The Key To Optimal Core Strength? Start With A Good Inhale.
Are you looking to improve your core strength? Maybe you experience low back pain or you have sustained an injury and someone suggested that strengthening your core would help. Maybe you’re postpartum or recovering from surgery and you’ve noticed abdominal weakness as you recover. Or maybe you’re just looking to feel more fit and “core work” is something you’ve heard about. In any case, if you want to strengthen your core, where do you start?
If you Google “core exercises” you’ll find lots of different movements and exercises. If you’re in a yoga, pilates, bootcamp, spin class or barre class, you may hear your instructor say “engage your core” or “draw your belly to your spine”or “ brace your core” during the exercises. But what does this mean and how do you start?
Over the past 14 years of being a physical therapist and several years prior to that working as a personal training and PT Aide, I’ve seen the way we as therapists and movement instructors teach core work change a lot and there is still so much we all have to learn! But let’s start with the basics,what is the core? Just the abs? The abs and the pelvic floor? And what IS the “right strategy” for engaging our core muscles?
The “deep core” consists of the following:
*Diaphragm
*Transverse abs
*Pelvic floor muscles
*Multifidus (spinal segmental muscles)
These all work together and need to coordinate and move well together to provide good function and DYNAMIC stability and strength. You can think of your “core” like a balloon and when we inhale, the core as a whole expands and there is lengthening of the tissues. When we exhale, there is a recoil of that inflation and a natural recruitment and activation of the transverse abdominals and the pelvic floor muscles.
With this in mind, using our EXHALE to naturally recruit our core muscles for support and decrease intracranial pressure on our tissues is a game changer. An exhale can be a gateway to connecting with our core functionally. We like to teach “when in doubt blow out” or a favorite by Julie Wiebe, PT- “blow before you go”. ie, exhale with push, pull, lift, etc.
So if we exhale when we “brace”, “draw belly to spine”, “contract the abs”- isn’t that good enough?? Turns out, the way to achieve a good effective exhale and an optimal core activation/connection is by starting with a GOOD QUALITY INHALE.
Here are a few tips to a better inhale:
- Start with your posture- Where are your ribs? Are they stacked over your pelvis, rounded and tucked in, or flared way out? When the diaphragm is over the pelvic floor- they work better together.
- Once in that aligned posture, place one hand on your chest and the other on your lower abdomen to feel your breath travel
- Inhale through your nose- this fosters a deeper, slower inhale that allows the breath to travel down below the chest
- Invite the breath to expand 360 degrees around your rib cage- this helps the diaphragm move down and therefore encourages a lengthening of your pelvic floor
- Allow the abdomen to expand and fill up the space under the hand on your lower abdomen-and work on keeping the hand on your chest quiet.
- If you’re wanting to get fancy-visualize your inhale breath expanding and filling up your pelvic bowl
- Now you have a good inhale to set your exhale up for success!
Interested in learning more? Chat with us about your specific needs in a free 30 minute consultation.