Why is core strength important?

Physical therapy

﻿Hi, my name is Sophie Brazier. I'm a children's physiotherapist. Thank you for joining me today, where we are going to be continuing talking about core strengthening. Today, we will take a closer look at why is core strength important. So we'll start off with a little introduction as to why it is important. And then we will finish with an activity, you'll be able to try. The activity won't require any equipment, but you might need some help from a parent or carer. What the activity is going to do, is take you through a little movement sequence, where it would get you thinking about your core muscles and how they're working. How about we 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. We're in lesson one, we looked at what is core strength, and now we're going to be focusing on, why is core strength important? So let's take a closer look. So having core strength is important because you need that strength to be there for coordination of the muscles to occur. And coordination of those muscles is needed with just enough contraction at exactly the right time, and in the right sequence. So when you're moving parts of your body, your core muscles are working together to produce that sequence. And your core strength needs to be activated to make sure your head and trunk is steady. And this is important because then you're able to move the rest of your body in a better way and more freely. Arms and your legs will be able to move well, if those core muscles are working in the middle of your body. Let me take you through this little flow chart. So if you have a strong and stable core, this can help prevent injury, it will protect your body and it will help your posture. If you need a recap on posture, please take a look back at unit one. So a good strong core will help your posture, and this will help reduce and prevent any back pain. I'd like you to get this little activity a try. So if you follow this movement sequence below, where you will need to use your core muscles, the first thing you'll start by kneeling on the floor. Then you will bring yourself up into a high kneeling position holding onto support with one hand. This support may be a bench, or a chair, or a study surface. Then I'd like you to reach the other hand forwards, then to the side and then backwards. Then bring yourself to half kneeling holding onto support with one hand. And do the same again, reach with the other hand, forwards, sideways, and backwards. Please watch the demonstration, then pause the video and have a go yourself, and start the video again when you're finished to join me again. So you see in this video, I start on my knees with one hand on the stool. I come up into high kneeling. I then take one arm forwards, I come back to the middle. I take my arm out to the side, back to the middle, and I reach my arm back whilst I'm holding on with one hand. Then I come back down into kneeling. In the second video, I come up into half kneeling, and then reach forward with one arm. And I reach out to the side. I reach backwards, and back to the middle while I'm holding on with one hand. In the next video, I show you a way to extend the activity by not holding on with anything. So you're doing the activity in high kneeling, and you are using your tummy muscles, and to take it even further, you can do the same activity, without holding on in half kneeling. So take your arm forwards, to the side and backwards as shown. Back to the middle, back down into high kneeling, and then kneeling. A way to make it a bit easier, is to hold onto the stool with both hands coming up from kneeling into high kneeling. And move in those directions, but with your arms held on the stool to give you a bit of stability. And you can just feel what's happening to your tummy muscles when you're doing those activities. And then you come back down into kneeling. Start off with the basic activity, and see if he can make changes that suit you. In the demonstration you've just seen, I showed you how to extend or simplify the activity. I'll just read through it here again for you. So you can make the activity more challenging, by trying this. You could move from kneeling, to high kneeling, to half kneeling reaching your arm, but do it without support of a hand to balance or steady yourself. You can also hold any of the positions for a longer amount of time. And you can do the activity for a little bit longer if you'd like. To make it easier, move through the movements with support of both hands on a chair or stool to steady you, and see how you get on that way. You can also stay in the position for a shorter amount of time. If you'd like to try those now, pause the video and then you can join me again. Wow, we've already come to the end of our lesson today. So thank you very much for joining me. I hope you found that useful, and brought you a little bit of awareness about your tummy muscles with that movement sequence. Please join me next time for lesson three, where we will be still talking about core strengthening, but we will be looking at how core strength can help the rest of your body move. Take care, have a great day. And I will see you soon, goodbye.

Why is core strength important?

Why is core strength important?

These resources were made for remote use during the pandemic, not classroom teaching.

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