Happy #workoutwednesday! Here’s a great core workout with a foam roller. This will challenge your balance and require you to use your core muscles even more to stay stable! You can do all these moves flat on the ground without the foam roller as well to modify.
Start seated on the roller with your feet firmly planted on either side, and roll down so that your head and neck are supported on the roller as well as your back. Gently place just your fingertips into the ground on either side of the roller for stability. Press your lower back into the roller to keep it flat, and exhale as you engage your core muscles to float your legs off the ground into a tabletop position. Your knees should not come any closer to your chest than your hips, and your shins should be parallel to the floor.
Maintain the bent shape of your legs and slowly lower one leg, and then the other to tap the ground with your toes. If your lower back starts to arch off the roller, limit your range of motion to only lower your leg as far as you can while keeping your back planted. The next level of this move is to glue your knees together and lift and lower both legs simultaneously. This move is often when your low back will start to come off the roller, so it’s ok if your toes don’t meet the floor! Just lower to the point right before your back lifts off.
You can stay with this level, or go back to alternating legs if you’d like. If you’d like to increase the difficulty, straighten your legs, and start to lift and lower them, again keeping your lower back flat on the roller.
Next, hold your legs up at about a 45 degree angle - the lower you can hover them, the more difficult this will be. Exhale and lift your head, neck, and shoulders up so your body is in a V position. Start to find your balance and gradually decrease the weight in your fingers. Once you feel stable, try to release your hands from the floor and hold this balance as long as you can!
It’s really hard so if you aren’t stable enough to completely release your hands, that’s ok! Just think of it as a goal to work towards!
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