JaK Fitness and More

Everyone! It is important for all people to stay active throughout their lives. Because of busy work and home lives, more than 60% of Americans do not get the recommended amount of physical fitness daily and these numbers generally increase with age. Throughout adulthood is one of the most important times to maintain an exercise regimen. This is the ideal time to maintain your weight, build strong bones and prevent many chronic health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Many adults do too much exercise at once. After a long work-week, many people try to fit lots of activity into the weekend and push their bodies excessively. This sudden increase in activity can raise the risk of injury which would then stop activity for weeks. Experts recommend working out several times over the course of a week with varying exercises for the most benefit to your health.

With all of the buzz around the use of functional, total body exercises, abdominal exercises have taken a back seat in the exercise programming of many coaches and personal trainers. Sure, the core is important, but by working with total-body moves, trainers and coaches argue that the core is being worked constantly throughout the workout, negating the need for isolation work like crunches. For most lifters, this may be a welcoming change to the end of their routine, as plenty of guys prefer to hit the sauna rather than lie on the mat and rep out some crunches. But can these total-body exercises really replace dedicated core training? Likely not. The notion that total-body exercises can simulate a tough core workout comes from their ability to challenge the core for stabilization of the spine. During a heavy exercise, like a squat for instance, the weight puts a load on the spine. In order to protect the lifter from injury, the core muscles fire simultaneously to lock the spine