Your Core
By Tom Smith
The big fitness thing now is strengthening the "core", the muscles around your abdomen and pelvis that stabilize you as you do anything else. There seems to be a lot to it, especially if you are someone who has any kind of back problems.
Here are some good core exercises, from the Mayo Clinic. Oddly, the guy doing them looks a lot like me after I buzz my head (cheaper than Supercuts) except his skin is a few tones darker. Kudos to the Mayo Clinic for using a real guy instead of some model with an 8 pack. Good
explanation from those famous doctors in the snowy north.
More on the core later. In the meantime, don't do what I did and buy a $1500 home gym. You're much better off with an exercise
ball (scroll down to "fitness ball . . . "), a bench and some dumbbells. Save your money and buy one of
these, the
Holy Grail of any gym's torture devices.
Oh yeah, and about
diets.
posted by thomas at 2/19/2004 10:30:00 AM
