Stabilize Your Core | Winter 2007 Newsletter

Winter time greetings!

I’m going to ask you take a moment and imagine that you are watching some healthy vibrant children at a playground. Visualize how they move. See the ease and freedom in how they run, jump and flowin in. motion. Children don’t need to warm up or stretch before playing because they are supple and have bodies that are constantly on the move. If we compared the all the ranges of motion our bodies are capable of to the alphabet, children use the entire range from A-Z.

How many letters do you use? Most adults rarely get past ‘E’. Typically we do the same repetitive movements throughout the day. We all had that same capacity for grace, strength, flexibility and stamina, but if you don’t use it you lose it!

The topic of this newsletter is recovering the loss stability and strength of the “core” girdle muscles. We’ll discuss the hows and whys of core strengthening.

Moving From "The Core"

The “Core” is the natural corset in the center of the body. It is the area below the lower ribs and above the pelvic bowl. An easy way to think of it is to visualize your trunk and torso as a beach ball and the core is the lower half of that ball.

Functionally the core forms a “girdle of strength” round your center enabling you to move safely, smoothly and easily. It connects our upper and lower halves of our bodies and provides stability and strength to safely move through various postures and positions we assume throughout the day.

Anatomically the core includes the Transverse Abdominus (lower abs), pelvic floor and deep low back muscles (see diagram). Because of the sedentary jobs and lifestyles we lead most of us have not used these muscles consistently for many years. This usually causes a weakening and lack of tone in the core muscles. Low back injuries can often be related to a lack of core strength. Without the stabilizing support of the core muscles our back muscles have to work overtime leading to increased strain on the joints and discs of the lower spine and pelvis. Amazingly it has also been reported in the medical literature that core strength is related to longevity. In other words a weak core can lead to a shortened life!

In my yoga classes to reacquaint students with their core muscles, I use a simple trick I learned from a Pilates text. Standing upright suck on your thumb as hard you can. Aside from feeling and looking a little silly you should feel a lift in the deep lower belly and pelvic floor. These are the muscles that constitute the walls of the core. Go ahead and try it, you’ll be as surprised as I was to rediscover your core muscles through this easy but effective exercise.

In yoga or pilates practice we move through and hold poses that retrain the deep stabilizing core muscles. Over time and with practice we can regain the ability to engage the girdle of core strength we all possess. It is often surprising to find out how much energy we’ve been expending to maintain an upright posture. As we regain core strength and stability it takes less energy to do the simple and repetitive tasks of daily living.