If you don’t have the time to make regular appointments with a personal trainer due to a busy schedule, excessive travel, or you are not located in the lower mainland; CORE Conditioning now offers ONLINE TRAINING.  This option is designed to cater to those clients who are seeking guidance and assitance towards meeting their fitness goals, but are not able to meet one-on-one regularly with their CORE trainer.

See the SERVICES/LOCATIONS tab for more information

Many people have the desire to become more fit than they currently are; however, the main thing they are lacking is motivation and commitment. Working with a qualified personal trainer provides you with motivation and support to accomplish your personal fitness goals as well as the guidance and knowledge of the most effective way to accomplish them.

Anyone Can Benefit From Personal Training, whether you are an athlete or someone who is experienced in the weight room.   Working with a personal trainer will offer new and challenging exercises, new workout routines, and push you to the next level of strength and fitness to be the step above your competition. 

If you are lacking weight room experience a personal trainer will help guide you through your bodies first stages of change and provide you with education regarding nutrition, frequency of work outs, purpose of exercises, and benefits of fitness.

Having personal training appointments regularly provides a “no-excuses” approach towards improving your fitness level. A trainer has invested time into helping you reach your fitness goals; therefore, you wont able to tell yourself that you do not have enough time or energy to work out and this allows for that extra motivation many people need.

Book an assessment and try it out, there is no time like the present to begin the journey to the new you!!!

Increase CORE strength and stability

The goal of this exercise is to increase CORE stability, including hip strength and balance.  This is a very basic exercise and should be attempted once the pelvic tilt has been perfected.  In order to perform this exercise properly, ensure you are using the correct size ball for your body size; a correctly sized ball will allow you to sit on top of the ball with feet flat on the floor and knees at approximately 90 degrees.

The ball march should be performed as follows:

1. Sit on top of a properly fitted ball for your body size.

2. Abduct arms out to sides to allow for assistance with balance when learning this exercise.  Do not place hands on the ball, as this is cheating and will not place as much stimulation on the core muscles and defeat the purpose of the exercise.

3. Once in a comfortable position on top of the ball perform a pelvic tilt (see CORE exercise 1) in order to engage the CORE and place your pelvis in the proper position to begin the exercise.

4. Keeping the CORE engaged, raise one foot up off of the floor with knee bent (see image) as high as you can and lower the foot back to the floor.  One thing to watch for when raising the knee up is that the opposite hip does not pop out, as this is common if the gluteus medius muscles are weak.  Keeping the CORE engaged and sitting up straight will prevent this from occurring and actually work to strengthen the hips as well as the CORE.
Copyright CORE Conditioning 2010

CORE (‘Kor): “the central, innermost, or most essential part of anything” www.dictionary.com

The CORE is the foundation of the body and essential to optimal sports performance and injury prevention. We take this statement into everyday life with CORE Conditioning because following a regular fitness routine becomes the CORE behind promoting optimal quality of life and long-lasting health. The CORE muscles are the essence, supporting all movements of the body by combining to stabilize the spine, pelvis, and shoulders to create a solid backbone to generate optimal force. This theory applies to life because maintaining a strong CORE (healthy lifestyle) sets the groundwork for enabling you to reach your full potential in work, sports, relationships, or wherever the journey of life may take you.

Increase hamstring and gluteal strength

This exercise concentrates on increasing hamstring strength, but also increases CORE strength and stability due to the instability provided by having only one leg on the ball.  This is an advanced exercise that should be performed only once a double leg ball curl has been perfected.

The single leg ball curl should be performed as follows:

1. Begin this exercise in the same position as the ball bridge

2. Once your body is up off the floor in the bridge position, raise one leg off the ball and straight up in the air.  So you should be in a position with one leg straight with your heel on the ball and one leg straight up in the air.

3. With the single leg, curl the ball towards you until your knee is at 90 degrees (see image) and straighten the leg again.  Continue to repeat this action for approximately 10 repetitions, ensuring the opposite leg remains straight up in the air.  This should create a “muscle burn” in the back of your leg (hamstring) if performed correctly.

4. After performing 10 repetitions with 1 leg lower your body back down to the floor and repeat with the opposite leg.

NOTE: to perform the easier version of this exercise, use both legs to curl the ball towards you and do not raise one leg straight up in the air.

Increase spinal and CORE stabilization

This aim of this exercise is to increase spinal and CORE stabilization as well as strengthen the lower body.   While performing this exercise it is important to remember to keep your CORE engaged throughout the whole exercise in order to decrease the strain placed on the lower back musculature.  Placing your feet on the ball during this exercise creates increased instability, which requires more core activation in order to keep proper form.

The ball bridge should be performed as follows:

1.  Lay on your back with legs straight, heels on the ball, and palms flat on the floor

2.  Perform the pelvic tilt (see pelvic tilt exercise description)

3.  Keeping the core engaged use the legs and core strength to raise your body up in the air until the body is in a straight line\

4.  Hold for 3-5 seconds, lower the body back down to the floor, release the pelvic tilt, and repeat.

NOTE: to increase the difficulty of this exercise, take your palms off of the floor and cross your arms in front of your chest.

Original Story: www.kwantlenchronicle.ca
 
By Jason Jung  
Sunday, 07 October 2007
The Kwantlen women’s basketball team is 10 minutes into practice and players are drenched in sweat, lying on the floor and gasping for air. These are the training results of Kwantlen Eagles’ new conditioning coach Michelle Roots.

In efforts  to building a lean, mean basketball-playing machine, coach Kevin Van Buskirk asked the former Kwantlen Eagles star to build the team’s strength, agility and endurance during the off-season.

 
Michelle Roots
Former star guard and current Eagles conditioning coach Michelle Roots.

“Even though they were in good shape last year, we are a stronger team this year and there will be fewer injuries because of Michelle,” said Buskirk. “She is a huge asset to this program and the amount of work she put in over the summer was exceptional.”

Roots accepted the position at the end of last season because of her love for Kwantlen University College, the coaching staff and the sports program.

“I thought it would be the perfect fit because I am an alumni member and I love the staff here,” said Roots. “I love working with these girls and getting to know them…I want to help them as much as I can.”

“Anything that will build their power” was Roots’ immediate  description of the exercises she leads during Eagles’ practices. Different from years past is the addition of biometric and cardiovascular training to the Eagles’ practice sessions.

“We found a lot of teams dying near the end of the game…we want to be able to run every team out of the gym until the end of the game and not lose our wind in the fourth quarter,” said Roots. “Their confidence will definitely show in their performance as they know that they are bigger and stronger than last year.”

Throughout the summer and during this season, Roots’ focus is on building team strength, power, speed and endurance. Eagles players were required to come in twice a week during the off-season  for cardiovascular exercises and weight training.

The biggest challenge for Roots was not being able to monitor the progress of some players since part of the student’s life is a summer job, studying and spending time on vacation.

Although her current position is different from shooting jump-shots and defending her team’s basket, her goal this year remains the same – to help the Eagles’ win a championship.

Players  rave about Roots’ exercises, saying they feel more confident, comfortable and agile on the count. Second-year Psychology student Sancheska Stranack is already a believer that her team is destined to success with the addition of Roots.

“”We feel [more] confident about making the playoffs this year than last year because of our improvement in strength and agility,” said Stranack. “Our training can get tiring at times but we are firm believers that it will be worth it in the long run.”

After graduating from Kwantlen University College, Roots,  a star guard, went to the University of Winnipeg where she earned a degree in kinesiology and applied health.

From there, she started her own business, called CORE Condition, that focuses on rehabilitation and physical conditioning for clients ranging from professional athletes to people injured in car accidents.

“So far, the business that I have started on my own is doing very well and, hopefully, it will continue to grow,” said Roots.

(For more information on CORE Conditioning, visit CORE-condition.com or email Roots. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it )

Roots and other members of the Eagles coaching staff are confident this year’s team will do better than last year’s.

“Last year’s team had a lot of skillful players but some players didn’t have a lot of previous experience with formal coaching before,” Roots said. “I think the lack of training in conditioning, speed and strength was a factor, because a lot of other teams were stronger, so hopefully our practices will make an impact this season.”

The Dead Bug – Properly engaging and isolating abdominal muscles.

In any CORE exercise the most important thing to focus on is ensuring your are properly engaging and isolating the targeted abdominal muscles without allowing any surrounding muscles to provide assistance in the required movements. This is one of the most common mistakes that occur while performing abdominal exercises for one of many reasons: the person does not know how to properly isolate the abdominal muscles (the pelvic tilt), weakness in the abdominal musculature; therefore, the person is not able to hold the abdominal contraction throughout the course of the exercise, allowing the surrounding muscles to provide assistance in finishing the last couple repetitions. Improper isolation of the abdominal muscles, or lack of, during a CORE exercise can lead to increased strain on the surrounding tissues, most commonly the muscles of the low back (quadratus lumborum and erector spine.) If pain is felt during any CORE exercise that means that the abdominal muscles are not being effectively isolated and the exercise should be stopped.

An exercise to help teach proper isolation of the abdominal muscles while adding dynamic movement of the limbs is the dead bug. This exercise starts by lying supine (on your back) on a mat with your feet flat on the floor and knees bent. Before beginning this exercise you must ensure that you are comfortable with proper execution of the pelvic tilt (see article titled “The Pelvic Tilt”), as it is the main component of this and every other CORE exercise. Once you are lying supine with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, perform a pelvic tilt so that your low back is lying flat against the mat and transverse abdominis (TA) muscle is properly engaged. Next, raise your feet up off the floor while keeping your knees bent at 90 degrees; therefore, you should be in a position with a 90 degree angle between your hips and your thighs (quadriceps) and 90 degree angle in your knees with toes pointing to the ceiling. Due to the basic anatomy of the body, naturally when you raise your feet up off of the floor your low back will want to curve and raise up off the floor; however, this is where strength in your TA muscle is important to maintain a contraction and keep your back lying flat on the floor.

Once you have your knees up and TA muscle activated, straighten the left leg and lower it towards the floor while keeping the right leg bent at 90 degrees. Follow that movement with straightening the right leg and bring the left leg back into the 90 degree bent position. Continue to alternate lowering each leg to the ground for a total of 10 reps; however, if you begin to feel your low back lift off of the floor discontinue the exercise, rest, and try again.

Once this exercise becomes to easy the addition of opposing dynamic arm movements allows for increased difficulty. Begin with arms straight up overhead and while lowering the left leg to the floor also lower the right arm to the floor, keeping the right leg and left arm still. Continue the exercise by bringing the left leg and right arm back to their starting position, then lowering the right leg and left arm to the floor. Perform this for a total of 10-15 reps depending on TA strength and ability to keep your low back flat on the floor.
Remember to perform each repetition at a slow comfortable pace to ensure proper isolation of the abdominal muscles and to avoid unnecessary irritation of the surrounding musculature.

The Pelvic Tilt – Find your “CORE”

What Is A Pelvic Tilt?

Learning how to properly engage your abdominal muscles (CORE) in order to avoid low back pain or strain when performing abdominal strengthening exercises. What Muscles Are Involved in a Pelvic Tilt? Your transverse abdominis muscle (TA) are located deep in your lower abdominals and are the main muscles recruited while performing a pelvic tilt. To properly locate these muscles you need to find the bony prominence known as your anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS). This bone is found by laying supine (on your back) and feeling approximately 5cm below your belly button then to the left or the right approximately 5-6cm. Once found, place your fingers directly on the inside border of the ASIS and apply minor pressure and force yourself to cough. The muscle you feel jump up during this action is your transverse abdominis muscle. Once you are aware of the muscle you will need to recruit it will be easier to understand the technique behind pelvic tilt.

The purpose behind strengthening your TA muscle is to a avoid low back strain while performing exercises, heavy lifting, or doing day to day activities. When CORE muscles are weak and untrained the low back musculature has to work harder instead of working as a team with the CORE muscles to share the load. This causes unhealthy muscle imbalances and pelvic rotations changing natural body mechanics and posture, resulting in injury.

How Do I Do a Pelvic Tilt? To properly perform a pelvic tilt you begin with laying supine on the floor with knees bent and heels flat on the ground. Everyone has a natural lordotic curve in their lower back which prevents your back from touching the ground when laying down; however, the goal of the pelvic tilt is to eliminate that curve by engaging your TA muscle to press your back flat against the ground. You begin the tilt by recruiting your TA muscle and pretending you have a string running from your belly button through to your spine. Imagine someone is pulling on the string causing your back to be pulled flat against the floor and pelvis to rotate backwards and down. It will sometimes help to keep your fingers on the inside border of your ASIS and apply pressure to the TA muscle to ensure you are contracting the correct muscle to perform the movement.

Once you have learned to get your back flat against the floor hold the contraction for approximately five seconds and release, which will cause your pelvis to rotate forwards and bring back the lordotic curve in your back. Repeat the motion of contract and release continuously for approximately ten repetitions, increasing the numbers as you become stronger and more comfortable with the exercise.

Learning to properly perform a pelvic tilt will help you get the most out of any abdominal exercise because you will be able to properly isolate and use your abdominal muscles instead of cheating and letting other muscles provide assistance.
Copyright CORE Conditioning 2008