Core Strength and Crunches

When basic crunches aren’t enough for your workout routine let’s look at some alternatives that will optimize your core strength and increase your balance and ability to generate power.

*And if you want to do crunches, think about your back staying straight and sitting up onto your tailbone.

By now you probably know that your core is more than just your abs.

It’s the trunk of your body that both stabilizes you and also allows you to rotate around with control. And applied correctly your core also braces your spine to protect it from any unsafe movements that could harm your central nervous system. Another thing I think is important to understand about your core is that it is the foundation that all of your extremities attach to. So while your legs allow you to run, and your arms are swinging a golf club around, these extremities attach to the trunk of your body and need its support in order to move effectively. These extremities are attempting to generate power when they do certain things, whether it’s kicking a ball, swinging a bat, or throwing a Frisbee; and the strength of your core will determine how much power they can generate and then transfer to your movement.

Planks

A staple of core strength is going to be a plank. Whether it’s performed with your hands on the ground or your forearms on the ground, a plank is a straightforward way to assess core strength. But once you’ve gotten control of your plank it’s important to start implementing the variations that will keep you getting stronger and also from getting bored. Side planks, performed on one arm or hand and with the hips facing out instead of down, are a great way to kick up the challenge level and add balance into the equation. From here you can then try tapping your hip to the ground to see if you can maintain your balance and control while moving. Try tapping your hip to the ground twice and then holding a side plank for two seconds, with a goal of being able to do this ten times on each side.

Dead Bug

Dead Bug is a great flip on the traditional plank for people who are beginners and can’t maintain a plank, but also for people who struggle with stabilizing their back and keeping it from arching or rounding. Appropriately named for the way dead bugs tend to look, you lay on your back with hips and knees bent to 90 degree angles. With your arms pointing up to the sky, hold an object against the front of your knees; a stability ball, a big pillow, whatever you can get your hands on and hold against your knees. Maintaining your back flat against the ground, extend an opposite arm and leg out away from the ball as far as you can control them before bringing them back up to the ball and switching sides. A good goal here is to be able to do this 20 times on each side.

Cable Rotations

If you have access to a cable machine then you can work on generating power as we mentioned earlier in more specific movements. In the same way you would swing a golf club or baseball bat, doing cable rotations will help you increase core strength and generate power in your movement. You will want to start off standing perpendicular to the cable machine, both hands gripping the handle and holding it at arm’s length in front of your chest. Keeping the handle out in front of your chest will help ensure that the emphasis is on your core and isn’t being taken over by your arms and shoulders. It helps to imagine that you’re in a glass tube, so you can’t rock forward or lean backward, you can only rotate around. Your goal here is to rotate your torso around pulling the cable with it and then controlling it back to the start position. Pick a weight that will allow you to do 20 to 25 reps on each side, each one mimicking the way you would swing an object, focusing on your ability to generate strength and power in that rotation.

There are probably hundreds of ways to train and strengthen your core, with crunches being just one of them. Just remember, core strength is about control and stabilizing, so you can protect your spine but also generate force. If you want to do crunches, think about your back staying straight and sitting up onto your tailbone. Rounding your back, the way most crunches are performed, is the opposite of how you want to train your body. Like always, know what you’re trying to do, focus on the muscle groups you’re trying to use, and don’t sacrifice your form and ability to keep yourself stable just to get in a few more reps. Quality over quantity will win out every time.

Nutrition 101

For many people the hardest part of achieving their fitness goal is understanding diet and nutrition.

Given the magnitude of options, information, and suggestions we are exposed to on a daily basis this shouldn’t be surprising. Typically the best thing to do is break the basic information down into “bite size” pieces. 

Before you start trying to figure out what to eat it might help to have a good understanding of where you’re at in the first place.

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

There are some simple and relatively accurate formulas to figure out what your daily calories should be based on your weight and activity level. The first thing you want to figure out is your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). This is the number of calories that your body is burning before any physical activity. Basically this is what your body burns to keep itself running and functioning, and the equation is body weight times 10. So if you weigh 180 pounds then your RMR is 1800. From here you now want to factor in the activity level of your lifestyle in order to determine how many calories you would need to consume in order to keep your present weight. 

If you lead a sedentary life and spend most of your time sitting at a desk then you would multiply your RMR by 1.2. If you exercise occasionally, maybe once or twice a week, multiply your RMR by 1.3. If you exercise regularly every week, say 2 to 4 times, then multiply your RMR by 1.4, and if you exercise regularly every week up to 5 times then multiply by 1.5. So let’s say your RMR is 1800 and you’re sitting at a desk all day with no exercise. The calories you would need to consume in order to maintain your weight would be 2160 (1800x1.2). Typically a person’s goal is weight loss so the effort from here would be to put yourself in a calorie deficit in relation to this number. And a calorie deficit is exactly what it sounds like: setting your calorie intake to below the amount your body needs to maintain its current weight. As we discuss caloric deficit and how that breaks down it is important to note that the minimum calorie recommendation per day for men is 1800 calories and the minimum for women is 1500. It is thought that much below this is unsafe and should be monitored by a doctor.

Obviously these numbers are only relevant if you begin tracking what you eat, so pick your favorite food tracking app and give it a try. My suggestion would be to simply track what you normally eat for a few days so you can take the calorie number the app is telling you and compare it to the number you got from your equations based on your personal weight and activity level. Are you in the basic range of what you would eat to keep your present body weight? Or are you significantly over that number, meaning that your body weight is steadily increasing? This is important information to have in order to get an understanding of what type of changes are going to be required of you in order to take control of your body composition. If your goal is weight loss then you are going to want your daily intake of calories to be under the total calories that you got from multiplying your RMR by your activity level. 

An example of How to figure out your daily calories.

Say your RMR is 1800 and you have a sedentary lifestyle which registers as a 1.2 on the activity scale, giving you your weight maintenance calorie intake of 2160. Now let’s say that after 1 week of tracking your meals, snacks, and other sources of calories (yes, alcohol counts) you discover that your average daily calories is around 2400. Your goal at this point is pretty straightforward: get your daily caloric intake down below 2160. As I mentioned before, men can safely reduce their daily calories to 1800 and women can safely reduce their daily calories to 1500. Now comes the hard part. Remember, I only said what you needed to do was straightforward, I never said accomplishing it was easy. But here are some tips that can help.

Portion control is always a useful tool.

People tend to eat more than they realize, leading to a higher calorie count. Simply watching the size of the portions you put on your plate can have a huge impact on reducing calories. Maybe even try using a smaller plate so less food fits on it.

 My next recommendation is something I can’t stress enough.

Read the nutrition label on the back of the foods you buy and learn what it means.

This is an invaluable tool and it’s absolutely free. The three main things you need in your meals are protein, carbs, and fats. And where they come from can play a huge role in weight management. Opting for lean protein will help reduce your fat consumption, because while you need fats, you don’t need a lot of them if you’re looking to lose weight. So stick with chicken breast, lean turkey, egg whites with maybe just one yoke, and other sources of protein that keep the fat content to a minimum. And speaking of fats, try to have your sources of fat come from things that offer additional benefits, like certain vitamins and nutrients. Different types of nuts are great sources of fat but also magnesium and other vital nutrients. Sunflower butter and peanut butter fall into these categories. Just be careful of the serving size and be aware of what that translates into for your fat intake. Avocados and beans are another great source for fat but there’s a catch, especially with beans. Beans also contain a decent amount of carbs, so you have to be sure that you’re calculating the protein, fat, and the carbs that you’re getting from a serving of beans. This is where using a food tracking app comes in handy, it will do all that work for you.

Since you could write an entire book about diet and nutrition, and many have been, I’ll wrap it up here, and leave you with this. Veggies are carbs, but they only contain a small amount, therefore you can eat a lot of veggies to help hit your carb levels. This will help you accomplish two things: the first is you will be more full and less likely to feel hungry because you can eat more veggies, and second, veggies do not have a lot of calories, so it won’t push you over your calorie goals when you eat a lot of them. For a flip side example, a regular portion of pasta has a sizable amount of carbs as well as calories, therefore you can’t eat as much without risking going over your daily calorie and carb goals, which might leave you feeling hungry later. Veggies give you healthy carbs and nutrients and won’t break the bank on your calorie intake.

It’s important to remember, weight loss is not an exact science and it might take time to figure out what works for you. The goal is to create a healthy relationship with food and to understand your body better and what fuels it to perform and feel its best. But as long as you can keep yourself in a calorie deficit and focus on what and how much you put in your body, this should be a very reliable method for weight loss. But ultimately, any nutrition plan should be practical and doable. In other words, if it isn’t something that you’re going to be able to maintain then you have to come up with a plan that you can maintain. You don’t have to give up all the foods you like eating, but being more responsible and better informed on basic nutrition can go a long way. Feel free to contact us with any questions!

Ask A Question