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Should we do abs every day? 

I'd argue that you shouldn't. 

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but working your abs every day can actually cause weakness in your core. Hear me out. 

This is for one reason: overuse. Overuse can not only cause injuries in your body, but it can reduce results from your exercise program, and the abs are no exception. If you did bicep curls every day, your elbow probably wouldn't feel very good. You would probably develop an inflammatory injury like tendonitis, which would set you back from continuing to exercise and increase strength.

When you work a muscle, whether you are exercising or doing a physically demanding activity in daily life, tiny tears happen in the muscles. These tears are good, as they signal your body to begin the inflammation process. This inflammation process swoops in to heal torn/damaged tissue, and the result is stronger muscles. 

This inflammatory process can...

In last week's blog post, I spoke about the four leading causes of back pain. Many times stress through your body can be difficult to control. Maybe you have to sit for work or lift your kids all day. Maybe you're having trouble controlling your emotional stress. Maybe you were in a car accident, and your back is injured. 

Today, I want to dive a little deeper into one of those causes of back pain, which CAN be controlled - mechanical stress on the spine with exercise. 

Exercise should always build you up, not slowly wear down your joints. We should create strong, resilient bodies to tolerate the less controllable events in our lives. 

There's a lot of information in the fitness and physical therapy world about what type of exercise will achieve this. And of course, I have my own opinions that I will share in this article. 

I want to say that I've tried and loved just about every type of exercise. I'm not attaching value or meaning...