When it comes to fitness, everything stems from the strength of the core. This Five-Day Strength and Conditioning Core Challenge Series includes progressive core-focused workouts that are designed to introduce you to the foundational principles that make up a strong health and fitness program. These exercises target the abdominal, back, chest, shoulders, hips, and pelvic floor. This series of workouts is designed to help you build solid trunk and spine mechanics with exercises that are prescribed to help clients improve range of motion, increase muscle strength, and develop solid pelvic stability. Instructor Lauren Eirk is a resistance training specialist, a Certified Full Body Muscle Activation Techniques RX Specialist, and Registered Yoga Therapist. She will teach you how to use the laws of biomechanics to serve your body in a way to get great fitness results.

Why is core strength important? The muscles that attach to our trunk and spine are important because they stabilize the center of the body so that the muscles in the limbs of the appendicular skeleton can pull against a stable platform as we move. The core functions in the realms respiration (breathing), continence, postural control, joint/segment stabilization, movement generation and many types of energy transfer. A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet significantly increases the rate of muscle mass loss. Changes in body mechanics, like excessive abdominal fat or prolonged periods of sitting, can lead to significant muscle weakness and spinal anatomy changes which can result in pain, tightness, and overall dysfunction.

No matter what age you are, your muscle tissue can be strengthened and even regenerated with the right lifestyle changes. As we age, we naturally lose muscle, and after age 35 we can lose approximately 8 per cent of muscle per decade and this can almost double after the age of 70. Muscle loss can be accelerated by illness and can lead to an increased risk of falls and fractures, and delay recovery from illness. Our muscles play a vital role in our health at all stages of life, placing forces on our bones, producing physical strength, assisting in organ function, and boosting our immune system

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