Core Work – BowlFit Tips

Everyone wants to “work their core” and have killer abs. But the truth is most people don’t learn how to properly engage all their intra abdominal muscles before attempting all their sit ups and crunches. First off, ditch sit ups and crunches all together because they are wasting your time.

Second, start by lying on the floor with your knees up and back on the ground. Place your hands on your stomach and inhale through your mouth trying to fill your belly with as much air as possible. Most people only fill up their chest with air, true belly breathing really gets the diaphragm engaged. Next, exhale all the air through your mouth as if you are blowing up a balloon. Do that about 10 times.

Third, take your hands and wrap them around your sides or “love handles”. Dig your fingers into your sides a little bit and then try to activate all your core muscles so that you can feel them pushing your fingers away. This is called bracing and is what you should feel anytime you do a core exercise. What I tell my clients is you should be bracing so that if I were to punch you in your core, you wouldn’t go anywhere.

From there I usually start clients with deadbugs. Knees up and slowly lowering one leg at a time. Then get the opposite arm reaching for that knee as you bring it back in. Slow and controlled with a braced core and feeling like you are pressing your lower back into the ground.

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About Heather –

Heather D’Errico MS, CSCS, CFSC, LMT

Heather began BowlFit in 2013 with the hope to provide awareness to bowlers about how crucial training off the lanes truly is. She has been an avid bowler her entire life competing as a collegiate bowler for Robert Morris University, assistant coaching at the University of Central Missouri, and now head coaches at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY.

She obtained a master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis on exercise science and interned with the head strength coach at UCM. She became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) through NSCA shortly after graduation and began coaching athletes at Next Level Strength and Conditioning in Fairport, NY.

In October 2015 she received her certified functional strength coach certification and then went back to school in July 2016 for massage therapy. She is now a licensed massage therapist and runs a business called Restorative Bodywork in Rochester, NY that specializes in movement therapy and sports massage.

Heather has also been competing on the PWBA tour the last 3 seasons and continues to use her experiences as a competitive and professional bowler to create programs for bowlers. She enjoys the challenges of making programs specific to each bowler as every person needs to focus on different areas for their performance goals. With that said her training motto is “do no harm” and believes each program should most importantly make a bowler FEEL better and play with minimal injuries/pain.