Are You REALLY Targeting Your Core?

C-O-R-E.

Means "The Epicenter.  The Foundation."

In the world of fitness, core means everything. . . and with good reason.  Without adequate core strength and stability, achieving optimal performance results is next to impossible.

Outside the gym, core means everything. . . and with good reason.  Core habits of healthy living effect the quality of our very existence.

Ironically, however, many of us train one and frequently neglect the other.

We train the physical core. . . and then we go out and make everything else beside ourselves a priority.

We work for tangible core strength, but treat nutrition, sleep, and moderation of (mental/spiritual/ emotional) stress as afterthoughts while navigating through our busy lives.

Why is this?  Why do we focus predominantly on the physical aspect of core strength, when it's only a small pixel of the big "health and fitness" picture?

Why do we disregard the core principles of survival and quality living - treating them as mere "afterthoughts" - when those provide the foundation upon which a strong core is built?

It's time for this to change.

It's time for us to re-learn to focus on the core that matters most.  It's time for us to focus on health and fitness from an increasingly holistic perspective.  It's time to make strength training an entity that manifests itself OUT OF a healthy lifestyle. . . not as something that is a means to the end.

Because, in the end, if we overemphasize physical core strength -- without giving the underlying core principles suitable training and attention -- we'll be too sick, too tired, too stressed or too overtrained to care about the strength of our core.

Comments

[ssgreylord]

Very cool insights. I'd never thought of the core as outside of the physical realm. my knowledge was based on fitness - i.e., core strength, pilates, etc. It was great to challenge me to take a more holistic approach that we must not forget or ignore. Thanks for a great post.

P.S. Am still trying to subscribe to your RSS feed and get the same error message every time about Feedburner blah blah blah (that's the extent of my understanding of computer jargon). Will keep trying.

[Liane Schmidt]

Great post!

Blessings & best wishes.

Sincerely,

-Liane Schmidt.