to make sure you need to lose weight and you’re doing it in a healthy way. Core workouts may not help you lose a lot of weight, but they’re great combined with aerobic exercises like running or swimming. Another goal you could decide on is simply overall daily health. If you find yourself having a hard time getting through your day, a core workout might make your life easier. They are great for people who have a hard time climbing lots of stairs, taking long walks, or doing activities that involve bending over, like gardening. Core workouts focus on essential muscle groups that affect the other muscles in your body and help you with everyday activities. No matter what goal you choose, write it down somewhere so you’ll remember. Then after you start exercising, you can refer back to your goal when you’re getting frustrated or want to give up. You’re more likely to stick with it when you think back to why you’re working out in the first place.

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Taking a Pilates class with a group of friends is a great way to stay motivated!

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MOTIVATION Goals are good motivation to start and continue exercising, but there are other ways you can motivate yourself as well. Motivation is the desire and the willpower to keep yourself going. The more motivation you can give yourself, the better! Working out with a friend can make exercise more fun and safer, and give you a reason to keep going. If you promise a friend you’ll exercise with him, you’re more motivated to actually do it and keep your promise. You can’t back out at the last minute without worrying you’re letting your friend down. And you’ll feel good that you’re helping to motivate someone else to also get healthy. You have more exercise options with a friend too, especially with equipment like medicine balls, which you can gently throw back and forth. Plus, you and your friend can keep an eye on each other while working out. If you’re working out with weights, having a friend along as a spotter to support you if also a great idea. Here are a few more secrets to getting and staying motivated to exercise: • Keep any exercise equipment you have out and visible. Put your floor mat and exercise ball somewhere you can see them all the time. They’ll remind you to work out. Then there’s no excuse for forgetting! • Make working out part of your schedule. If you have after-school activities on Monday and Wednesday but not on the rest of the days of the week, plan on working out on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. You’ll have to consciously think about doing it for a few weeks, but then it will become a habit. Taking a shower or brushing your teeth are activities that probably don’t take a lot of thought; they’re just habit—and the same can be true of your workout too. • Change it up to make it fun. You might get bored of the same old workout routine week after week. Once you notice yourself

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Yoga is a core workout you can do pretty much anywhere, any time. You could do it in a class or with friends, but you can also do it alone. You can do it indoors—or you could take it outdoors. Keeping a routine is good, but making changes like these within that routine is a great way to stay motivated.

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Make Connections: Online Fitness Plan Generators A search online will come up with some websites that will help you create your own fitness plan. It won’t be made just for you as an individual, but you can usually fill out a form that creates a plan based on your experience, fitness level, gender, age, and more. You could click around to find a generator that makes sense for you.

getting bored, don’t give up—find something different to do! Try yoga if you’ve just been doing crunches. Or find a workout video online that introduces some new exercises into your workout. The more fun your workout is, the more likely you’ll keep going. • Keep track of your progress. Write down how long you exercised and what you did after every workout. You’ll be amazed at the progress you make over a few weeks and months. When you look back at where you started, you’ll be inspired to keep going because you know you can accomplish a lot.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER Now that you’ve got some goals and a plan to stay motivated, you need to decide on just how you’re going to go about working out your core. People who plan their workouts ahead of time are more likely to be successful over the long term. The three main decisions you need to make are what sort of exercises you’re going to do, when you’re going to do them, and the length of time you’re going to do them.

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Mark your calendar with the days you want to work out and make sure to look at your schedule regularly so that you don’t miss workouts.

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Text-Dependent Questions 1. How can setting goals help you start exercising and stick with it? 2. What is motivation, and how does it relate to working out? 3. What are two ways someone might choose to keep motivated to work out? 4. What are the basic parts of a fitness plan? 5. Why should you write down your fitness plan?

First, choose your type of exercise. You clearly have many choices to choose from. For a more structured workout, go to a yoga or Pilates class, or find a core workout video online. To introduce some creativity into your routine, you could also come up with your own set of exercises you think will strengthen your core. Keep it simple, at least at first. Then decide on when you want to work out. Aim for two or three days a week for a start. But if all you can fit in is one day a week, that’s better than nothing! Choose some days and mark them on your calendar. Finally, decide on how long you want to exercise each time you work out. Start slow and work your way up. Twenty minutes might be a good beginning length of time, working up to an hour. Write down your plan and look at it frequently. Include your goals, your plan for motivation, your workout routine, and your schedule. You could write it on a white board in your room, or keep it in a document on your computer. As long as you don’t forget about it, your plan will be a visible reminder to you how important your workout routine is.

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Finding the core exercises that you like and a schedule that works for you will make sticking with your workout plan easier.

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Research Project Go online or use books and magazines to find out more about four people who do core workouts regularly. What do you notice about these people’s appearance? How does their selfesteem seem? What do you admire about these people? What can you learn from them?

Working out your core is a great, healthy decision. If you follow a well-made plan and safety practices, you’re making a step toward an improved life. Whether you choose an at-home routine with a floor mat or go to the gym to use machines, working out your core muscles will get you feeling fitter and healthier in no time!

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FIND OUT MORE In Books Bellenir, Elizabeth. Fitness Information for Teens. Detroit, Mich.: Omnigraphics, 2012. Chabut, LaReine. Core Strength for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jer.: Wiley Press, 2008. Chryssicas, Mary Kaye. Breathe: Yoga for Teens. New York: DK Publishing, 2007. Detz, Jeanine. Ultimate Core Ball Workout. Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses Press, 2005. Faigenbaum, Avery and Wayne Westcott. Youth Strength Training. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, 2009.

Online BodiMojo bodimojo.com/fitness.htm Mayo Clinic: Exercises to improve your core strength www.mayoclinic.org/core-strength/sls-20076575

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Spark People: Core Exercises www.sparkpeople.com/resource/exercise_demos.asp?exercise_ type=core Teens Health: Food and Fitness kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness WebMD: Core Training Directory www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/core-training-directory

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SERIES GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS abs: Short for abdominals. The muscles in the middle of your body,

located over your stomach and intestines. aerobic: A process by which energy is steadily released using oxygen. Aerobic exercise focuses on breathing and exercising for a long time. anaerobic: When lots of energy is quickly released, without using oxygen. You can’t do anaerobic exercises for a very long time. balance: Your ability to stay steady and upright. basal metabolic rate: How many calories your body burns naturally just by breathing and carrying out other body processes. bodybuilding: Exercising specifically to get bigger, stronger muscles. calories: The units of energy that your body uses. You get calories from food and you use them up when you exercise. carbohydrates: The foods that your body gets most of its energy from. Common foods high in carbohydrates include sugars and grains. cardiovascular system: Your heart and blood vessels. circuit training: Rapidly switching from one exercise to another in a cycle. Circuit training helps build endurance in many different muscle groups. circulatory system: The system of blood vessels in your body, which brings oxygen and nutrients to your cells and carries waste products away. cool down: A gentle exercise that helps your body start to relax after a workout. core: The muscles of your torso, including your abs and back muscles. cross training: When an athlete trains for a sport she normally doesn’t play, to exercise any muscle groups she might be weak in. dehydration: When you don’t have enough water in your body. When you exercise, you lose water by sweating, and it’s important to replace it.

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deltoids: The thick muscles covering your shoulder joint. energy: The power your body needs to do things like move around and

keep you alive. endurance: The ability to keep going for a long time. flexibility: How far you can bend, or how far your muscles can stretch. glutes: Short for gluteals, the muscles in your buttocks. hydration: Taking in more water to keep from getting dehydrated. isometric: An exercise that you do without moving, by holding one position. isotonic: An exercise you do by moving your muscles. lactic acid: A chemical that builds up in your muscles after you exercise. It causes a burning feeling during anaerobic exercises. lats: Short for latissimus dorsi, the large muscles along your back. metabolism: How fast you digest food and burn energy. muscle: The parts of your body that contract and expand to allow you to move. nervous system: Made up of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves, which carry messages between your brain, spinal cord, and the rest of your body. nutrition: The chemical parts of the food you eat that your body needs to survive and use energy. obliques: The muscles to either side of your stomach, under your ribcage. pecs: Short for pectorals, the muscles on your chest. quads: Short for quadriceps, the large muscle on the front of your upper leg and thigh. reps: How many times you repeat an anaerobic exercise in a row. strength: The power of your muscles. stretching: Pulling on your muscles to make them longer. Stretching before you exercise can keep you flexible and prevent injuries. warm up: A light exercise you do before a workout to get your body ready for harder exercise. weight training: Exercises that involve lifting heavy weights to increase your strength and endurance.

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INDEX abdominals 11, 17, 19, 37, 39, 43 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) 13 arm 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 27, 31, 37, 39 back 11, 13, 17, 19, 28, 32, 39, 49, 51, 53 bones 13, 15, 21, 25, 32–33 BOSU ball 37 brain 13–15, 20, 29 breathing 11–13, 17, 20, 44 bulimia 41 calories 29, 41, 44–45 clothes 43 coach 42 diet 43–45 doctor 32, 41–42, 49 equipment 17, 20, 27, 35–37, 39, 43, 45, 51 exercise ball 36–37, 51 floor mat 20, 36–37, 45, 51, 57 goal 36, 49, 51, 53, 55 gym 17, 20, 25, 27, 37–39, 43, 47, 57

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habit 33, 51 heart 11, 13–15, 25, 31, 33, 44 injuries 17, 22, 25, 31–33, 39, 41, 43–44 legs 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 31, 37, 39 machine 37–39, 57 medicine ball 15, 37, 51 motivation 47, 51, 55 muscle strain 43 neurotransmitters 13, 29 personal trainer 42 physical fitness 19, 21, 23, 25, 29, 33, 42 Pilates 19–20, 25, 36, 50, 55 plan 42, 45, 47–49, 51, 53, 55– 57 planks 15, 18–19, 21, 27, 36–37 posture 28–29 safety 35, 43–44, 57 self-esteem 26–27, 29, 33, 57 sit-ups 19, 21, 24, 37

sports 25, 27, 31, 33, 37, 41, 43– 45, 49 strength 13, 17, 19, 25–26, 29, 31, 33, 37, 39 torso 9–11, 15, 31

video 20, 53, 55 water 42, 45 yoga 19–21, 36, 43, 52–53, 55

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE CONSULTANT Z.B. Hill is an author, actor, and publicist living in Binghamton, New York. He has a special interest in adolescent education. Diane H. Hart, Nationally Certified Fitness Professional and Health Specialist, has designed and implemented fitness and wellness programs for more than twenty years. She is a master member of the International Association of Fitness Professionals, and a health specialist for Blue Shield of Northeastern New York, HealthNow, and Palladian Health. In 2010, Diane was elected president of the National Association for Health and Fitness (NAHF), a nonprofit organization that exists to improve the quality of life for individuals in the United States through the promotion of physical fitness, sports, and healthy lifestyles. NAHF accomplishes this work by fostering and supporting state governors and state councils and coalitions that promote and encourage regular physical activity. NAHF is also the national sponsor of Employee Health and Fitness Month, the largest global workplace health and fitness event each May. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has been a strategic partner with NAHF since 2009.

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