Core Training: For Greater Strength and Better Health

The way to fitness now is core training: here’s the ultimate illustrated guide.

It’s the only workout that achieves total-body results: the healthy, powerful, balanced body you need to be truly perpetually fit. That’s why core training has become a phenomenon at gyms everywhere. These highly effective exercises work all the muscles in total harmony for stabilizing the spine; for easing shoulder, neck, and back pain; for improved posture and stress relief; and for increasing overall strength. It also tones the torso and abs beautifully. Follow the complete routines laid out on these pages, complete with plenty of color photos and expert instructions that guide you safely through each exercise, or pick and choose your own personalized workout, selecting from the color-coded beginning, intermediate, or advanced levels. There’s information on working out with free weights, Swiss balls, and resistance bands, along with yoga, Pilates, and t’ai chi. Experience it at home or take it to the gym: either way you’ll have a workout that really works.

Following an education in Sports Science and Coaching and Performance Training in London, author James Milligan developed his training practices within fitness centres and private health clubs before establishing Driver Performance in 1998, his own fitness training and therapy company supporting the motorsport industry. James works with a range of clients from the junior formulae of motorsport, F3 and F3000, though to Formula 1 with the Williams team. In Core Training, James aims to provide a wealth of information delivering simple yet effective guidance and a comprehensive range of "get fit anywhere" exercises. He lives in Didcot in Oxfordshire.