You Might Be in a Core Workout Rut and Not Even Know It. Here's How to Fix It.

Establishing a workout routine is an incredibly common struggle. I hear about it all the time in my work as a yoga teacher and personal trainer. Overcoming inertia to start and maintain a consistent strength-training or yoga practice takes discipline and time. However, once someone commits, they often tend to keep practicing the same exercises over and over. Workouts become a copy and paste from one day to the next. This is particularly true of core workouts.

Although having a consistent workout routine can build mastery of the poses or exercises, performing the same core-strengthening poses or exercises day after day is actually inefficient and can compromise your results while causing other issues.

Why You Need to Vary Your Core Workouts

Following are some of the drawbacks of endlessly repeating the same exercises as well as the benefits of changing things up.

1. Prevent Strength Plateaus

Consistently performing the same core-strengthening yoga poses or ab exercises will help your body strengthen the particular muscle groups targeted. However, unless you regularly progress the intensity of the exercise, your body will adapt to the point where the exercise is no longer demanding. This means your muscles will no longer receive the same stimulus that triggers increases in strength or size.

In other words, you’ll stop reaping the benefits of that exercise. But changing things up taxes your body in unexpected and challenging ways that force your muscles to adapt and strengthen.

2. Improve Functional Strength

What is commonly considered the “core” includes several muscles that work together to stabilize the spine and trunk in your posture and your everyday life. Studies show that different core muscles are activated by different types of exercises.

For example, the internal obliques are targeted the most with core stability exercises such as Plank, whereas the deep and tricky-to-target spinal stabilizers such as the multifidus are activated with more focused core exercises such as stability ball crunches.

Ensuring that your training targets each of the core muscles, and not just the most obvious ones, via a variety of yoga poses and exercises ensures your core can support any movements you perform in workouts or life, known as functional strength. It can even improve performance in various athletic endeavors.

3. Reduce the Risk of Muscle Imbalances

Many people have a tendency to focus solely on the abdominal muscles that they can see in the mirror, namely the upper abs (the upper portion of the rectus abdominis). However, by neglecting the opposing muscles (the back extensor group) and the supporting obliques (side abdominal muscles), you will eventually develop strength imbalances between the front and back sides of your body. This can alter your pelvic positioning, leading to poor posture, back pain, and decreased functional strength.

Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link—or weakest core muscles! Variety in your core strength routine is critical to prevent muscle imbalances. A varied workout routine not only improves functional strength but decreases the risk of injury during your workouts or everyday life, especially in your lower back.

4. Prevent Boredom

Performing the same few core-strengthening yoga poses or ab exercises every day gets incredibly monotonous. This can cause boredom, loss of engagement or presence during the workout, and a decreased motivation to work out.

When you regularly incorporate different yoga poses or ab exercises into your workout routine, it challenges your brain and body to focus and engage in a new way. It can be exciting to master a new challenging balancing pose or progress from a basic Plank to a more challenging option, such as Side Plank, boosting your self-esteem and enthusiasm for your workout routine.

5. Reduce Risk of Overuse Injuries

Regularly performing the same exact exercises in the same exact way can overtax the muscles, both the primary core muscles and the more supportive ones, leading to an increased risk of overuse injuries. The resulting pain and lack of mobility can not only affect your training but how you engage with your everyday life.

How to Vary Your Core Workouts

Plank. Crunches. Boat Pose. Tired of these and other moves you rely on over and over and over again? Here’s how to change things up.

1. Include Static and Dynamic Exercises

A well-rounded core workout includes exercises that involve moving the core as well as those that involve holding static postures to build stability.

For example, you want to train the core muscles to stabilize the body and prevent movement as in Plank or Chaturanga. But you also want to train them to contract and move the body, such as  transitioning from Warrior 2 to Extended Triangle.

2. Prioritize Functionality Over Aesthetics

Instead of setting your goal to be something like getting visible abs, shift your intentions to building a functionally strong core. This means you want to find yourself moving through the various exercises with more ease. Remember to focus as much on the back muscles and sides of the core as you do the abs when doing your core workouts.

3. Add External Equipment

Don’t be afraid to include medicine balls, yoga stability balls, resistance bands, BOSU balls, suspension straps, or a Pilates ring in your workout if you have access to those at your gym.

Adding weight or additional resistance through bands helps build muscle. Working with balls adds an element of instability which in turn trains your core to strengthen the smaller, difficult-to-target stabilizing muscles of the core.

4. Play Around with Tempo and Reps

If you have limited access to equipment and don’t want to take the time to learn new exercises or poses, play around with the timing and number of reps you practice in your existing routine.

For example, try moving as slowly as possible through Bird Dog or any other transition and/or increase the number of repetitions. This forces your muscles to engage in a different way and for a longer period of time without rest.

5. Think Outside the Box (or Yoga Mat!)

Many people tend to focus exclusively on targeting the obvious core muscles. However, the best core workouts incorporate full-body movements in all directions. In fact, studies suggest that several core muscles—including the rectus abdominis, external obliques, and erector spinae—are activated more during free-weight exercises such as Bulgarian split squats, lunges, and regular squats rather than core-specific exercises such as Planks and crunches.

6. Move Asymmetrically

You’ll get the best bang for your buck by practicing unilateral core exercises in which you do something only on the right or left side of your body, particularly when it involves movement. This imbalance requires your abdominal, back muscles, and supporting core muscles to engage and stabilize your spine and pelvis throughout the asymmetrical movement.

Many yoga poses, including the Warrior series, particularly when practiced in a flowing succession, are fantastic for training the core with unilateral and functional demands.

Why Yoga is the Perfect Core-Strengthening Workout

Keep in mind that yoga classes tend to offer all of the above without necessarily being explicitly labeled “Core-Strengthening Yoga.” For example, vinyasa yoga classes are all about flowing from one pose to another in a sequence. These graceful transitions involve keeping your core engaged to maintain balance, posture, and alignment. Also, many yoga poses, such as the Warrior series, are fantastic for training the core with unilateral exercises.

Not sure how to get started? Start by incorporating one or two core-strengthening poses at a time to your routine or try a dedicated 10-minute core workout here.