On September 5, KAIST’s Student Health and Life Center and Lyu Keun-Chul Sports Complex Fitness Center held the 2013 Core Exercises Workshop from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the main court of the Lyu Keun-chul Sports Complex. The workshop was to promote a healthier lifestyle to KAIST students by helping them strengthen their core muscles.
In the 21st century, “human well-being” and “quality of life” have become popular keywords. With the trend of promoting healthier lifestyles, the term “core stability” has been gaining a lot of attention recently.
The core muscles are the muscles located around the abdominal region, back, pelvic floor, and hips. These muscles are responsible for balance, posture, and trunk stability; they are the foundation for movement. If the core muscles are weak, other muscles have to compensate for them, which can lead to postural imbalance and chronic pain in the waist and shoulders.
People with a sedentary lifestyle are more likely to have weaker core muscles than others. The Student Health and Life Center and Lyu Keun-chul Sports Complex Fitness Center said that the many hours of continuous studies and work have resulted the weakening of the students’ core muscles.
The workshop aimed to introduce exercises that can be easily practiced in the students’ daily lives so that they can maximize the core stability by effectively strengthening the smaller, deeper muscles. The workshop was organized for approximately 250 participants. Participants were not required to do any prior registration or pay an entry fee for the workshop. Anyone who brought their own yoga mat were able to participate in the workshop. Three professional instructors, Jae-hee Shim, Yoo-bin Nam, and Hye-yoon Jo, introduced the various core strengthening exercises.