Strengthening your core in standing (Part 2)

Physical therapy

﻿Hi there, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today for our lesson. We are on unit 2, and this is lesson 11 on core strengthening. But what we'll be doing today is focusing a little bit more on core strengthening in a standing position. So what we'll do is we'll begin with a recap of core strengthening, and then we will look at an activity of a strengthening exercise in standing. And today's activity is going to be step-standing. So for this activity, the equipment that you'll need is perhaps a small ball, so you might either have a Pilates style ball, you might have a football, you don't want it too heavy, or a beach ball. So you can have a little look and see the ball that I use in the video. And you'll also need a partner for this activity so you might need some help from a parent or carer or perhaps a sibling. And you will need to do it on a step. So in the video, I'm using a book to act as a step, so you can either use a book or you can do it on some stairs, on the bottom step. So if you'd like to have a think about those things and get them ready, then we can make a start. I would just like to give you a little message from our team. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. So you may be watching this as a child by yourself, or you might be with a parent or carer. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. And each lesson we will aim to give you some ideas and activities that can be carried out, either at home or in school. You may already have specific programmes that you're using, or advice that has been given to you by your child's school or therapist, so please make sure that you're using any information I'm giving you alongside anything you already have. And if you do have any questions or would like help tailoring this to their needs then please make sure you get in contact with your local therapy service. So let us being with a recap on why your core strength's important. So co-ordination of the core muscles are needed with just enough contraction at the right time, and in the right sequence. So for that initial co-ordination to happen, you need to have that strength there first. And your core strength needs to be activated to make sure that your head and trunk are steady so that you can move in a better way and more freely. So let's go through this flowchart. If you have a strong and stable core, this can help prevent injury. A strong and stable core can protect your body, so it protects all the area around where it is, so that includes your spine, so it helps maintain those natural curves of your spine that we talked about in unit 1. And a strong and stable core can help your posture. And remember that your posture can be helped by your core but your core can be helped by your posture. So they can both work together if you concentrate on each one as well. And if you've got a strong and stable core, this can help reduce and prevent back pain. I'm now going to talk with you on exercise and then there will be a video demonstration where I'll talk in more detail about it. So the exercise I'd like you to try is an exercise in standing, and it's a step-standing exercise where you're going to throw and catch a ball with a partner. So your starting position is standing with your legs about hip-width apart. So in the video you'll see that I'm wearings socks to do this activity, I just want to point out to you that if you find it slippery in a pair of socks and they haven't got a grip on them, then I would suggest doing it in bare feet. Because you want to make sure they you're safe when you're on the step. So just a little point to remember there, and if you're with a parent and carer, just get them to help you with that if you need to take your socks off. So if you stand and you're going to place one foot on a book or a small step. So in the video I'm using a small book and it just places you in a position where you are step-standing, so one foot is in front of the other. So you could start off with your right foot in front and then swap to your left so you could see which side you prefer, or maybe seed which side is a little bit more challenging for you. And then when you're in that position, you're going to make sure you're engaging your tummy muscles to hold that position nicely, and then you're going to throw and catch a ball, using two hands, to your partner. So if you watch the video demonstration now, you can then pause the video and have a go at the exercise yourself. And then if you restart again, you can listen to some extensions, or some ways to simplify the activity. So you'll see here in this video that I have got my right foot up on a small book. You can either do it on a book or a step, whatever you've got available and you prefer. So I've got my feet a good distance apart in that step-standing position and my partner is throwing and catching the ball to me. And then I'm varying the direction that I'm receiving the ball, so my partner's throwing it to my right side, and to my left side, and then back to the middle. So you can make it a bit more challenging by doing that. You can also take the book away and just do some standing still and throwing and catching, which is a simplified version. So here, you've still got to use your tummy muscles to really keep that position of your body and receive the ball as well. And then here, I'm showing you I am doing some one-leg standing, and throwing and catching. So I'm on my right leg and then I'm swapping to my left and I'm throwing and catching the ball where my balance is being challenged a little bit. So this is also an extension of the activity. So as I showed you in the video, there are some ways to extend and simplify this activity. So I'll just talk through them now so that you can have a go yourself. So you can make it more challenging by trying to balance on one leg without using a book or step for support. So you could, as I showed there, balance on your left or your right leg, try each side. Or you might have a preference and see how you get on with that one. You can change the direction and the speed the ball is being thrown. So you would've seen there that my partner were at times throwing it to my right side, to my left side, you could slow the speed down, you could speed the ball up. So you can have a play around with that one. And you could just spend a bit more time doing the activity, so increasing the amount of time that you're doing the activity for just to challenge yourself a bit more, and you can build that one up. There's some ways to simplify the activity, you can stand with your feet hip-width apart and keep them positioned firmly on the floor so, as I demonstrated in the video, you saw me just standing and you're still working those tummy muscles 'cause you've got to maintain that standing posture while you are doing the activity. You can begin with the activity, see how you get on, and then maybe you could see whether you can try the step-stand after you've done that one for a while, the throwing and catching. Another way to simplify is to slow the speed of the ball down and lastly there, decrease the amount of time that you're doing the exercise for. So start off with a small amount of time and build that up. If you'd like to have a go at those now, pause the video, have a go yourself, and then rejoin afterwards. How did you get on with the activity of step-standing? I hope you managed to try it okay, and if you needed to use the options of extending or simplifying as best suited you. So we have come to the end of our lesson, so I'd like to say to you, thank you for joining me. Please join me next time where we will be continuing on the topic of core strengthening and we will be moving on to looking at an activity in a cramped position. So if you'd like to find out more, then you can please join me then. So thanks for joining me, have a great day, and I will see you very soon. Goodbye.

Strengthening your core in standing (Part 2)

Strengthening your core in standing (Part 2)

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