If you go to a gym these days, you're likely to see much more than machines and free weights. There's a new emphasis in the fitness industry on strengthening your core, and what they call functional fitness.

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Balancing exercises help strengthen the core.

"I had had a pretty bad back injury so I was just looking to be able to function during the day, just be able to lift small packages and not feel pain. So I started swimming," said Claudia Perles, who exercises regularly.

A few years later, she has run the Marine Corps marathon, taken up ballroom dancing and playing tennis. And these days, her exercise routine includes a lot more.

Senior personal trainer Tom McCarthy says we spend a lot of time in chairs at work or in our cars, so the muscles that stabilize our spine don't get much attention.

"So the idea here is to use all the muscles around the center here to keep that pelvis in position," he said.

If you see someone at the gym trying to perform an exercise while balancing on top of a squishy pad, a ball, or even a board, trainers say it's functional fitness that stabilizes and strengthens the core - not just your stomach, but the all the muscles holding up your spine.

"These more subtle exercises; while they don't seem to be doing much at a casual glance, are actually extremely powerful protocols and can recruit all of these stabilizing muscles,” McCarthy said. “We're really forcing those muscles to work overtime, normally they would kind of be along for the ride.

"The advantage for many people is reduced back pain. Many times when we have people with low back pain we find very low tone in their core muscles."

Claudia says Tom has changed her exercise routine over the years, but these functional fitness exercises really suit her new active life.

"It seems like we're doing more of that which is great because I really need that for dancing and for tennis, you really need that balance and that confidence,” she said.  

Claudia  says these functional fitness exercises have not only improved her balance, but also reduced her back pain. That's the payoff for most people: reduced back pain. It's because those with lower back pain typically have weak core muscles.