Health, Strength­en­ing your core

Your core muscles are essen­tial to sup­port your spine, but many people often for­get to exer­cise them.

     https://www.pressreader.com/malaysia/the-star-malaysia/20251207/282492895014630

By Dr SITARAMARAO NAGESWERARAV

7 Dec 2025

YOUR core is like Wifi – when it’s weak, everything dis­con­nects.

1 Dead bug with heel slide: 1. Lie on your back with both your knees bent at 90° in the air. exhale fully to engage the core, then bring one foot down to touch the floor. — Pho­tos: dr Sit­ara­marao nageswer­arav

A hun­dred sit-ups a day won’t give you a strong core.

That’s because the core isn’t just your abs (abdom­inal muscles) – it’s the net­work of deep muscles around your stom­ach, back and hips that keeps your body bal­anced, sup­por­ted and stable.

Your core is your body’s cent­ral sta­bil­iser, even your spine depends on it for sup­port.

Decreased move­ment or over­do­ing a move­ment, coupled with weight gain and poor nutri­tion, weak­ens the spine and con­nect­ive tis­sues, caus­ing the lat­ter to wear down.

This even­tu­ally leads to chronic lower back pain, disc her­ni­ation and poor pos­ture.

The four lay­ers of the core con­sist of:

> Deep core sta­bil­isers - the 

inner “cor­set” muscles > Super­fi­cial core movers - the vis­ible abs

> Lat­eral and pos­terior core - the core-to-hip con­nect­ors > Func­tional net­work - sup­port­ing sta­bil­isers for every­day move­ment.

A strong core:

> Keeps your pos­ture upright

and con­fid­ent

> Pro­tects your back from injury,

and

> Improves bal­ance and every­day move­ment.

When the core is weak, the spine loses its nat­ural brace.

Spinal seg­ments start to shear and com­press, lead­ing to chronic lower back pain, disc her­ni­ation and poor pos­ture.

Your pos­ture is a mir­ror of your health, so pay atten­tion to it!

Other effects include:

> A roun­ded upper back (kyphosis)

> Pel­vic tilt or exag­ger­ated lumbar curve

> Core inhib­i­tion and glu­teal amne­sia (yes, your butt can “for­get” how to work).

The longer you sit, the more your core muscles dis­en­gage, caus­ing your brain to “for­get” about them.

From the age of 35 onwards, muscle mass begins to decline.

The deep sta­bil­isers, such as the trans­versus abdominis, are often the first to weaken because they’re rarely activ­ated in daily life.

Even reg­u­lar gym-goers tend to train what they can see (e.g. arms, chest and legs), rather than what they can feel (e.g. the deep core).

However, you don’t need fancy machines to train your core. Try this instead:

> Tighten your abdom­inal wall (like bra­cing for a gentle punch) while walk­ing, climb­ing stairs or car­ry­ing gro­cer­ies.

> Sit tall, walk upright and stretch for five minutes every half-an-hour of sit­ting. Small adjust­ments in breath­ing and pos­ture make a big dif­fer­ence.

Two other power­ful core exer­cises you can do at home are:

> Dead bug with heel slide (deep core repat­tern­ing)

This exer­cise tar­gets the trans­verse abdominis, pel­vic sta­bil­isers and deep spinal flex­ors.

It retrains coordin­a­tion between the dia­phragm, core and your pel­vic floor – all cru­cial for pos­ture and spine sup­port. > Half-kneel­ing pal­lof press (rota­tional sta­bil­ity for real life)

This exer­cise tar­gets the obliques, mul­ti­fidus, glu­teus medius and trans­versus abdominis.

It builds anti-rota­tion strength – the body’s defence against twist­ing stress dur­ing daily activ­it­ies.

As uncon­ven­tional as these moves may seem, they’re backed by solid research and proven to improve func­tional strength and pos­ture.

The core doesn’t age – we do. Train it now or pre­pare to make friend­ship brace­lets with your chiro­practor later.

Dr Sit­ara­marao Nageswer­arav is a gen­eral prac­ti­tioner (GP) and cer­ti­fied fit­ness trainer. This is the first of a three-part series, which will be pub­lished fort­nightly. For more inform­a­tion, email star­health@the­star.com.my.

The inform­a­tion provided is for edu­ca­tional and com­mu­nic­a­tion pur­poses only, and should not be con­sidered as med­ical advice. The Star does not give any war­ranty on accur­acy, com­plete­ness, func­tion­al­ity, use­ful­ness or other assur­ances as to the con­tent appear­ing in this art­icle. The Star dis­claims all respons­ib­il­ity for any losses, dam­age to prop­erty or per­sonal injury suffered dir­ectly or indir­ectly from reli­ance on such inform­a­tion.

7 Great Core Strengthening Exercises - Ask Doctor Jo  

896,950 views 22 Mar 2018

Core strengthening exercises are great for improving your core strength. They can help prevent injury, increase core stability, and improve balance. I start with some beginner core exercises & then progresses to harder ones. More core exercises:    • Swiss Ball Core & Back Strengthening Exerc...   Progress through these core strength exercises at your own pace. If this is your first time doing core exercises, you may not be ready for the last ones yet. It's better to do the easy ones first and then see how you feel the next day. The first exercise is a pelvic tilt. This is great to get the core moving, and strengthening the whole pelvic area. The second core exercise is going into a bridge. This not only works your core, but it also works your glutes and hamstrings. If two legs are easy, you can do them with one leg at a time. The third exercise is with a Swiss or therapy ball. A prayer plank on the ball is a great way to activate your core. You can do this modified or a full plank. Next you will do a trunk rotation lying down with your feet on the ball. This is great for your oblique muscles. You can also do the trunk rotation seated on the ball. Using a weight will give you an extra workout, but you don’t have to use one. Now for some harder ones for core strengthening. This one is in tall kneeling, and you will lean back slightly. You can have someone hold onto your feet, or you can place them under something for support. When you are ready, you can do them without any support. This works your core, glutes, hamstrings, and quads. Finally you will do a standing march with elbow tap. You can do this on the same side or opposite sides. Try not do bend your back forward, and use your core to lift your knees. Related Videos: Back Pain Core & Back Strengthening Exercises:    • Back Pain Core & Back Strengthening Exerci...   Exercise Ball Core and Back Strengthening Exercises (Moderate):    • Exercise Ball Core and Back Strengthening ...  

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