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Hey guys, Dr. Jared here, and this is a quick workout you can do every day to strengthen your core. In my experience as a physical therapist, maintaining a strong, healthy core is not only the best way to eliminate pain now, but also to prevent pain and injury in the future. I'm going to do the whole thing with you. There's zero equipment required, so let's clear some space on the floor and get to work.
All right, let's get started with some of my favorite exercises for your lower abs and deep core. This is going to be some brace marches and some reverse crunches. The position on these is the same: we're going to rock your hips backwards, push your back down into the mat, and draw your belly button in to create this abdominal brace. Then we're going to start marching. Okay, here we go, let's get it going. Back is flat, tummy is tight, and then we're just going to alternate marches right here, like this, for 30 seconds.
Again, keeping those abs nice and tight, that belly button is drawn in towards your spine. That's going to activate your deepest core layer. We get a little five-second transition between exercises. Now we're going to do reverse crunches. The back position and the ab position are still the same, but now the goal is to lift both knees up towards the ceiling, up towards your chest, while maintaining that nice brace in your abs.
And now let's work the upper abs. This is going to be some heel touches, laying on your back with knees bent. We're going to touch left hand to left heel, right hand to right heel. You're going to feel this in your upper abs as we engage this flexion and side-to-side lateral motion. If you feel it, good.
Okay, we'll give the abs a break and shift our focus to the backside glutes and lower back with some single-leg bridges. Bend one leg, straighten the other, and now with my left leg straight, I'm going to use the right glute, the right hip extensors, to lift my pelvis up off of the ground. I would mention that if you can't do these single-leg bridges, the double-leg version works great as well. What we're going to do is just transition over to the other side. Again, if the single-leg version is too hard, what you would do is bend both your legs and use both of your feet to lift your pelvis, both of your hips, up off the floor.
Next, we'll shift our focus to the obliques and the hip abductors. Roll over onto your left side and pop up into a left side plank. My elbows are under my shoulders, I'm on the outside of my left foot, and my body's in a nice straight line: nose, belly button, all the way down between my knees and feet. Thank you. Okay, and then we'll roll over onto the other side and perform a right side plank for 30 seconds. If these are too difficult, you can always drop down to your knee in a modified side plank position, but if you can, try to push yourself up into this full side plank. Again, you're working the lateral pillar, the obliques, as well as the hip abductors with this one.
Next, let's roll over onto your stomach. We're going to do one of my favorite exercises for your back muscles. This is a swimmer. With your arms extended overhead, you're going to lift your left leg and your right arm, then return right back down, and then left leg, right arm, and return back down. We're going to alternate that for 30 seconds. Again, this is a great exercise for your lower back and glutes.
Now let's shift the emphasis to the front again with some planks. We're going to get up into a low plank position and hold this for 30 seconds. My core is engaged, my back is nice and straight. I don't want your hips too high or too low. Keep your back in a nice neutral position, engage your core, and hold for 30 seconds.
Dog is our next exercise. We're going to start down on all fours and then extend your left arm and your right leg, so your left arm goes in front and your right leg goes back. Then we're going to alternate: right leg or right arm forward, left leg back, and then alternate that position for 30 seconds. Try to keep your pelvis nice and level and keep your core engaged while you do this. This is another one of my favorite exercises to give to patients with low back pain.
The last exercise we're going to finish up with is a bird hold. In this quadruped position, we're just going to lift our knees up off of the floor. Engage your abs and keep your knees hovering right over the floor for our last 30 seconds. Like I said, your core is pretty resilient. You can actually train your core every single day. It's not like other muscles in your body that typically require a day or two of rest, so come back and perform this one regularly with me.
The other thing I wanted to mention: if you liked this, I would love to hear about it. Go ahead and leave me a comment down below. I always love to hear from you guys. If you liked it, hit the thumbs-up button, as that really helps get this video out there in the YouTube world. Thanks so much for doing that. If you want to follow up these core exercises with some stretching you can do every day, check out this video right here. YouTube thinks you might like this one. If you haven't subscribed to Tone and Tighten yet, hit the subscribe button right here. I'd love to see you back for future videos. Until next time, hope this helps, and we'll see you again soon.