Core Training To Prepare Muscle Strength

Core training is about keeping your body in alignment and in balance for movement. It involves using your torso and hips together to generate strength and move in different directions. Core training is not just training your abdominals by doing sit-ups. Core training minimizes your risk of injuries in your spine and other joints and allows you to lift more and last longer during exercise.

Functional Anatomy

Your core consists of muscles, connective tissues and nerves in your torso, hips and spine that work together to stabilize and move your body. The stabilizers are the muscles and tissues that are closest to your joints while the movers are the ones that are nearer to the surface. Thus, nearly every activity involves some degree of core work, such as running, downhill skiing, dancing, lifting a heavy box overhead or raking leaves.

Kneeling Cable Chop

This exercise reveals whether one side of your body is stronger and more stable than the other. Use a cable column machine for this. Set the handle of the cable column to the highest height and grab it with both hands. Kneel on your right knee with your left leg bent in front of you at 90 degrees. The left side of your body should be facing the handle. Tighten your right buttock to keep your posture upright.

Pull the handle down and across your body to your right hip without moving your torso. Slowly reverse the movement back to the starting position. Perform three sets of eight to 10 reps on each side. Perform an extra set on the side that feels weaker, recommends physical therapist Gray Cook, author of "Movement."

Kneeling Cable Lift

The movement of the lift is a mirror image of the chop. Set the height of the handle to the lowest setting and kneel in the same position as the chop except that your right side of your body faces the handle. Pull the handle up and across your body from your right hip without moving your body. Perform three sets of eight to 10 reps on each side.

Soccer Throw

Your abdominal muscles need to extend before contraction to produce power and strength. This exercise involves extending your torso back to load up energy before your flexing forward to produce force. Hold an 8-lb. medicine over your head with both hands, about 10 feet away from a wall. Step forward and throw the ball against the wall. Catch it after it has bounced once off the ground. Perform two sets of eight to 10 throws as fast as you can.