What Are Core Sliders, Exactly?

Core sliders are small disk-like exercise accessories that can add an extra level of challenge and diversity to your standard home workout routine. Core sliders are commonly designed from tough plastic (or try our beautiful bamboo discs),featuring a smooth slide side and a padded foam surface on the other.

They can be used on all sorts of floors: yoga mats, carpet, hardwood, and tile. They allow for full range of motion in exercises and are a very valuable addition to your fitness toolkit, whether you're a new beginner or an experienced exerciser.

What Do Core Sliders Do?

Here are some of the benefits of incorporating core sliders into your routine:

Increased Core Strength: Core sliders activate your core throughout the range of motion, thus creating a powerful stability force within the central part.

Stability and Balance: Using core sliders will require constant engagement with stabilizing muscles, which enhances general balance and coordination.

Gentle on the Joints: The smooth gliding motion would be easy on your joints. It makes core sliders a wonderful option for low impact exercises.

Versatility: They can be used for a wide range of activities and modes of exercise that target all muscles in your body, including the core, back, arms, and legs.

Portability: Light in weight and compact, core sliders are easily portable, making it easy to carry them with you. So, you can keep on doing your routine exercises even when you are traveling out.

How to Use Core Sliders

You can easily incorporate core sliders into your routine, as this is one real and very effective way to take the intensity up a notch. Here is what you need to do in a step-by-step guide:

Warm-Up Begin with a gentle warm-up exercise to make those muscles ready for the workout. Warm-ups can include dynamic stretches or light cardio.

Variations of planks:

Basic Plank: Place the sliders under your feet in a high plank position and hold the plank with your core tight.

Mountain Climbers: From the plank position, slide one knee up to your chest and return back to the starting position; switch, then continue with this running-like mountain climber motion.

Out and in: Start in the plank position with your feet together. Slide feet out to the side at the same time and then pull them back in keeping your core engaged and your weight forward over your shoulders.

Lunges:

Reverse Lunges: Stand with one foot on a slider. Then pull that foot back into a lunge position with the core engaged and return to the starting position. Repeat this movement on the other side.

 Lateral Lunges: Stand with one foot on a slider. Slide that foot out to the side into a lateral lunge position with the core engaged, and then slide back to the starting position. Repeat on the other side.

Curtsy Lunge: Stand on one foot with the other on a slider. Slide the other foot back beside the working leg, behind you in a curtsy position, trying to stay as tall as possible through the body, then return to the standing starting position. Perform this movement for 10 reps before doing it on the other side.

Core Exercises:

Knee Tucks/Bear: In a plank position, place sliders under your feet and pull both knees toward your chest before extending them back out.

Pikes: From plank position, slide feet towards hands by lifting hips up to ceiling, keeping legs straight.

Upper Body:

Push-Ups: Sliders under hands from high plank position, perform push up allowing hands to slide out at bottom.

Arm Circles: Kneeling on the floor with sliders placed under both your hands, now move in circular motion to involve your shoulders and arms.

Cooldown: Conclude your workout and support muscular recovery by a cool-down, including static stretch and deep breathing exercises.

Why Use Core Sliders in Your Routine

Core sliders further your home workouts and provide more benefits, such as:

Greater muscle activation: By using core sliders, you create an instability that will make the muscles work even harder in controlling and balancing. It increases strength gains.

Activation of multiple muscles mimicking natural movements: Therefore, core sliders engage many muscle groups at the same time, hence functional training for functional fitness.

Injury Prevention: Strengthening your core, back, and arms helps to stabilize your entire body, reducing the risk of injury during other activities.

Flexibility and Mobility: The sliding motion helps improve your range of motion, contributing to better flexibility and joint health.

Variety and Challenge: Mixing in core sliders with your current routine can spruce things up a bit by changing things just enough to give you the challenges needed to prevent monotony in your workout regimen.

Conclusion

Core sliders are indeed an awesome and versatile product to enhance your routine home workout. These sliders in your routine will definitely make your core stronger and more stable towards an overall fitter version of yours. Find our range here. Try them and see their benefits for yourself!

Enhancing your fitness journey is not only about the exercise, workouts and energy that you put into your sessions. It is also about how you then rest, recover and optimise the health of your body to be able to make the most out of your workouts. The purpose of this is to improve the quality of the effort you do put in, to raise your overall performance for optimum health. Working hard without looking after yourself and implementing recovery techniques may hinder instead of enhance, your fitness journey. We are going to look at how to do this effectively, by looking at the value of incorporating foam rolling into your exercise routine.

What is foam rolling?

Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release (SMR) technique. It is an effective tool to add to your warm-up or cooldown, to use before and after exercise. The benefits of foam rolling can vary from person to person but it can help to relieve muscle tightness, soreness, and inflammation as well as increase your joint range of motion and improve your posture, all beneficial outcomes to maintaining and improving your current health and fitness levels. Through this self-massage technique, you can help to release built up tightness from overuse, weakness and repetitive movements. It has become a staple in gyms, health and wellbeing centre's and with physios.

The Benefits of Foam Rolling

It has been recently reported that muscle strains and tightness can limit life activities as well as reduce your exercise time or number of sessions when you are still sore from the previous workout. This is increasingly prevalent in young adults and more common in women, often associated with pain. However, taking action to mitigate this tension, such as through foam rolling, can have positive impacts on your workout performance, and also your every day life. Lets looks at some of the benefits of including foam rolling into your weekly routine.

 1. Convenient

Foam-rolling is a convenient and budget friendly option for recovery, with one piece of small equipment, the foam roller, you can enjoy the self-massage techniques, releasing tension and soreness from the comfort of your own home and in your own time.

2. Reduce muscle soreness

One study found evidence that foam rolling after exercise may help reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness. When foam rolling for 20 minutes immediately after exercise, in addition to another session 24 to 48 hours after exercise these participants show a decrease in delayed-onset muscle soreness when compared to exercising without foam rolling. They also performed the physical exercises better than those who didn’t foam roll. More research is needed in more diverse groups to understand these benefits further.

3. Improved mobility and enhanced recovery

Although studies are just emerging, research has shown so far that foam rolling can help to increase mobility and range of motion in joints, as well as enhance recovery for improved future workout performance.  In Verywell Fit’s ultimate foam rolling guide they report research which shows this can be achieved in rolling just 3 times per week for three sets lasting 30-50 seconds.

4. It feels great

This is an opportune moment for self-care, priorisiting your wellbeing and time for you to look after your body, health and mind. Many people find foam rolling to be calming and relaxing, reducing tightness which can also help relieve a feeling of tension in your muscles enabling you to feel calmer as a result. Taking the time to stretch and roll ensures you also take time to rest, which can be as beneficial overall for stress levels.

5. It works!

The evidence and data does show that it is a beneficial technique, for example, further studies have shown it has helped to improve speed and flexibility, reduce muscle soreness and maintain performance. However, it is also part of a holistic approach to recovery and performance, it won’t replace a healthy lifestyle and you will still need to eat a balanced diet and get enough sleep to aid recovery.

Types of foam rollers

Foam rollers are generally cylinder-shaped hollow or dense tubes made of dense foam. They come in a range of lengths, sizes and firmness. It helps to take the time to find one which suits your needs and preferences to ensure it is comfortable to use.

Our amp wellbeing textured rollers have ridges and waves on them, which help them to be able to work deeper into the muscles to work out knots and tension. You can find the range here.

How to use your Foam roller

Using your body weight, roll the core muscle groups (quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calf muscles) in an effective way to relieve tension in areas which regularly get fatigued and sore.

How to foam roll calves

Increase your flexibility, stride length and performance with calf rolling. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Place your foam roller underneath your Achilles and raise your torso up, forming a platform with your hands. Gently use the roller to apply pressure and target tender areas where necessary.

How to foam roll your quads

Lay flat on your stomach and place the foam roller underneath your thighs. Gently bend your legs at the knee and rock backwards and forwards taking care to effectively stretch the muscle.

How to foam roll your back

Lie with the foam roller placed horizontally underneath your shoulders and slowly roll your upper back up and down the roller, pause in areas of tension to focus the pressure. This can be particularly helpful for countering the effect of sitting for long periods at a desk. To enhance movement, extend your arms out in front of you as you move up and down.

Remember: focus on your muscles, avoid joints, bones and never foam roll or apply pressure to your neck.

How long does foam rolling take?

A good rule of thumb is to roll a muscle for around one minute. Make sure that as you apply pressure, you stretch the muscle out for maximum results. The bonus is the benefits of foam rolling can be achieved in 5-10 minutes post workout!

The widespread use of foam rollers for sports settings to increase training efficiency is shown to be justified in research.

Foam rolling can help enhance recovery, reduce muscle tenderness and improve performance, with a method that is affordable, easy to perform and time efficient to enhance muscle recovery. If you are serious about improving your health and wellbeing and achieving your fitness plan, adding in effective recovery and stretching techniques will help you reach your goals.

Do you foam roll? Let us know how you get on and your favourite moves!