EASY CORE STRENGTHENING EXERCISES Happy Thanksgiving!  Are you running a turkey trot this morning (giving yourself a chance to lose a few calories before piling them on later today)?  As promised, I’m sharing some easy, non-machine exercises to strengthen your core. Because it’s a holiday, I’m making this week’s blog short and sweet. The Functional Aging Institute, sponsor of a certification course I’m taking, especially suggests core exercises recommended by Dr. Stuart McGill. McGill is a professor of spine biomechanics in the department of kinesiology at Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada. (https://uwaterloo.ca/applied-health-sciences/hes-got-our-backs). With more than 30 years of clinical research...

ENGAGE YOUR CORE! You’ve heard it before. “Engage your core!” “Tighten your core!” while you’re performing such exercises as a plank or squat. But strengthening your core muscles has real-world benefits in addition to perfecting your workouts  What is Your “Core?” The core is composed of the lumbar spine and a group of muscles that can co-contract to stiffen the torso. These core muscles include the rectus abdominus (your “abs”) the transversus abdominus, internal and external obliques, plus major muscles in the pelvic floor. The core is supremely important because it joins your lower and upper body helping them work...