NIFS Healthy Living Blog

The “core” is a fitness buzzword that has rung in people’s ears for some time now. If you have been in the gym in the past 10–15 years, you have heard about the importance of a strong core in performance and for activities of daily living. And it’s so true: a weak center can lead to many issues throughout the entire body, mainly low-back pain and tight hips. I am not reporting anything new here; a strong trunk is super, super important!

Core Defined

Gray Cook of FMS posed a question once:

“While driving in your car, what would you rather fail, the engine or the brakes?”

Your core is the brakes for your body. Being able to stop movement as opposed to creating movement is the important function of the musculature of the trunk.

Let’s back up for a second and define the core. The definition has been argued for years on message boards, social media, and countless blogs, but I define the core as pretty much everything minus your extremities—chin to knees. The abs, glutes, obliques, and lats are all major assets of the core system. The trunk serves as your stability, your brakes, the glue that holds everything together and keeps you strong.

Group Fitness for Your Core

In recent posts, we have demonstrated core strategies such as marching, crawling, and dead bugs as great ways to get the job done on your own; but what if you love exercising in a group and want to target your core?

Les Mills CORE (was CXWORX) is a 30-minute group fitness class that is centered around your center. It is a challenging core workout that utilizes resistance tubing and plate weight in an array of different ways. Exercises are performed standing and on the ground, adding many dimensions to your training. Each class begins with a warmup and can consist of up to five different core segments all choreographed to music.

How to Get the Most Out of Your LM CORE Class

Here are 5 tips for getting started and getting the most from your class:

• Get there early and check in with the instructor to get the lowdown on what you can expect.
• Grab a lighter resistance tube to start and really focus on the technique and tempo.
• Pay attention to your instructor and the teaching cues they give for each of the movements.
• Try a few classes to really get a good feel for the movements—don’t stop after one.
• Be receptive to technique cues. You joined a class led by an expert, so utilize their knowledge.

Developing and maintaining a strong, durable core will improve all areas of fitness and movement. Everything really derives from the center, and a stronger center equals a stronger whole.

Les Mills at NIFS

Find out if  Les Mills CORE is right for you. Check out the Group Fitness Schedule for class times.

This blog was written by Tony Maloney, ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

CXWORX is all about building core strength, which is important for living a more functional life. CXWORX targets the trunk, which is the area from the mid-thigh to the shoulders, and includes both the front and back sides of the body.

CXWORX is a 30-minute choreographed group fitness class created by Les Mills. It begins with a warmup and breaks off into working different sections of the core with movements both on the mat and standing. Participants use a resistance tube to add load to the muscles to increase muscle strength.

The Importance of a Strong Core

Most people think about a strong core as six-pack abs and doing sit-ups. The core is made up of more than just abs, but exactly as it sounds, it’s the core of your body. Building strength in those muscles will benefit you for the rest of your life. All movements stem from your core and provide support for everyday tasks you perform.

Having a strong core is of huge importance when it comes to balance and stability. Strong core muscles will also help improve your posture. Having good posture is better for your spine, prevents lower back pain or injuries, and allows you to breathe easier. Having a strong core helps you stand taller and straighter.

Working the Core

Working the core is more than just doing sit-ups. CXWORX is beneficial because it incorporates many movement patterns and exercises to strengthen and tone all muscle groups associated with the core. Trunk flexion and extension, trunk rotation, lateral trunk flexion, abdominal compression, and spinal stability are all movement patterns that you will perform in a CXWORX class to help build a balanced, strong core.

Check NIFS’s Group Fitness Schedule to find a class time that’s convenient for you!

This blog was written by Brittany Ignas, BS in Kinesiology, 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Certified, Stott Pilates Certified, and Fitness Coordinator. To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.

More than just eye candy to some, the muscles of the core have one of the greatest responsibilities to the human body. Yes, everyone wants those washboard abs and to get rid of the undesired abdominal fat that is so often stored in the midsection. But what if you understood the importance of the core and shifted your thinking about why you should be training this area daily?

Why Core Strength Is Important

The first step to shifting your mindset is to understand why the core is essential to the body and to human movement. The core musculature is key in maintaining posture and establishing movement. Without a strong midsection, the framework of your body would crumble to the ground. The core helps in all the forms of posture, including sitting, standing, moving, lying down, getting up, twisting, and turning. Secondly, having a strong core helps to prevent injuries. Having that solid foundation and stability at the center of your body reduces your risk of injury. No matter what you do in your everyday life—taking out the trash, picking up the kids, walking the dog, or sitting at a desk all day—the core muscles are working. Thus, you must make sure that you are building core training into your programming.

Strengthen Your Core

This should give you enough good reasons to want to have a better core. So how do you do that? The traditional way of doing 500 crunches or sit-ups in order to get that six-pack has left and the wide world of planks and utilizing equipment like medicine balls or resistance bands is in. There are even classes built around simple core training. And this is where NIFS’ group fitness class of the month, CXWORX, comes into play. This class is offered nearly every day of the week, many times during more than just one time slot, and is designed around building core strength.

Let’s look at the benefits of taking a Les Mills CXWORX class:

• In and out in 30 minutes: There is no reason you cannot make this class fit into your schedule. With a short and sweet 30-minute format, you can squeeze this in before work, on your lunch break, or before you head home for the evening.
• Built to strengthen the core: While this class sees some additional benefits that we will discuss in the next few points, CXWORX is built around the foundation of working to build a strong core. With minimal equipment like a mat, weight plate, and resistance band, this class with help to build that rock-solid foundation you are looking for.
• Build core endurance: Not only are you building overall strength, but you’re increasing core endurance as well. It’s important to be able to maintain strength and stability of the core for longer to help posture both in movement and while stationary.
• Additional benefits: As mentioned above, not only does CXWORX benefit the core musculature, but the legs, hips, and butt also get a workout. All these parts of the body are attached to the core muscles and are just as important to work.

If you are ready to get in some core work, try CXWORX today! As you strengthen your core, watch how many other things improve, like movement and running speed. Click here for the latest group fitness schedule. And if you can’t make one of these classes work, try another group fitness class; a majority of them have additional core work built into the program!

This blog was written by Amanda Bireline, Fitness Center Manager. To read more about the NIFS bloggers, click here.