The primary purpose of your core is to stabilize your spine and pelvis in order to facilitate proper movement. Movement involves generating and resisting forces. When your core muscles are stabilizing, they are keeping your spine and pelvis in a neutral, static position. For example, when you sit down and stand up or carry things by your side, the goal is not to deviate your spine or tilt your pelvis away from their neutral positions.
However, individuals commonly apply core training that involves taking the spine and pelvis through a range of motion, rather than holding them in their neutral positions. For instance, the most popular abdominal exercise is the crunch, which involves flexing the spine. While there is a time and place for changing the position of the spine to generate force, it’s not typical.
Moving forward, approach your core training with the goal of stabilizing your spine and pelvis, and use exercises that involve holding them in a neutral position. Start on the floor and work up to your feet in order to effectively stabilize for fundamental movements, like squatting, pushing, pulling, or carrying. Here are some awesome exercises to get you started. You can keep these in your routine forever!