Learn to engage your core correctly to protect your back, improve posture, and lower injury risk — a simple breathing-and-bracing technique you can do seated.

Hi. Today I'm going to show you how to engage your core muscles correctly. Engaging your core is necessary when you do strength exercises, for good posture, to support your back, and to reduce the risk of injury as you go throughout your day.

We'll start by sitting or standing tall in a chair. Relax your shoulders and place both hands on your stomach. Breathe in through your nose and feel your belly expand with air. Breathe out through your mouth and release all of the air, feeling your core muscles contract. Try to keep bringing your belly button in towards your spine. We're going to try this again: breathe in through your nose without letting go of your core muscles. Keep your core engaged — great job. Go ahead and breathe out through the mouth, keeping the core engaged again. All right, you can go ahead and relax. Do you feel the difference between an engaged core and a relaxed one? Let's practice this once more: at rest, breathe in deeply and let your belly expand. Breathe out through the mouth, let the air release, and feel your core muscles engage.

Now let's try engaging the core muscles during an exercise. If you have any low back pain, please sit this exercise out and continue to practice deep breathing and core contraction at rest. First, sit up or stand tall with your shoulders back and relaxed. Next, hold onto a wall if you're standing, or the chair if you're sitting, if you do not have great balance. Breathe in through your nose and let your belly fill with air, then exhale as you lift one foot off the ground. Hold this position for about 10 seconds, keeping the core engaged. You may have noticed you need your core contracted to help you brace the leg and keep it supported. Don't forget to breathe, and keep your core engaged as you breathe, holding the leg up. Excellent job. Let's try the other side: breathe in through your nose, and lift your leg up in the air as you exhale. Hold for 10 seconds, continuing to keep your core contracted and breathing through the exercise. Keep holding — you've got this, almost there. And go ahead and relax. Awesome job.

And that's how you engage your core correctly. You can find more videos on resistance training and exercise in the resource section of the app. If you have any questions, please reach out to your care manager in the chat function of the app. You've got this. Let's get moving.

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