Core Strength Made Simple: Expert Physical Therapy Tips
Is back pain making standing tall more difficult? Have you noticed you don’t feel as balanced as you once used to? What’s the connection? These are both signs that may indicate core muscle weakness. At PhysioWorks, our physical therapists can help you figure out if your core is affecting your condition and, if so, how to get it strong again!
Your core muscles help you do a lot — from sitting to standing to getting up and down from chairs. A strong core allows smooth, coordinated actions, thus impacting almost every activity you do every day. If your core muscles are weak, they may affect your function and possibly your pain levels.
It’s important to note that core muscles are not just important for physical fitness but are also essential to the overall quality of life. Our physical therapists understand the importance of core strength and will assess you to determine if it’s affecting your daily activities. With our expert guidance, you’ll learn how to engage your muscles in how they were designed to move!
Contact us today to set up an appointment or learn more about how our team can help you strengthen your core!
What Is the “Core”?
When most people think of core muscles, they immediately think of the abdominals. However, the core muscles comprise the lower back, hip, pelvis, pelvic floor, and even the diaphragm muscle.
Significant weakness in the core will often lead to compensations and straining of different body areas, most commonly the back and neck muscles. As a result, this leads to undesirable consequences, such as poor posture, fatigue, or pain.
The muscles that make up your core are designed to help stabilize your body, support your posture, ensure your balance, and support movements in all directions. If any of these muscles are weak, injured, or used inappropriately, your trunk becomes unstable, making it difficult for your body to function correctly.
The core assists in almost every movement, from bending down to picking up an object to standing up straight. It also plays a significant role in breathing, lifting a heavy object, twisting your body, or even just walking. Core strength is also essential in sports performances, allowing the body to balance and control movements while running, jumping, and sustaining contact. A strong core enhances power, speed, coordination, and agility with all sports and recreational pursuits. It also can help reduce the risk of injuries and may help to prevent chronic lower back pain.
A strong core is vital to your overall health, functional movement, and athletic performance. Proper core training helps maintain spine health, ensures optimal performance in your daily life, and can help prevent various injuries.
Building Core Strength with Expert Guidance
Physical therapy is a great starting point for building your core strength. Our licensed therapists will conduct a detailed evaluation to identify the underlying muscle weaknesses and strategies to strengthen them.
Whether you feel pain in your back, neck, shoulders, or legs, we will thoroughly analyze your posture, movement patterns, and strength, pinpointing the exact cause of the pain. From there, we will create an individualized treatment plan for you based on your specific needs to strengthen your core, improve your posture, and alleviate pain.
Core stability is about both muscular strength and proper sensory input. This sensory input informs the central nervous system about your body’s movements and positions to facilitate specific actions, ensuring your body reacts appropriately. When functioning properly, our body can perform the most basic tasks and advanced athletic activities.
Our therapists will design a program to teach you how to use your core muscles properly. We will create a strength program focusing on core-specific exercises and progressing to multi-joint free-weight exercises for comprehensive core muscle training. You can anticipate continuous feedback and guidance for fine-tuning your movements to ensure optimal spinal stabilization through a strong core.
Book Your Appointment at PhysioWorks Today!
Our physical therapy team will assess your condition to identify how your core affects your function. We’ll educate you on how your core affects your physical activity and contributes to the pain you may be experiencing. Our individualized exercise programs can reduce your pain and improve your overall quality of life!
Call us today to set up an appointment!
Healthy Recipe
Minted Couscous Salad
Bright, refreshing, and bursting with flavor, this Minted Couscous Salad is the perfect addition to any summer spread. Light yet satisfying, it’s a versatile dish you’ll want to make all season long.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry couscous
- 1 cup jarred roasted red peppers
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Juice from 1/2 lemon
- 1 tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 English cucumber, diced
- 1/2 cup mint (or flat-leaf parsley)
- Salt and pepper
Directions
Cook the couscous according to package directions. Fluff with fork. Meanwhile, dice roasted red peppers and add diced tomato and cucumber to a bowl. Add lemon juice and olive oil and stir to combine. Finely chop mint (or parsley) and add to bowl, along with the cooked couscous, and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!
Exercise of the Month
BIRD DOG
Begin on hands and knees with your core engaged. Extend one arm and the opposite leg straight out, keeping your back flat. Hold briefly, return to start, and alternate sides to improve stability and balance.
August Word Scramble
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kbaracyd
mrmesu
aicgmnp
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fosrnwlue
Answer Key
relaxation
backyard
summer
camping
playground
sunflower
8 Nutrition Tips for A Healthy Summer
Summer weekends at the beach, backyard barbecues, and outdoor dinners are finally here, but these gatherings are often loaded with high-calorie pasta salads, chips, ice cream, cocktails and beers. Enjoy your warm weather favorites while keeping your nutrition in check with the tips below.
1. Drink green tea instead of sweet tea. Green tea has a natural component that helps speed up your metabolism. Skip the box tea and opt for the brew-it-yourself with boiling water and a tea-bag-type tea.
2. Serve seafood. Summer is the ideal time to get the freshest catch from your local grocer. Grill salmon, tuna, lobster, steamer clams, and calamari for a low-calorie, protein-packed lunch or dinner.
3. Don’t skip breakfast. When you wake up in the morning, your body is running on fumes. Eating a breakfast with protein, carbs, and healthy fat kicks your metabolism into high gear and provides energy for the day.
4. Enjoy summer fruits and veggies. It’s easy to sink into a vegetable rut, eating the same boring veggies week after week, but with summer comes fresh choices. Including a mix of in-season colorful veggies in your meals gives your body a nutrient kick.
5. Snack at work. Bring snacks to work and graze throughout the day. When you eat more often—five to six times per day—you’re far less likely to overeat and more likely to stay energized.
6. Hydrate often. The summer heat makes you more susceptible to dehydration. Start off your day by drinking two glasses of water and keep drinking at each meal, as well as before and after your workout, to stay hydrated. Carry a water bottle with you as a reminder to stay hydrated.
7. Recover with a post-workout shake. After exercising, blend your favorite summer fruits and a scoop of whey protein into a shake to kickstart the muscle-building process, help your body recover from training, and boost your energy levels.
8. Pre-plan your meals. You plan your weekend getaways and activities for summer. Why not your meals? Make it easy by preparing all of your food on Sunday so that you have enough meals for the week. The best part: You’ll save money.
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Staff Spotlight
Danny Beeman
CEO, MPT, CFCE, PGAP
Karl Lange
PT, CFCE, Clinic Director
Luda Moskvich
Lead PTA, COEE
Alicia Ables
PTA, CES
Iryna Hrytsyuk
COTA, Industrial Rehabilitation Supervisor, CI
Natalia Zhuk
COTA/L
Leah Salius
Administrative Supervisor
Michaela Caragiorgio
Billing Supervisor
Sherlyn Dagohoy
Patient Care Coordinator
Jeric Tumaob
Patient Care Coordinator
Michael Kovach
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Christin Hitchcock
Physical Therapist
Cara Thomas
Patient Care Coordinator