Month: November 2021

In this guide I will give you everything you need on how to fix skinny fat.

You have seen transformations of people who you want to look like, so you know it is possible, but how?

Where do you even begin? Should you focus on losing fat or building muscle?

Should you do hiit workouts or strength training?

Only clean eating or keto?

Don’t worry because I am going to lay everything out here for you in this guide on how to fix skinny fat.

I want you to leave this article being confident in what you should do moving forward so be sure to read it in it’s entirety.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

How To Fix Skinny Fat (Body Recomposition)

What Is Skinny Fat?

If you want to know how to fix skinny fat lets first talk about what skinny fat is.

Skinny fat is that body type where you aren’t necessarily obese or overweight. You aren’t stepping on the scale and thinking it is by any means an issue.

Yet you also don’t look the way you want to look.

You don’t have the defined muscles or a lean appearance to your body. Your body fat may be higher because you don’t have much lean muscle mass. You may have a gut or even man boobs.

This is what skinny fat is. You look thin and don’t weigh much on the scale but when you take your shirt off you don’t like what you see in the mirror.

What Causes Skinny Fat?

There are usually three scenarios that end up producing this skinny fat result but they both come back to this one common theme.

That is you have high body fat and low lean muscle mass. When you have a shirt on you may appear quite fit yet as soon as the shirt comes off the truth is revealed.

The three most common scenarios to produce this skinny fat result are

1. You have never really been overweight your entire life but you also have never followed a structured strength training program.
2. You recently have lost a lot of weight through the parameters of over restricting calories and foods as well as doing hours upon hours of cardio.
3. You are not eating enough protein.

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Let’s talk about the first scenario briefly.

If you have never struggled with weight issues during your lifetime but you also have never put yourself into a structured strength training program this could be a culprit of skinny fat.

Why? Simply going to what makes up skinny fat, low amounts of lean muscle mass.

Even though you aren’t “overweight” necessarily, you aren’t fit either because you have never taken the time to build up lean muscle mass on your frame.

This leads you to have the skinny fat look you currently do.

Now, the second scenario.

If you have recently lost a good amount of weight via the avenue of severely over restricting calories and doing hours of cardio, this is a perfect culprit for the skinny fat look.

Why? When you cut calories super low and do endless hours of cardio without any strength training what happens?

You lose all of your lean muscle mass that you had starting off or you simply never build any lean muscle mass along the way.

This again comes back to what skinny fat is. Not being overweight but not having any significant amounts of lean muscle mass on your body.

The third scenario is if you are not eating enough protein.

I talk in depth about protein is by far the most important macro nutrient you consume in this YouTube video here .

Yet for the purpose of this article protein is important because it is the only macro nutrient that allows you to build and retain lean muscle mass.

Therefore even if you are strength training, you will not be able to build any muscle because you need adequate protein levels.

We will talk more in depth about adequate protein levels a bit later in this guide of how to fix skinny fat.

The Problem With Typical Weight Loss Routines

We just got done talking about what produces skinny fat and you may be a bit puzzled as to what I just said.

Cardio and eating super low calories is the cause of skinny fat, but isn’t that the best way to lose weight?!

First off I have to remind you weight and fat are not one in the same. They are two different things.

You can lose weight without losing fat. You can lose fat without losing weight.

I explain this more in depth in my YouTube video HERE , but the long and short of it is one doesn’t equal the other.

When you over restrict your calories and do tons of cardio you are creating basically the fort knox against muscle building. There is no way you will succeed.

This is why taking a more moderate approach to dieting and weight loss is always going to be the better answer.

In this case the slower the better. If you are losing anywhere from .5-1.5 lb per week on average you are doing amazing.

Now when you first start off you may lose more than that due to water weight being lost, but after a few weeks if you are consistently losing say 3, 4, 5lbs per week, you are bound to be setting yourself up for failure.

The faster you lose weight means the more likely you are to lose muscle and or not build muscle. The more you lose muscle, the more this skinny fat looks becomes apparent which is what you are trying to fight against.

If you are dealing with this skinny fat appearance, the main way of losing weight has led you wrong.

You hear this all the time but the scale is not the best indicator of fitness progress . In this circumstance that couldn’t tell more of the truth. The scale is the last thing you should be looking at.

In fact at this point of your journey you need to get out of the “losing weight” mindset. You don’t look the way you want to look in the mirror so your immediate reaction is you need to lose weight on the scale.

In this case that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

If you truly want to know how to fix skinny fat the answer is going to be focus less on losing weight and more on building muscle.

We will get into more of that now.

Skinny Fat Mindset Shift

If you are dealing with being skinny fat your focus should be directed towards building muscle, not losing weight.

Why? Because you can lose all of the weight you want, hell you may have lost weight already, but until you build lean muscle mass you are never going to look the way you want.

It simply is not possible.

You won’t be able to build muscle doing hours of cardio and you won’t be able to build muscle eating 1200 calories.

Basically I am telling you you have to do less cardio and eat more food. Did you ever think in a million years this would be your solution to skinny fat?

Well you better believe it sister (or brother) because that is what the reality is.

There are a few different scenarios of individuals I want to cover who may be dealing with skinny fat so lets cover them one by one.

First, let’s start with a total beginner.

**Disclaimer, these will be general guidelines as everyone is an individual and unless I work with you directly it will be hard to tell you exactly what you need **

Complete Beginner Guide How To Fix Skinny Fat

This is you if you have never done any kind of serious or structured strength training.

This is also you if you never have been overweight and never lost weight. You are just an average Joe looking to better your physique (don’t worry I am too).

In this instance here is what I would do for both your diet and workouts.

Diet

Since you are a beginner you will be able to lose fat and build muscle at the same time.

With this being the case I recommend you starting off in a very moderate calorie deficit and or even calorie maintenance.

A calorie deficit means you are eating less calories than your body burns and a calorie maintenance means you are eating the same amount of calories as your body burns.

Eating in a calorie deficit will allow you to lose body fat while eating in a calorie maintenance will allow you to maintain your current weight.

In some instances for a beginner, if you eat around your maintenance calories you will be able to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. This is where individuality comes into play.

Yet for the point of this article I would first recommend if you are beginner going into a slight calorie deficit.

If you want to know how many calories to eat in your calorie deficit, head to my free calorie calculator here .

If you choose to eat at maintenance calories, the calorie calculator above will calculate that for you as well!

You also want to be consuming around 1g of protein per lb of body weight.

This means if you are weighing 150lbs, try to get 150g of protein per day within the calories you are eating.

Workouts

This beginner stage is the best stage of your life so live it up.

As we said earlier you are going to want to get into a structured strength training routine.

If you do this time right you will see the most progress in your entire exercise career. This is because when you are new to strength training you are putting a stress on your body great enough that your body has to adapt to it.

It has never experienced strength training because so it will soak up the new adaptations.

Your body adapts by growing stronger, more defined muscles.

Yet this phase only lasts for so long because over time your body will get used to the stress and slow down its adaptation process.

This is why I tell anyone who is a beginner to please get on a properly designed strength training program from day one as opposed to just guessing and going into this without a true plan.

You will squeeze all of the juice out of the orange so to speak.

This is the best time to create change and optimize results so take advantage of it.


I am going to link here a video I did on how to create a structured strength training program, as well as link an article I wrote explaining exactly how to set up your routine.

I would strongly suggest looking over these two pieces of content in order to help you create your own program for free.

There is an entire separate section of this guide dedicated to more information on workouts, so read that below when you get there.

Lost Weight Previously Guide How To Fix Skinny Fat

If you have lost weight previously via the route of endless cardio and over restricting calories, here is how to fix skinny fat for you.

Diet

We talked earlier about how a beginner will be able to go into a calorie deficit to lose fat and build muscle at the same time.

If you have already lost a good amount of weight, I would step away from the calorie deficit and step into a calorie maintenance or even a calorie surplus.

This is because if you have been in a calorie deficit your issue likely is not losing fat or weight, it is simply building muscle.

If you continue on in your calorie deficit you will not be able to build any muscle, or build very little muscle mass.

Therefore if you bring your calories up to maintenance or a slight calorie surplus you will be giving your body the fuel it needs to add lean muscle mass to your frame thus changing your physique appearance.

I would go about doing this one of two ways.

The first way could be jumping straight to what your perceived calorie maintenance is,

Again, you can use this calorie calculator HERE to figure out your maintenance calories.

Or, you can choose to reverse diet your way back up to your calorie maintenance.

Reverse dieting basically means slowly but surely working your calories back up to find out what your true maintenance calorie are.

If you want more in depth on reverse dieting, I will link another article on reverse dieting HERE .

Now that you have your calories taken care of, it is onto protein.

Your protein goal will remain the same, aiming to eat around 1g of protein per lb of body weight.

Workouts

Since up to this point you have done tons of cardio to get to where you are, you are probably still considered a “beginner” to strength training.

Even if you aren’t a total beginner, if you have taken anywhere from 5-9 months off of following a real structured strength training program, you can be thrown under the beginner label for a few months.

In which case I would do the same thing I talked about above in watching my YouTube video or reading my article on how to set up your own strength training program.

Workout Guide How To Fix Skinny Fat

When it comes to workouts I wanted to make a separate section all together because without proper workouts you will not build muscle.

You can’t build muscle through diet alone. You have to be following a proper program with proper principles to it.

There are two main principles I want to cover with workouts.

1. Progressive Overload
2. Lifting With Proper Effort & Intensity

Beyond just having a plan for your workouts you need to be sure you are also focusing on something called progressive overload.

Remember the only way your body builds lean muscle mass is by adapting to a stress great enough to adapt to.

If you aren’t applying that stress then your body won’t change. The principle of continuously applying this stress is where progressive overload comes into play.

I talk more about progressive overload in this article , but the main concept is you should be doing more over a period of time.

If you are lifting 10lbs on shoulder press for 10 reps, next week you should try and get 11 reps.

Or you should try and do 12.5 for 10 lbs.

If you are lifting 100lbs on deadlifts, next week you should try to go to 105 or 110.

Simply trying to do more than you did previously. Even if it is just ONE rep on ONE set, that is more than you did last time, and that will be enough to cause a stress on your body your body has to adapt to.

The second principle is lifting with intensity and close to proximity of failure for your sets, reps, and weights you lift.

There is this misconception that in order to lose weight and get “toned” or defined you need to be lifting low weight of reps.

That could not be any bigger of a pile of horse poop ( I really wanted to cuss there but I didn’t! Proud of myself!).

In order to grow muscle you need to be lifting with intensity.

Intensity is not defined as how much you are sweating or how out of breath you are when you are doing ground humpers aka burpees.

Intensity is defined as how heavy you are lifting and how close to failure you are lifting.

If you want to build muscle then you need to be lifting close to failure.

If you have a set of 10 reps, that 8th, 9th, and 10th rep better be challenging you. They shouldn’t be a cake walk. You should not be able to talk on the phone with your friend about your late night hookup last night.

You need to push yourself and lift with proper intensity if you want to see your body change. This is by far the #1 mistake I see people making when they complete their workouts.

You can’t just check the box off you have to be pushing yourself with your weights and effort.

How To Fix Skinny Fat Guide To Measuring Progress

We touched earlier on the scale and how the scale is not going to be anywhere near your best indicator of progress when it comes to how to fix skinny fat.

It could go up, down, or stay the same. It truly doesn’t matter.

If you gain two lbs of muscle and lose two lbs of fat, the scale is going to stay the exact same number.

Yet your body is going to look completely different.

Remember, if you are dealing with skinny fat this is not just about a number on the scale anymore. I know it is a hard concept to get over when everyone is so focused on the scale but trust me this is for your own good.

This is not to say you shouldn’t weigh yourself because my online coaching clients weigh themselves every single day.

Yet you should weigh yourself simply to collect data, not to have an emotional response to it or have it be your end all be all.

We will talk about this more coming up.

Measurements

You should be taking measurements of your glutes, quads, and waist every 2 weeks.

You can also take measurements of any other area on your body you are looking to improve!

Take them around the same time of the same increments at the same spot. Consistency is key here.

Pick a certain freckle, or right below the belly button, or some sort of way of knowing where you measured last time.

Remember muscle takes up less space than fat, so if you are losing fat and gaining muscle, your measurements will go down but not the scale.

Progress Pics

You should also be taking progress pics every 4 weeks.

This is by far the best way to track your skinny fat progress because you can see for yourself the changes being made.

Take one of the front, rear, and both sides.

I talked earlier about weighing yourself everyday, here is why.

You could weigh yourself everyday for the next 90 days and in that time you could gain 6 lbs of muscle and lose 7lbs of fat.

In 90 days the scale would only go down 1lb, but your progress pictures and measurements will be two completely different people.

This will cement in your head even more that the scale truly is not the end all be all and it is simply just one form of data.

How To Fix Skinny Fat : Final Word

I truly hope this article allowed you some insight on what to do in order to fix skinny fat.

Like I mentioned above these are general guidelines and everyone is an individual, but I promise you if you follow what I say here for your given scenario, you will be seeing some great progress in your physique.

If you have any other questions or concerns don’t hesitate to drop a comment below or shoot me an email at coacheric@ericrobertsfitness.com with the subject title “HOW TO FIX SKINNY FAT ARTICLE”.

If you are interested in getting some help along your journey, feel free to check out my Clubhouse HERE where I hold all of my training programs as well as diet protocols!

We actually have en entire manual inside on how to fix skinny fat that goes even MORE in depth than this. Can you believe it?!

Other than that, just know I am always here to help.

Be well,

-E

You have probably heard someone tell you to “Brace your core!” When you are exercising, but do you actually know how to brace your core?

Is it sucking in your stomach like you are on the beach trying to show off your abs?

How about just throwing a weight lifting belt on to “brace your core” better?

In this article today you and I are going to find out exactly what the heck “bracing your core” even means, and exactly how to do it.

Just be sure to read each line left to right because there are so many misconceptions out there on how to properly brace your core.

I want you to leave this article knowing exactly what, when, where, and how to brace your core.

Yet to make sure of that, you gotta read the entire article.

What do you say? Sound good? Perfect, let’s get into it then.

How To Brace Your Core

Why Is It Important?

Before we dive into exactly how to brace your core let’s first cover some of the many reasons why it is so important.

There is a reason you hear every trainer yelling it to their clients, or every strength and conditioning coach telling their athletes to brace their core.

Actually, there are a few reasons. Let’s dive into them now so you can understand why these things are important to you.

* Fun fact, studies show that if you learn something, you are much more likely to actually care about it and implement it into your life! Hence why I am educating you on this first before we dive into the action tips!

Spinal Stability

When it comes to core bracing, one of the main reasons understanding how to do this is important is for your spinal stability.

You have probably heard ( or seen ) someone say they hurt their back from deadlifting.

Or they hurt their back from squatting, or bent over rows, or any kind of exercise.

Why is this?

Well, more than likely, they were not properly bracing their core. ( It could be many other reasons as well, ie using too heavy of weight, but for the sake of this article let’s continue with core bracing ).

For the most part, you want to be able to maintain a neutral spine when you are doing exercises.

Squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, really any exercise.

Now, some people will go to the Nth degree to make sure you have a neutral spine.

Listen, first off, there is some natural curvature of your spine, like this pic here below.

Second, “neutral spine” can be a range. Not everyones spine is going to look exactly the same when they are squatting, deadlifting, or things alike.

Yet with that being said, the fact still remains, we typically want a neutral spine when performing movements.

What are the things that could happen to not make it a neutral spine?

Your spine could go into either extension or flexion, shown here below.

Typically speaking this is going to be sub par for many reasons, but the most important one being injury.

Without getting too in depth, this is generally what causes things like slipped discs, bulging disc’s, L4 & L5 problems, etc etc etc.

Now, disclaimer, I am not a physical therapist so no I cannot diagnose and treat your issues.

This is just some basic anatomy 101.

Yet, this is in fact how most injuries occur

Most injuries occur from either too much spinal flexion or too much spinal extension.

This puts an extra amount of stress and pressure on the discs and joints surrounding your lower back in particular. Your spine is not supposed to be taking that pressure, your surrounding musculature is.

Ie, your core muscles!

This is why “bracing your core” is so important to maintain spinal / low back health, as well as properly training your core muscles. ( We will talk about these muscles and exercises later in the article! ).

Whenever someone comes to me with some sort of lower back pain, one of the first things I always do is teach them how to properly brace their core, then incorporate specific core bracing / ab training exercises to strengthen their core. ( Like the ones we talk about at the end of this article! ).

If your surrounding muscles of your spine do their job correctly, then your spine is going to be protected and safe.

Kind of like the president with secret service.

It needs that extra layer of support to remain safe and operating properly.

This is why learning how to brace your core is such an integral part of any exercise routine.

Coming from someone who spent the majority of 9 years with debilitating back pain, trust me, you want to learn this stuff early on! It can make the world of a difference.

Does this make sense?

Increasing Strength / Force / Velocity

One of the many reasons why properly bracing your core is important is because it creates more strength.

Think of your core as the transfer system of horsepower between your upper and lower body.

If you are doing a squat for example, that is a lower body move, but really, it is a full body movement.

You are using your entire body to create power. Your upper body has to stabilize, your legs have to push, and your core has to transfer force.

If your core is not rigid and strong, you would just crumble under the bar or fold in half trying to stand back up from a squat.

Your core is also where you are able to keep your body in that neutral spine position, which in of itself is going to increase force production and strength.

Think about if you were going to push someone.

Are you going to just kind of lightly push them with a flaccid core, not much power, not much force?

Or are you going to brace your core, bear down, and use your strength to push them.

You are going to use your strength and your core! That is where power comes from.

Therefore if you are someone who is concerned with lifting more weight, increasing your strength, and maximizing your force production, learning how to brace your core is something you must master.

It is a non negotiable!

Build More Muscle

Not only is bracing your core important for spinal stability and increasing strength, it is important if you want to be building muscle as well.

One of the main components of hypertrophying ( muscle building ) a specific muscle group is doing movements from a stable surface.

Your muscles need stability to be able to maximally contract and produce force. This creates an environment where you can create a lot of tension in the muscle.

Let’s take an RDL ( Romanian Deadlift ) for example. ( If you want a super in depth guide on how to do RDL’s, check this out HERE ).

An RDL is a great movement to hypertrophy your glutes.

Well guess what has to happen for your glutes to maximally contract and create tension?

Your spine has to stay neutral.

When your spine is neutral, your glutes can do the job they are supposed to do by pulling on the pelvis and contracting away.

What is one way to help maintain a neutral spine?

Properly bracing your core.

So if you are trying to grow your glutes for example, proper core bracing is an absolute must.

This goes for say a shoulder press too! Or a bicep curl, or literally, anything.

Without stability, muscles cannot maximally contract. Therefore the more stability you provide through core bracing, the better opportunity your muscles get to contract, and the more muscle you get to build.

How To Brace Your Core : Step by Step

Now that we have gone over a few of the main reasons why proper core bracing is so important, let’s dive into step by step how to accurately get this done.

First and foremost I am going to provide this totally free in depth video here on how to brace your core below, so feel free to check this out first.

Now to write things out step by step here as well, let’s dive into it.

Learn To Breathe

Huh?! Learn to breathe?!

I think you are pretty okay at breathing.. I mean you do it all day everyday and you are still alive, so I think you are pretty good?

No?

Yea, no.

Actually, over time, we become very poor and inefficient at breathing the correct way.

That correct way is called diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing.

This is the concept of breathing using all of your core, stomach, and diaphragm muscles.

Babies do this perfectly. If you have ever laid a baby on its back and watched it breath, you will notice it’s belly gets really big when it takes a breath in, then goes down as it exhales.

This is because they are belly breathing, the way we are supposed to.

As we get older and life gets more hectic, stressful, etc, we often revert over to chest breathing.

I challenge you right now take a big deep breath.

Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach.

When you take that huge breath in, what is moving?

Your hand on your chest or your hand on your stomach?

If your chest is moving more than your stomach, this is the perfect example of how simply breathing can make a huge difference in properly bracing your core.

You are not recruiting your abdominal muscles through this process, therefore, if you go and try and brace your core, your abs aren’t actually going to work!

To help this, here is what to do.

• lay down flat on your back with your legs bent
• Put one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach
• From here, simply work to take some deep breaths through your nose. Try to make your hand on your stomach move NOT the hand on your chest
• As you exhale, exhale through your nose, and again feel your hand on your stomach going down

This is what diaphragmatic breathing is.

Your belly getting bigger?! Yes, it is the opposite of what you do on the beach or what you want to do in public I am sure.

Yet this is the proper way to make sure you can engage your core muscles and have all of the benefits we listed above from proper core bracing.

Try to practice this a few times throughout the day, before your workout, and after your workout.

One more note

You will probably find at first you cannot take very long or big breaths in, and as you exhale it is probably super quick.

The way to progress belly breathing is by simply increasing the time it takes you to inhale and exhale.

The longer you can inhale and exhale, the better you get at controlling your ab muscles. This then leads to better core bracing.

I will also say, this is something to help you learn how to properly brace your core. I don’t need you spending an hour a day on belly breathing.

Little bit upfront to learn, then maybe here and there just as a good reminder OR as a way to de stress, as this is GREAT for that.

But don’t think you need to do this everyday for hours on end.

Think About The Three P’s

Now that you have learned belly breathing, there are three main ways I try to teach people how to brace your core from an action standpoint.

I call them the three P’s.

Let’s see what those are below.

Punch

The first way I have always taught clients to brace their core is by simply thinking about if someone is going to punch you as hard as they can in your stomach.

If you were about to eat that punch, what would you do to make it not hurt?

You would probably bear down, brace your core, and brace for impact right?

More than likely you wouldn’t be sucking your stomach in to just have them punch you.

You would almost push your stomach out, bear down, and brace for the inevitable impact to come.

That is how you can think about core bracing.

If someone is going to punch you as hard as you can, you want to make sure you can withstand that.

Bear down, brace for impact, and that is the first way to brace your core.

Now, some people may in fact have thought that they would suck their stomach in… Which, would not be accurate.

So, let’s use the next example.

Poop

Yes, poop.

We all do it ( even girls, weirdly enough ).

Here is what I want you to think about.

Imagine you are sitting down on the toilet and you are backed up for the last few days.

Imagine you reallllyy gotta push one out the other end.

You are pushing.. pushing.. pushing…

THAT feeling right there, is the same feeling you should get when you brace your core.

NOW, please, for yourself and those around you, don’t poop.

Although funny enough, if you have ever heard someone fart during a heavy squat or deadlift, this is why!

They are bracing their core and this is sometimes a by product if not handled properly!

But that is the feeling you should be looking for when learning how to brace your core.

Once again, you should not be sucking your stomach in. That’s not what you are doing right?

You are actually pushing your stomach OUT to an extent.

That is another way to brace your core.

Poke

This one I tend to use when people have somewhat of a sense of what core bracing is.

Let’s say you are trying to use one of the two options above for learning how to brace your core.

Here is what I want you to think about.

You know how if you have an unopened can of soda, if you poke the outside, what happens?

You just kind of ricochet off right?

There is no dent made or anything like that. Why?

There is so much pressure built up inside that soda can that you can’t dent it by poking it.

The internal pressure is so built up.

That is what I want you to think about when you are bracing your core for yourself.

You are trying to create so much pressure inside your core that you can literally poke your stomach ( yes, even if you have fat ) and can feel it bounce off.

That is a great sign that you have intra abdominal pressure built up, protecting your spine, and creating a ton of force.

Quick Rundown

SO, very quickly, let’s now cover a quick rundown of core bracing.

Let’s say you are going to squat.

You are going to

1. Take a big breath into your belly through your nose through the same principles you learned through belly breathing
2. You are then going to brace your core, by either thinking about someone punching you, or sitting on the toilet pushing one out.
3. You are going to go down into your squat, with your core braced, then explode back up and exhale as you get to the top. DO NOT EXHALE AT THE BOTTOM!

Then bam, that is one rep!

You did it, you braced your core! Congrats!!

Now, I know some questions may pop up, so let’s cover them.

Bracing & Breathing

Often times I hear people tell me “Eric, I can brace, but I can’t breathe and brace as the same time! What do I do!?!”.

First off, this is completely normal. This happened to me as well when I first learned core bracing.

Therefore, don’t freak out.

Number two, remember, this is a skill that you have to gain.

It won’t happen overnight unfortunately. But in due time, what will happen is, you will get more and more comfortable with bracing your core.

You will then be able to comfortably brace your core and breathe at the same time. It might feel weird right now, but the more you practice it, the better it gets.

You should be able to stand up tall, brace your core, and breathe as if nothing is happening.

And you will be able to do this as time passes, you just need to get better at it.

Remember you don’t have to hold your breath to brace. You just need to brace.

Core Bracing Is A Dial

I want you to think about core bracing as a dial.

You know how if you have dial lights you can turn the dial and the lights get brighter, or you can turn the dial and the lights get dimmer.

That is how you can think of core bracing.

For example, do you need to turn the dial all the way up while you are brushing your teeth?

Or performing a set of bodyweight squats?

No, probably not. Turn that dial down a bit.

But should you think about dialing it up a bit during a top set of heavy squats or deadlifts?

Probably a good idea yes.

But you have control over that dial and you can use it for whatever situation you may need it for.

Once you learn how to do it, you can use it however you’d like!

How To Brace Your Core : Core Exercises

Now that we know how to brace your core, how to perform movements, etc, we can talk about “core exercises”.

I am going to link some of the best core exercises below for bracing your core in particular.

One thing I want you to keep in mind about these exercises is your main focus should be increasing time under tension, increasing your ability to contract your core and keep it while you breath, and going slow.

This is not something where you want to add a ton of weight, or do a ton of reps, because you will miss the entire benefit of what the exercise is supposed to do.

These will help with core bracing, but remember to go slow, don’t try and make it a competition or a speed race, and control every inch.

Bird Dog

The bird dog is a tremendous exercise for keeping your core stable as you move your exterminates.

This is beneficial for things like squat, deadlifts, etc, where you move your extremities while keeping your core tight.

Sets : 2-3

Reps: 3-6 each side

Time For Each Rep : 2-10 seconds

Dead bug

Once again the Deadbug is an exercise where you can really learn core stability and control, while once again moving your extremities.

This is great because you are laying back flat to give you some external feedback while you learn!

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 3-6 each side

Time for each rep : 2-10 seconds

Plank

The good old fashion plank. And yes, if you do this right, this is hard as hell.

Most people butcher the plank, and that is why they can plank for minutes on end.

If you are holding a plank for anymore than 40 seconds, you are doing it wrong.

Watch the video above to make sure you actually get benefits out of the movement.

Sets: 2-3

Time : 10-40 sec

Reverse crunch

Even though a reverse crunch is technically spinal flexion, this is a great exercise to feel your ab muscles while controlling them the entire way.

Be sure to NOT rush it, or just sling your body around.

Go slow, feel your abs, and kick ass.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 4-10

How To Brace Your Core : Final Word

Well, now that you are done the article, it is my hope that you left here knowing exactly how to brace your core.

Remember, it is NOT sucking your stomach in.

More so pushing your stomach out, bearing down, and acting like you gotta poop one out! 😉

Hope this article helped and if you want more help like this, I can link here my Clubhouse below.

Clubhouse HERE

The clubhouse is where I keep all of my training programs, my nutrition guidelines, my exercise technique videos, literally everything!

Hope it all helped, and look to chat soon!

-E