Anyone who has ever hurt their back, which can be embarrassingly debilitating, knows that they could and should have been using their core better.  But what does that mean?

In our last newsletter, we gave you some good exercises to strengthen your core.

Check out the video here:

But it is not enough to simply strengthen your core with countless planks and sit-ups.

Your core involves a group of muscles, including your abs, your back muscles as well as your glutes and hips, that form a tight protective cylinder around your spine.  They not only protect your spine from external forces (think a punch to the stomach) but also dispersed any force and compression in the spine to the outside.

Here Dr. Pain demonstrates how the core is used.   But more importantly, that we should be using it automatically in our everyday movements.  It is not enough to simply do lots of planks and sit-ups.  We have to transfer that strength to our lives, even with the simplest of movements.

Watch, and remember to always have that core fired up!  Avoid the Pain!