The Facts About Your Core and Abs 

Many people still cling to the outdated idea that the goal of an ab or core workout is to have a flat belly or a “six-pack” when the real point of working your mid-section is to enhance movement of the rest of your body while preventing injury. Once you adjust your expectations from an aesthetic goal to a functional fitness goal, you’ll start to recognize how much more your body can accomplish when your core muscles are strong.

Some of the frustration comes from misinformation. Much to the chagrin of the industry, the terms ABS and CORE are not interchangeable. Abs refer to only the abdominal muscles, while the core muscles are actually a complex series of muscles, going well beyond the musculature that people typically train.

The first step is to identify the muscles of the core. The major muscles of the core include the pelvic floor muscles, transverses abdominis, multifidus, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, erector spinae, and diaphragm, and the minor core muscles include the latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, and trapezius.

When it Comes to Your Core, It’s All About that Base

Having a strong core is all about stability. The goal is to prevent unwanted motion, and that comes from having a solid base.

Core strength is not only helpful with sports or exercise, but it is essential for everyday health and well-being. A strong base of core muscles protects the spine, can reduce back pain, improves movement patterns, and enhances posture, balance, and stability.

Your overall fitness plan should ideally include exercises that can strengthen your entire range of abdominal muscles. In order to design a safe and effective workout regimen, you should focus on executing proper alignment on the individual exercises.

Doing the exercises properly may take some time, so allow yourself to operate on a progression from a modified version to the full range adjusted to your body and fitness level.

Smart Core Strength Training Bundle

Because having a strong core is so vital to functional fitness, we pulled together a bundle of products that will help you put together workout routines for days so you’ll never get bored or wonder what to do again.

Bundle Includes:

 (1) Smart Straps Body Weight Training System

 (1) Smart Core Ab Wheel with Mat

 (1) Smart Medicine Ball, 8lb (Green)

All of these products are from our self-guided collection, which means they come with exercises printed directly on the equipment.

Here are a few exercises to start working your core!

Weighted Reverse Crunch with SMART Medicine Ball

Lie on your back with your hands at your side with your feet lifted off the floor, knees bent. Hold the SMART medicine ball between your feet by squeezing your ankles into the ball. Next, raise your hips toward your rib cage while lifting your tailbone off the floor. Hold, lower down, then repeat. Try 10-20 repetitions. Tip: Try to use your hands only as a stabilizer vs. a lever so you can rely on them less.

Side Planks with SMART STRAPS Bodyweight Training System

Adjust the SMART STRAPS so the hand at mid-calf length.  Insert both feet into the preformed cuffs. Ease into a suspended plank position with your shoulders in line with your hands and proper spine alignment. Roll onto your right side so that your right elbow is directly under your right shoulder. To improve balance success, place your top leg in front of your bottom leg. Next, raise your top arm toward the ceiling so that it runs in line with your bottom arm. Hold for 15-30 seconds and switch sides. This exercise is especially great for engaging your obliques.

Here are three CORE WHEEL Workouts to get you started!

1. SMART Core Wheel Knee Rollouts with Opposite Knee Plank Mountain Climbers
2. Plank Hold on SMART Core Wheel with Feisty Floor Sprints
3. Round the World Pike Ups with the SMART Core Wheel

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Intense Workouts without Jumping

Are LIIT workouts for you?

Perhaps you’ve decided that plyometrics isn’t for you. Maybe an injury has put jumping on the sidelines. Or, simply, your current workout space doesn’t allow for much room to go high or wide. If you’re in a place to give hard-core impact a break but not ready to give up on intensity, then you might consider switching from HIIT (High-Intensity Impact Training) to LIIT (Low Impact Intensity Training).

While there are several benefits to HIIT workouts (such as power and speed), LIIT workouts can save wear and tear on your joints while still giving you a fat-burning, heart pumping, full-body workout. Recovery time can be faster than with HIIT training because you remove the rapid force and stress on joints, thus lowering the risk of injury and allowing you to be more consistent with your workouts.

What you’ll need for a LIIT Workout:

SMART Medicine Ball: This small, weighted ball allows for a wide variety of how you challenge your resistance and balance when you incorporate it into many of your standard moves.

SMART Guard Sleeved Tubing: You don’t need a huge set of weights to give your body a strength training session. Put the full product line in your workout stash, and you’ll be covered from extra light to ultra-heavy resistance.

SMART Soft Plyo Cube, 3-in-1: This tool is for more than jumping. In fact, you can use it in place of a traditional step platform for exercises that need a stable base. Try tricep dips, pushups, resistance band flies, and even some barre work.

SMART Stability Ball: Exercises done while off-balance helps to work deeper muscles, thus adding intensity to your workout session.

LIIT WORKOUT

Try each exercise for 30 seconds. Take a 15-second transition break to prepare yourself and your equipment for the next exercise. Do four rounds of these ten exercises for a 30-minute LIIT session.

1. SQUAT TO BOWL (CURTSEY LUNGE) with a SMART Medicine Ball

   Holding the medicine ball at chest height, sink into a squat and then cross one leg behind the other while lowering your back knee toward the ground. Repeat to the alternating side while keeping the body in alignment.

2. JACKKNIFE WIPER with a SMART Stability Ball

   Laying on your back with your feet in the air, hold the stability ball between your ankles. Slowly lower your legs to one side while keeping your upper body steady and squeezing the stability ball between your legs. Return to the top, and lower to the opposite side.

3. LUNGE CIRCLE TO PLANE with SMART Medicine Ball

   Holding the medicine ball directly out in front of you at arms-length, put one foot back in a wide stride. Lower your body down to the ground while keeping your lower legs at a 90-degree angle and your upper body still. Shift your body weight into your front leg, and lift your back leg off the ground until it’s parallel with the floor. Return your leg back to the floor in a lunge position and repeat.

4. SIDE CHOPS with SMART Guard Sleeved Tubing

   Put the middle of the sleeved tubing under one foot and hold the handles or tubing at a point where you feel tightness when you hold it at arm’s length in front of the foot holding the tube. Next, pull the sleeved tubing toward the other foot, keeping your hands holding the tube at arm’s length. Slowly return to start position and repeat.

5. SUPERMAN LAT PULLS SMART Guard Sleeved Tubing

   Lying on the floor with your belly down and arms and legs extended, hold the middle part of the sleeved tubing in front of you in a place where it feels tight. Next, pull the opposite sides of the tubing toward either side of your hips, keeping your shoulders away from your ears. Slowly return to start position and repeat.

6. TRICEP DIPS WITH LEG KICK with the SMART Soft, 3 in 1 Plyo Cube

   Using the lowest to the ground option, put your feet on the floor, place your hands on the cube, and face your backside toward the cube with your knees facing out. Lower your body into dip position, elbows angling toward the back, and keep your chest and chin up. Keep your backside close to the cube, and push your body back up. At the top of the move, lift one leg up straight out into kick position. Return the leg, and repeat the move, alternating leg kicks.

7. PUSHUPS WITH SHOULDER TAPS with the SMART Soft, 3 in 1 Plyo Cube

   Using the lowest to the ground option, put your feet on the cube and your hands on the floor in a pushup position. Keeping your body in alignment, lower your upper body to the floor while keeping your feet on the cube. Slowly rise back up and use one hand to tap your opposite shoulder. Repeat, using alternating hands to tap.

8. MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS with a SMART Stability Ball

   Place your elbows on the ball and your feet on the floor. Keeping your upper body steady, take one leg off the floor and bring it toward the ball, knee first. Return back to the floor and repeat with the other leg.

9. LOW STANCE 360 JACKS with a SMART Medicine Ball

   Hold the medicine ball at chest level directly in front of your body while in a standing upright position. Using a low jump or walk-out, put your legs into a squat position while at the same time lowering the ball to pelvis height. Return to standing, and immediately jump or walk into a 90-degree rotational turn repeating the move. Continue the pattern until you’ve completed a 360-degree circle. Repeat.

10. ALTERNATING FOOT TAPS with the SMART Soft, 3 in 1 Plyo Cube

    Using the lowest to the ground option, stand directly in front of the cube. Keep your body upright, raise one foot to tap the cube, and then lower and repeat with the opposite foot. Increase speed to create cardio intensity.

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