CORE CONNECTION
Today we're going deep. Arguably the most important group of muscles in your body is the inner core. Like the trunk of a tree, everything branches from it's stabilizing base. Weakness or lack of connection to your deep core can cause low back pain, decreased stability, and poor balance, especially as we get older. This leads to a higher risk of falls and all that comes with it. Probably not on the radar of most of you reading, but as with all prevention, considering our future selves now makes things SO much easier down the road.
We're not talking 'beauty' 6 pack abs here. The deep core muscles are a group made up of your pelvic floor on bottom, diaphragm muscle that's your primary respirator and sits under your rib cage, transverse abs that wrap around your torso like a built-in back brace, and the multifidi that run up your spine giving support to each vertebrae. Today we'll focus on the transverse abdominis or TrA. This muscle, along with the glutes, is one I find most people either aren't connecting to fully, if at all.
Even if you're doing exercises to target the deep lower abs or TrA, if you don't feel that strong connection and stability deep below your belly button, chances are you're using other muscles to compensate. This often means you have a BLOCK. Something that's blocking the neuromuscular connection from your brain to the TrA telling it to activate as it should naturally. Often I find it's an overbearing neighbor like the inner thigh or one side of your diaphragm that's holding too much tension, but can also be an emotional/trauma experience, a scar like from a cesarean, or another seemingly unrelated muscle. It's different in every individual. An women who have been pregnant may have more difficulty activating due to diastisis recti.
We live sedentary lifestyles from a young age sitting in desks, watching TV, driving, and our connection to our most important core becomes neglected. And as in any neglected relationship, it can take intentional reconnection to get back to a healthy place.
Let's check in on your relationship with your core. Start lying on your back — although eventually, you want to be free to do this anytime, anywhere, any position — and use your muscles to pull your belly button towards the floor, without moving your back or your pelvis at all. This is an isometric exercise, meaning nothing moves, you're just tightening the muscle. Once you have that muscle tight you can add in a kegel, engaging the pelvic floor and breathing using your diaphragm so your ribs expand as you inhale instead of your chest. Hold for about 5 seconds to start then fully relax those muscles. Repeat 10 times.
If that was tough, you didn't feel it, you felt it in your back, or pain anywhere, you're likely not connecting well to your TrA. You're also in excellent company. With practice on your own you may be able to re-establish that relationship to your core, but if you’re in the category that continues to have difficulty that’s where I come in. Together we will identify then release the block(s) affecting your ability to connect, whether they're physical or emotional.
