Work You To The CORE

First, some valuable information!

The core is an important group of muscles around your mid-section.  Everyone focuses on the six pack, but when you work your core, you really should focus on abdominals, obliques AND lower back.  All of those areas make up your core.

It's important to have a strong core.  Every movement you do begins with the core.  The stronger it is, the better you move, and the less likely you are to get injured.

You don't need to work the core everyday.  This is something I failed to realize, at first.  I always believed you could work the core every day, but actually, you don't need to!  2 - 3 days a week is perfectly sufficient. Physiologically, the core muscles are like any other muscle in your body.  The core muscles need recovery time, as well.

So my favorite way to work the core is to do a "Core Burnout"

I do several exercises back to back either for 10 reps or 1 minute.  The idea is to do this without stopping, merely pausing to prepare for the next exercise.  Here is an example:

10 Crunches
10 Reverse Crunches
10 Toe Touches
10 Leg Drops
1 minute Scissor Kicks
10 Russian Twists
10 V Ups Right Side
10 V Ups Left Side
10 Reptiles
1 minute Plank

This can always be modified.  Planks can be done on the knees instead of the toes or you can decrease the 1 minute time increment to 30 seconds.

Have fun!