Ready to unlock the secret to a stronger and healthier core at midlife? Join me, Courtney, your personal trainer and movement specialist, as we venture into the transformative world of core strengthening exercises. In this riveting episode, we breathe new life into your fitness routine, exploring three vital breathing techniques - 30-60 breathing, back breathing, and 90-90 breathing. Discover the role these methods play in exercises like bridging and basic ab workouts. If you're struggling with diastasis recti, I've got exclusive tips for you too! Check out the accompany blog link for visual guides to these exercises.
The journey to a stronger core doesn't end there. I'll be your guide, walking you through five essential exercises that promise to fortify your core muscles. Let's unravel the importance of 360 breathing, back breathing, and 90-90 breathing for core strengthening together! To ensure no stone is left unturned, I've compiled links to YouTube videos and my blog for a more comprehensive understanding. The secret to a stronger core isn't solitary practice, but collective learning. So, share this episode with your fitness companions and let's get stronger together! For those eager for more, join my core strengthening classes. Remember, the journey to core strength begins with a simple breath!
Welcome to Moving Through Midlife. I am your host, courtney, a personal trainer and movement specialist who wants to help you move through midlife with more grace. Each week we will discuss ways we can show up better for ourselves and our children without the burnout. We will focus on overall health through habit stacking to help increase energy, provide movement snacks to help you move more throughout the day, while also moving your body more, and learn from professionals on moving through midlife with ease so that you can feel confident with aging. Gracefully, grab your earbuds and join me on a leisurely walk while we discuss moving through midlife. So no matter where you are on your motherhood journey, whether you've just had your baby six months ago or six weeks ago, even up to six years ago, these exercises, for the most part, are going to be safe to get started with, and the first exercise has to do with breathing. This tends to be the one that is most often overlooked when I work with clients and is the most yes, I'm going to say that again, that is the most important part of core exercises is your breathing. You need to be paying attention to how you are breathing. There are three exercises I would recommend that you practice when you are working on breathing. These are going to name them for you 30 60 breathing, back breathing and 90 90 breathing. Breath work is imperative because your diaphragm and your pelvic floor work together when you breathe and affect all of the muscles within your core. So we want to make sure that things are firing on effectively and that we are not creating undue pressure within that system, including your core system, by not breathing effectively. One way that you can do this very quickly you can just lay down and start to work into a crunch and notice, when you lift your head up, what is happening to your midsection. If your midsection domes tents pooches into a low belly pooch, then there is a pressure system problem. Now I will have mom say to me well, I have a belly and then when I lift up, the belly just lifts up higher. That is a pressure system problem. It is not what what you say to me and I'm sorry to say I always feel uncomfortable saying this because this isn't the way I think of it. But this is what you say no, it's just my fat. No, no, no. When you lift up, you should have more of a heightening of that area. So if it's pushing up as well, no matter, you're looking for the difference, the difference from laying down to lifting head up into, like a crunch, a head lift. If there is a difference, there is a pressure system problem and we need to work on that, and this occurs through breathwork.
Speaker 1:
You can use breathwork in all of your core exercises. You can use breathwork when you're standing and walking around and you can learn how to brace effectively to work your core efficiently throughout the day. So that is where I always recommend everybody start and it can be done all the time not all the time, but you can do it a lot throughout the day. The second one is bridge. So you can honestly do bridge or glutes any type of glute work works well but bridge is one that tends to be one that people can focus on while they're doing, like the abdominal crunch type workouts that you might do. And the reason we want to work on strengthening the glutes is because they are stabilizers to your body and they help you to stay upright, basically, and if your glutes are weak, your core will compensate, which increases the strain on your low back, increases strain at the knee and the ankle. So if you deal with knee and ankle pain especially you with the knee pain. You need to work on strengthening the glutes and a lot of times I have clients who will cheat. They do a lot of cheating when we start working into the glutes. So make sure that you are focusing on glute strengthening Very important to make sure you're doing glute strengthening if you want to work on your core.
Speaker 1:
The third exercises that you want to do are your basic ab exercises. So think crunches, head lifts in and outs I'm trying to think where you bring your legs up into a 90 degree position and you do heel either heel slides or heel toe taps, all of those. Those are just as important as other exercises and especially for those lower abs, they are great for you to work on strengthening the lower abs, working in a safe position. Things can become more difficult when you're standing or when you're going down like head down think planks and stuff. So we want to make sure that we're hitting everything. I know I see a lot of videos out there now on TikTok and Instagram and they're talking about how you, you know, stop wasting your time doing crunches and things like this. Just grab a weight, bring it up over your head and start doing like those marches. Those are great. I am not denying that. But we need to make sure that we're reaching everything. We're hitting everything.
Speaker 1:
I think we get into these little, we're putting ourselves into boxes all the time. We're like it's do this, not that. And I think it's important that we do all of it. And I would tend to agree that your basic abdominal crunch, like the old fashioned crunches or sit ups, are not the most effective and can be downright dangerous for some people. But head lifts and heel slides and things that you're doing while laying down are awesome. And if you don't know what these exercises are, I would recommend going to midsection mama, where I share some information. I will also put a blog link for you where you can see some of these exercises in action in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
The one caveat I do want to say with abs exercises and the exercises coming up is if you have diastasis recti, if you know you have diastasis recti, then you need to use caution when doing these exercises. Once you've learned how to control your DR, then you can work through these slowly, practicing your breathing, everything like that. But just pay attention that if you have diastasis recti and if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry you probably. Well, I shouldn't say you may not have it, may have it. It is a separation of the abdominal wall. So next exercise, and I will do a podcast for you. So if you're scratching your head, don't worry, one's coming for you. Okay, the next exercise. So we've done breathwork, bridges, ab exercises like your crunches, head lifts, toe taps, heel slides, all of those.
Speaker 1:
The next one is going to be single leg movements. So good, you know how I mentioned how people say to you know, just put the weight up over your head and do marches. Yes, these are great. Any type of single leg movement, any balance work, is great for your core. You will go into the deep core muscles when you focus on balance and that is imperative. For those of you that are struggling with balance, I would recommend you look at your feet and see how your feet are responding to the floor as your feet go into balance as well.
Speaker 1:
But today we're talking about core exercises, so single leg movements are imperative. They are great for you. Think deadlifts, think single leg lunges, think these slow marches, lateral leg lifts with a band. All of these are great and definitely I would encourage you. They really work on strengthening not only the glutes, but the inner outer thighs, all of the muscles that surround the hip that are so important for your core strength. The other thing that you may notice is how, when you do work on balance, your inner thighs fire on. That is great for pelvic floor health as well.
Speaker 1:
And then the last one that you need to make sure you are practicing is planks, and this is to include side planks. Do not forget about those side planks as well. Planks are great exercise to strengthen the core. If you're new to fitness, make sure, or if you're a new mama, make sure that you go slow, because we don't want to put a lot of stress on the abdominal wall and you've got to make sure you've got your pressure system working correctly. But these are the five exercise I recommend you practice each time you go down for core exercises.
Speaker 1:
If you are interested in working with me, I do offer some core strengthening classes. Click on the join link or the schedule link to see what classes we're offering. I'd be happy to help you further if you are interested, and these are things that you will always find in my classes as well. So I hope you all have a wonderful day and, if you do nothing else this week.
Speaker 1:
If you take one thing away from this week that you can focus on to help strengthen your core is practice breathing Again 360 breathing, black breathing and 90 breathing. I will try to post links of YouTube videos for you for this. Like I said, if you click on the blog, I'll put the blog link. There is a whole morning exercise breathing workout I have within that blog that you can practice and work on and it focuses on this type of breathing. So I hope you all have a wonderful week. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found something to take away to help you practice healthier habits, move more or handle the midlife and aging with grace. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or leave us a review to help us reach more moms just like you. Head to movingthroughmidlifecom to join the free community or learn how you can move more and feel better in your daily life.