Exercising without stressing your core requires disengaging your chest, back, abdomen and hips -- and engaging your arms, legs, feet, hands, head and neck. Whether you are injured, ill, recovering from surgery or otherwise required to minimize mid-body movements, mastering specific exercises that exclude your core can instill a sense of health and well-being.
Stillness and Immobility
Sometimes you should reduce dynamic stress to your core. Weightlifters, for example, wear sturdy belts to support their abdominal and lumbar muscles. If you have already injured those muscles -- or your ribs, spine or lungs -- you must restrict your core movements. Hernia repair and abdominal surgery requires restriction, too. This can be aggravating if you are normally very active, but exercising your limbs and extremities may help. After all, a little exercise is better than none.
Legs and Feet
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, envision your chest filled with balloons, and let your stomach relax. Perform tiny marching steps using just your feet. You may engage your upper legs but keep movements gentle so as not to strain your hips or back. You can also "march" while sitting, using your feet and calves to roll up onto your toes and then down again -- and to flick your feet off the floor. While lying down, extend your legs and rotate them from the hip, outward and inward. Flex and point your feet, and rotate them in circles.
Arms and Hands
Exercising your arms and hands need never stress your core. You can strengthen your shoulder girdle by repeatedly shrugging your shoulders. Practice flexing your elbows: contract your biceps to lift your forearms, then contract your triceps to straighten your arm again. Your triceps contractions will not yield much movement, but they will still be working. Hand exercises can include squeezing objects, which improves grip strength and finger flexibility, and rotating your wrists while holding small weights or water bottles.
Head and Neck
Your neck must be strong and mobile to support your head, help align your torso and prevent spine injury. Neck exercises can be highly beneficial, states Healthy Exercise World, which calls the neck "the other core," attaching head to torso. A routine you can perform sitting or standing involves dipping your ear toward your shoulder slightly -- the top of your head should arc only 4 or 5 inches at most -- and returning to vertical, then tipping your had back, again only 4 or 5 inches, and returning to vertical. Then repeating to the other side, and to the front. Move slowly throughout, and envision your head pulling your neck upward and outward, to achieve an effective stretch.
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