The Power Wheel is a great advanced core training tool. It creates instability and really forces your core to engage and work during compound movements. It can take plank, crawls and glute bridges to the next level.
However, you must make sure that your core activates and engages correctly before using the Power Wheel or you could end up engaging your low back instead of your abs and glutes.
But once you are ready, or using some of the beginner movements below to build up, you can use the Power Wheel to test your core strength and learn how to engage properly during more challenging, unstable and compound movements. (Plus the Power Wheel can be a great home gym tool if you are looking to focus on core strength and stability!)
Squats and Deadlifts are often touted as the head honchos of lower body exercises because they are compound, functional exercises. Heck, the deadlift is even held in high esteem as a back exercise. And while both moves are a great way to strengthen your lower body, you can’t forget about lunges.
Lunges very often take a back seat in our programming. They aren’t the main lift and, often when they are used, they are aren’t used in every direction like they could be.
But the Lunge is an extremely functional exercise that we need to include in our workouts.
Lunges work your entire leg and can target your legs from a variety of angles as you move in different directions. While most Squat and Deadlift variations are sagittal plane movements.
Lunges are also a very “reactive” movement as well. Think about when you move or react to change directions or go after a ball or even chase a child around a playground…You’ll be surprised by how often it is a lunge like movement to react and change directions and chase.
So if you’re moving like that and constantly moving and lunging in every direction, why wouldn’t you want to strengthen those same movements in your workouts? Why would you ONLY focus on sagittal plane lifts like the deadlift and squat?
YOU WOULDN’T!
Start strengthening your legs and glutes with these wonderfully functional Lunge Variations.
Over this past year, we shared 100s of new exercises as well as workouts and fitness tips. All to help you reach your fitness goals. Here are some of our favorite articles, most popular articles and down right ESSENTIAL articles to help you set some New Years Resolutions and develop a program to help you succeed.
And our Most Popular Post of 2015 was….. 15 Plank Variations! You all found this post so useful and interesting you shared it over 20,000 times! Thanks for spreading the love! Our readers also enjoyed our 5 Quick Booty Burners post enough to share it 4,000 times. And, while not one of our most shared post, it was one of our Top Viewed posts over the last year – Glute Activation – 10 Must-Do Moves. Apparently, people wanted to strengthen those butt cheeks in 2015 (or prevent and alleviate hip and low back pain since that post was also among our most viewed!) Low back and hip pain weren’t the only aches and pains you all were looking to prevent. Another top post of the year was Foam Rolling to Prevent and Alleviate Neck and Shoulder Pain. Foam rolling was actually popular enough that a celebrity trainer shared our Lower Body Foam Rolling Moves as well! If you sought out any of these posts this past year and are looking for a program to help you kick off the New Year, check out our 21-Day Kick Start!
Work Those Glutes
Glute Activation became a very sexy phrase over this past year and honestly it happened for good reason – most of our glutes aren’t actually working and firing properly! Because most of us sit too often during the day, our hips become tight and our glutes become inactive. This can lead to a whole host of problems and pains and injuries. It also generally means we can’t move as well, run as fast or lift as much. It may also me we don’t have the perky posterior we want! That is why Glute Activation and our Glute post are among our favorites as well as our most popular and essential!
And as this year may easily be deemed the year of Glute Activation, here is our 28-Day Booty Burner Challenge. This program has 28 days of quick glute activating workouts you can easily do at home, as warm ups before your lifts or even on off days to keep those glutes strong and working!
Core Strength:
Core strength – we all know it is important. That is why our 15 Plank Variations post was so widely shared this year. And, while Planks are a great move to strengthen your core, they aren’t your only option. Actually, a good core training program, includes many different elements – unconventional full body moves with asymmetrical loading, anti-rotational moves, rotational exercises…even crunches and sit up. Below are some of our recommended reads about developing Core Strength:
And here is one of our most popular products – The 30-Day Core Challenge. Thirty days of core workouts to help you strengthen everything from your shoulders to your knees!
Injury Prevention:
Because we all seem to sit way more than we should, we develop poor posture, imbalances and compensations….all of which lead to injury. That is why in 2015, we wrote a number of articles about preventing and alleviating pain and injury. These articles are essential to review as we enter the New Year and you start developing a program and plan to help you reach your goals because these articles will help you not only prevent and alleviate injuries, but also move better, lift more and run faster! These articles include exercises for each piece of our 4 Step Injury Prevention Program – Foam Rolling, Stretching, Activation and Strengthening Exercises. Here are some of our favorite Injury Prevention articles:
If you have any aches and pains you want to get rid of, you should also check out our 21-Day Posture Fix. These workouts are 10 minute blasts you can break up throughout the day or do quickly at your desk or at home. They will help prevent and alleviate all those common desk job aches and pains!
Functional Fitness:
Functional Fitness is trending right now. The tools and equipment make working out fun. And the workouts are usually done in a community atmosphere, which not only makes working out more fun and social, but also helps hold you accountable so you are more likely to reach your goals. And because we are a functional fitness training facility, we not only use the tools, but like to help show others how to use them too. Here are some articles about how to use some popular pieces of functional equipment.
Battle Ropes have been especially popular, which is why we also created a 9-Week Battle Ropes Workout Program. Check it out here. It’s just $1 per week to get in a killer 9 weeks of workouts using the Battle Ropes!
Workout Programs:
Below are some of our most popular workout programs to help you kick off 2016 right. Also, below is a link to check out our newest program, the 21-Day Kick Start! This program includes not only a workout program, but also recipes and a meal plan. Plus, you’ll also get a 30-Day Elite Workout Library Free Trial, if you aren’t currently a member.
NEW - 21-Day Kick Start
Start developing healthy habits with our 21-Day Kick Start diet and exercise program!
All too often we do cardio in only one plane of motion. Actually, not only in one plane of motion, but also in one directions – forward. We run forward. We use the elliptical moving forward. We even ride the bike and move forward.
That is why anytime there is a piece of equipment that allows us to get our sweat on while moving in a different direction than forward, or backward, it should always be included in our workout routine to help make sure we are functionally strong in every direction.
That is why the Slide Boards are a great piece of cardio equipment to use that can also be used to strengthen your entire body.
Slide Boards build glute and leg strength and really work on your external rotators and even you inner thighs. Basically, they work everything done the outside and inside of your legs as well as your glutes.
Actually, Slide Boards are great for anyone coming back from a knee injury and can be used as you advance with your rehab program because they strengthen the muscles used to stabilize the knees.
And if you get creative, you can also use Slide Boards to work your core and upper body as well.
Here are 21 Slide Board Exercises you can use to strengthen your entire body while also getting your blood pumping!
Often we don’t realize how much our core actually works when we do our basic exercises. We instead think we need to do more crunches or sit ups to specifically target our cores instead of focusing on movements that work more muscle groups at once.
And while including exercises to really target our core is important, there are more moves out there to work our core from every angle than we realize.
Many of them we may even be doing without realizing how much they are already building and improving our core strength and stability.
These moves will target and work your entire core – everything from your shoulders to your knees – in a functional way to strengthen, not only other exercises, but also how well you move in everyday life.
These 15 Unconventional Core Exercises are functional movements because they target your core while making you move or engage muscles in a way you might during everyday life and during exercises that require you to use other muscles.
A good workout program should make you move in every direction – forward, backward, sideways and even rotationally.
We need to be strong in every plane of motion to help us prevent injury when moving in everyday life.
But sometimes strengthening ourselves so we can move better in everyday life and prevent injury means performing Anti-Rotational Exercises.
Anti-Rotational Exercises are exercises that build stability and strength to prevent rotation. “Preventing rotation” means that your body is able to resist forces acting upon it that may try to rotate or move it in a way and direction that it can’t move safely.
If you are shoved, trip, slide on ice or are simply carrying something that is an uneven weight and awkward, Anti-Rotational Exercise can make your body strong so that your core can handle the torque without leading to pain and injury.
Below are some great Anti-Rotational Moves to help you build your core strength and stability to prevent injury so you can move better in everyday life.
These Anti-Rotational Movements are either unilateral moves, moves unilaterally loaded or movements with an outside force trying to rotate and twist you while you resist.
Start light with these moves and make sure that you maintain proper form throughout as improper form could cause you to twist and compensate, leading to the exact thing you are trying to prevent!
You all found this post so useful and interesting you shared it over 20,000 times! Thanks for spreading the love! Our readers also enjoyed our 
Because most of us sit too often during the day, our hips become tight and our glutes become inactive. This can lead to a whole host of problems and pains and injuries. It also generally means we can’t move as well, run as fast or lift as much. It may also me we don’t have the perky posterior we want! That is why Glute Activation and our Glute post are among our favorites as well as our most popular and essential!
Below are some of our recommended reads about developing Core Strength:
These articles are essential to review as we enter the New Year and you start developing a program and plan to help you reach your goals because these articles will help you not only prevent and alleviate injuries, but also move better, lift more and run faster! These articles include exercises for each piece of our 4 Step Injury Prevention Program – Foam Rolling, Stretching, Activation and Strengthening Exercises. Here are some of our favorite Injury Prevention articles:
Here are some articles about how to use some popular pieces of functional equipment.
