A Trainer Says Working This ‘Forgotten’ Muscle Group Is the Key to a Stronger Core

Building a stronger core is about more than just doing tons of crunches. Your core encompasses nearly a dozen muscles in your trunk, and by focusing your workouts on only a select few of them, you’re missing out on some serious strength. One spot that could use a little extra attention? Your back.

“The back is always forgotten when we think about core workouts,” says Alex Lyons, creator and founder of The Workup. And in this week’s Trainer of the Month core stability workout with sliders,  she wants to change that. “We’re not just going to be on our backs doing crunches… we want to think about those postural muscles and really get that nice long, strong back,” she says.

Sliders are great for this type of all-around core workout, because they add instability to your movements. This challenges your balance, and forces you to engage your entire core to keep proper form. Lyons’ 10-minute workout features standard moves like planks and glute bridges, which are made more challenging by the fact that you’re performing them on top of a slippery surface (note: if you don’t have sliders, you can sub in towels or pieces of paper). As she puts it, get ready for a “spicy” 10 minutes of work.

“I wouldn’t say this is the easiest core workout that we’re going to do,” says Lyons, so expect this 10-minute workout to challenge you. “It’s definitely something that you can benchmark and take later on and see how your course stability amps up,” she adds, encouraging you to come back to it at the end of the month and see how much you’ve improved. You can also use it as a warm-up for other workouts.

In the words of Lyons, “Let’s get the party started!” Press play to see the workout in action.

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