Hold a light-to-medium dumbbell by the knee that's on the floor. Grasp onto both ends of the weight. Bring the weight diagonally up toward the ceiling on the opposite side of your body, twisting your abs as you do.

Keep your hips facing forward—only your core muscles should be rotating. Bring the weight back down to starting position. Do all your reps on one side, and then repeat on the other side.

Keeping your legs together, slowly lift them off the floor until they form a degree angle to your torso. Engage your entire core, keep your back flat, and balance on your tailbone. You can keep your knees bent as pictured or straighten them out for more of a challenge.

Reach your arms straight out in front of you, parallel to the floor. If you feel that you need some extra support, place your hands on the floor, underneath your hips. This is High Boat. Hold here for three deep breaths. Then lower your legs, straightening them out, while also lowering your upper body.

Both your shoulder blades and legs should hover a few inches off the floor. If that is too challenging, keep them slightly higher off the floor and work toward bringing them lower and lower. This is Low Boat. Hold for one breath, and then lift your legs and torso back to High Boat. Tuck your tailbone and engage your core, butt, and quads.

Rock your entire body forward a couple inches so your shoulders go past your elbows toward your hands. Rock back a couple inches. Make sure to keep your core, butt, and quads engaged the entire time.

You can also stack your left foot on top of your right. Engage your core and your butt. Let your left arm relax by your left side. Dip your hips down toward the floor and then lift them back up. Widen your stance to make this position feel easier.

Loop your resistance band under your left foot, and hold one end of the resistance band in each hand. Bend your left knee slightly and hinge forward at the hip so your core is engaged and your back is straight.

With your arms fully extended down toward your left foot, the band should have light tension. That's your starting position. Do a row, pulling your hands toward your torso and keeping your elbows, forearms, and hands in line with your rib cage. Extend your arms to return to your starting position to complete the rep.

Do all of your reps on one side, then switch so the other foot is staggered forward. Contract your abs to press your low back into floor. Point your toes, squeeze your thighs together, squeeze your glutes, and simultaneously lift your legs and upper back off the floor, reaching your hands forward to meet your feet so that your body forms a V.

Keep your core engaged as you slowly lower to return to starting position. Contract your abs to press your low back into the floor. Point your toes, squeeze your thighs together, squeeze your glutes, and lift your legs off the floor. Lift your shoulders off the floor and keep your head in a neutral position so that you're not straining your neck.

Your legs and midback should both be off the floor, and you should be in the shape of a banana with just your low back and hips on the floor. This is starting position, a hollow hold. Stay in the hollow hold position for as long as you can, up to 10 seconds. Then lift your arms and legs to meet so that your body forms a V hold for a breath, and slowly lower back down to hollow hold position.

Slowly rock forward and back, keeping everything tight, to the point that your feet and hands nearly touch the floor. If this is too difficult, get into the starting position and simply hold.

Hold on to each leg just above the knee. Round your spine, tuck your tailbone, and begin to lower your torso back, as if you were lowering back after a sit-up.

About halfway like in the photo above , stop and hold. Keep your entire core and your quads engaged. For an extra challenge, let go of your legs and just hold your arms out in front of you.

Hold one end of the band in your right hand so that when you stand, with your arm down, there is tension in the band. The other end of the band can just lie on the floor or you can hold it slack in your left hand.

Shift so all of your weight is in your left foot. Hinge at the hip, and tip forward, allowing your right foot to come straight up behind you as you hinge forward, eventually bringing your chest parallel to the floor.

Keep your core engaged to help with balance. As you hinge, naturally allow your right arm to drop toward the floor, creating less tension in the band. Return your right foot to the floor to return to your starting position. Do all reps on a single side, then repeat on the other side.

Squeeze your core and tuck your tailbone so that your back is flat, like you're doing a plank from your knees. Slowly push your hands in front of you, keeping your arms straight.

Glide as far as you can while still maintaining your torso in a plank position. Press into the floor and pull your arms back to return to starting position. Wrap your arms around your legs and hold on to the outside of your ankles. Curl your head and chest forward in toward your knees.

Scoop your core muscles in deeply, then roll your body back until your shoulders touch the floor. Don't roll so far that your neck or head touches the floor. Rock back up to a seated position. Slowly raise your legs, keeping them together and as straight as possible, until the soles of your shoes are facing the ceiling.

Then slowly lower your legs back down. As you do this move, make sure to keep your lower back flat on the floor. If you're having a tough time doing that, don't lower your legs as far. Lift your knees slightly off the floor. Keeping your butt low, extend your right leg underneath your torso, rotating your body to open up to the left side.

Hold your left arm in front of you as shown. When you start to get comfortable with the move and want an extra balance challenge, extend your arm out to tap your right foot.

You start in a recumbent position on your back and then lift and hold your buttocks off the ground," Boehm says. The whole region becomes solid, and it creates a contraction of all the muscle groups, like a corset.

The key is staying as stiff as you can, like a wooden plank," Boehm says. Opposite arm and leg raise. This exercise gets you on your hands and knees. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Place your arms at your sides. Tighten your buttocks, then lift your hips up off the floor until they form a straight line with your hips and shoulders.

Return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times. Kneel on all fours, with your head and spine neutral. Extend your left leg off the floor behind you while reaching out in front of you with your right arm. Keeping your hips and shoulders squared, try to bring that leg and arm parallel to the floor.

Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise with your right leg and left arm. Repeat the exercise on both sides 10 times. Start on your hands and knees. Tighten your abdominal muscles and lower your upper body onto your forearms, aligning your shoulders directly over your elbows and keeping your feet in the air behind you.

Keep your back straight, making your body as much like a "plank" as possible. Hold the position and return to the starting position.

If you haven't worked your core in a long time, Boehm suggests starting slowly, focusing on the quality of the exercise and gradually increasing the number of times you can do it. Unlike some muscle groups that should only be worked out every other day, core muscles can be strengthened daily. It doesn't need a lot of recovery," Boehm says.

Remember to do a warm-up before strengthening. March in place for a few minutes and move your arms around to get the blood flowing. After strengthening, stretch your muscles, especially the hip flexors in the front of your pelvis and the hamstrings in the backs of the thighs.

But we want the muscles that surround it to be flexible. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.

Focus: Core stability How to perform: Lie on your back and place your arms by your sides. Engage the abdominals and draw the navel toward your spine. Lift the knees to 90 degrees. With control, lower your right foot to touch the floor with your heel before return ing it back to 90 degrees.

Perform the same movement with your left leg and continue to alternate tapping the right and then the left heel onto the floor. Perform 10 rep etition s with each leg. Each repetition should take about four seconds to complete, two seconds to lower the leg and two seconds to raise the leg back to 90 degrees.

Alternate version: Keep your feet on the floor, and slide your heel on the mat, alternating legs. Marching Glute Bridge. Focus: Lumbo-pelvic stability How to perform: Lie on your back and place your hands by your sides. Lift the hips and hold a glute bridge. Lift the right foot off the floor to 90 degrees at the hip and knee.

Return the foot to the floor and then lift the left foot to 90 degrees; return to center. Keep the hips lifted and maintain a neutral pelvis as you alternate leg lifts for 20 repetitions. Alternate ve r sion: Hold a static glute bridge, keeping both feet on the floor for 30 or more seconds.

Stability Ball Dead B ug. Focus: Core stability How to p erform: Lie on your back and lift your knees to 90 degrees. Place a stability ball at the knees and press your hands and legs into the stability ball. Engage the core muscles and draw the navel toward the spine. Extend the left arm and right leg whi l e continuing to hold the ball with your left leg and right hand.

T he straighter the limbs, the more challenging the exercise. Make sure the knees stay at 90 degrees when returning back to center the calves touching the hamstrings makes the exercise easier.

Complete 10 rep etition s on each side , alternating which arm and leg are extended with each repetition.

Alternate version : Perform the exercise without a stability ball and keep your knees at 90 degrees as you lower. Forearm Plank w ith Toe Taps.

Focus: Core stability and hip strength How to p erform: Position the body into a forearm plank with the arms resting on the dome side of a BOSU balance trainer.

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Follow Mayo Clinic. Get the Mayo Clinic app. And if you feel like you can do it every day, you might not be going hard enough. Try to complete each circuit with minimal rest and move through each exercise slowly. Knowing a little bit about your core muscles and what they do can help pinpoint areas for growth in your core training.

The rectus abdominis is responsible for spinal flexion. The obliques run diagonally back and forth across the sides of your torso. They help with resisting rotational movements, creating rotational movements , and hip flexion.

When you think of training them, think Pallof presses and chopping movements. If you feel unstable during heavy squats or deadlifts, chances are you need to strengthen your transverse abdominis. Loaded compound movements and planks train this deep core muscle.

Your core consists of muscles in front of you and behind you. Your back is half your support system, and these lower back muscles are responsible for spinal extension and resisting spinal flexion think: deadlifting. You need to keep these guys strong to balance out powerful abdominals.

The deepest abdominal muscle, the quadratus lumborum, lives along the sides of the spine on your back, just about the hip. It keeps your spine stable and helps maintain a strong, steady posture. Squats and deadlifts can make your core decently strong. But training your core on its own can create an awesome feedback loop of making your main lifts much stronger.

Your core is what transmits all that force during compound movements. So the stronger it is, the more you lift. Training toward true failure , especially with your body weight, is definitely an exercise in mental toughness. To avoid overcompensating with your low back or hip flexors , concentrate on engaging the proper muscles.

This forces you to focus on proper breathing — which is good for your lifts and mental health. There are never guarantees against training accidents — but building a strong core can help. Making your core stronger helps prevent painful good morning squats. Strengthening your core also helps avoid accidentally rounding your back while deadlifting.

Want more-defined stomach muscles? Core exercises are important. While it takes aerobic activity to burn fat in your stomach, core exercises can strengthen and tone the underlying muscles.

Strong core muscles make it easier to do many activities. When your core muscles are strong, it's easier to swing a golf club, get a glass from the top shelf and bend down to tie your shoes.

Strong core muscles help athletes, such as runners. That's because weak core muscles can lead to more fatigue, less endurance and injuries. Weak core muscles can leave you more prone to poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries.

Strengthening your core muscles may help back pain get better and lower the risk of falls. Aerobic exercise and strength training make up most fitness programs. But core exercises are key to a well-rounded fitness program. A fitness program that includes core exercises can help you reach your fitness goals.

Plan to have a well-rounded fitness program whether you're new at fitness or a long-term athlete trying to improve results.

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Products and services. Core exercises: Why you should strengthen your core muscles You know core exercises are good for you — but do you include core exercises in your fitness routine? By Mayo Clinic Staff.

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Sorry something went wrong with your subscription Please, try again in a couple of minutes Retry. Show references Oliva-Lozano JM, et al.