To refresh your memory, your core consists of the muscles throughout your trunk, including your rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae, among others. Its main purpose: to protect the spine.

To do that, you need to have stability in the muscles around your spine, specifically your core.

While “core stability” is tough to define, it generally refers to your core’s ability to create enough rigidity to prevent your spine from moving in such a way or to an extent that could cause injury. And in order to create this rigidity, you need to contract your core musculature, which may be done consciously (think: bracing during a heavy squat) or unconsciously in your everyday life (think: when you quickly twist your torso to catch an object falling off the counter).

You may not fully activate your core in those unconscious situations but there is some active component to stability — you need to have some amount of muscle firing.

Improving your ability to control the trunk via core stability exercises has historically been seen as a key element to preventing lower back pain. While core stability training could help fend off discomfort, research hasn’t fully backed up this benefit, and core stability isn’t the only potential contributing factor to lower back pain.

Still, ensuring your core stability is up to snuff can help keep tightness at bay in other areas of your body.

If you don't have that stability in your midsection, your body is going to hunt for stability somewhere else. It's going to go to the next joint, either above or below, for stability, and a lot of times, it's the hips. So that can contribute to tight hips, and it’s going to impede some of the range of motion and mobility that you have.

Aside from keeping your body pain- and injury-free, practicing core stability exercises can boost your performance in the gym and your daily life. Simply put, the better your ability to activate and control your midsection, the better you're going to be doing anything that involves movement.

Sources + Photo Credits - https://www.shape.com/core-stability-exercises-6979291