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The Core!
Slimming your
profile
and learning to Breath
By Diana Nicholson
 Four
muscles make up the abdominal
muscle group that primarily
supports the spine by supporting
the lower back and stabilizing
the pelvis.
The deepest of
these muscles is the Tansverse
Abdominis that holds in your
organs underneath the obliques.
You use this muscle every time
you
breathe in and pull the
abdominal wall inward.
Where is it
located?
The
Transverse Abdominal muscle or
TA is
just above your pelvic floor, on
the inside of your pubic bone. These fibers run up
to the
bottom of the rib cage and can be
called ‘your tension connection”
or your ‘Core Muscle’.
When Joseph
Pilates observed animals in
nature he realized that they
instinctively knew the right way
to move and breath to protect
themselves from injury.
What he observed
was that they breathe the exact
opposite of humans. They inhale
on the extension and exhale as
they flexed.
This is the
co-contraction of the front and
back of your abdominal muscles
which pull together to create an
intra-abdominal pressure. This
pressure protects your spine
from injury as you bend over to
pick something up, swing a golf
club, a bat, or hit a
volleyball. You can feel this
core muscle just by sucking in
your gut.
Its important to
know how to get the core muscle
to activate properly, because
every movement and breath should
originate from it. During
exhalation the diaphragm
relaxes, the organs rise, and the
belly flattens.
How do we get it
to activate?
In order to
truly activate the Transverse Abdoninus, we need to
essentially breathe and make a
mind body connection to those
often dormant muscles.
You should begin
by exhaling all the air out of
your lungs so that it takes you
through the full motion of the
movement. Simultaneously you
should be thinking of pulling
your navel into your back as you
exhale. During inhalation, the
diaphragm contracts, pushing
down against all the organs in
the abdominal cavity, causing
the abdominal wall to expand
out. So the trick is to sustain
the navel into the spine on
inhalation and still breathe
deeply and keep the breath
flowing.
Where the
mind goes the chi flows
Breath unites the
mind with the body and this is
where your brain comes in.
Optimal breathing spirals up
into the upper back (diaphragm).
So the key is to inhale on the
extension (as you stretch out)
and use your mind to send the
breath into your diaphragm in
the upper back, opening the ribs
in the back.
Think of closing
them in the front as you exhale
all the air pulling the navel in
which creates that pressure
internally thereby lifting the
core muscle up. Now sustain the
closure of the ribs (getting the
ribs in the front to kiss on
exhalation) holding them closed isometrically, while sending the
breath again into the the upper
back. Keeping a tension
connection between the bottom
rib and the top of your hip
bone. Practice holding the ribs
closed in the front and sending
the breath into the back. This
is diaphramatic breathing and
more oxygen means more energy
and mental clarity.
Learning new
movements and breathing patterns
can be tedious and frustrating.
When trying something for the
first time, the brain acts like
a computer. The first time we
try something new it begins
scanning for the file, but there
isn’t one. The second time you
do the same movement, the brain
already has the file out. As you
continue to challenge yourself
by repeating simple new
movements, you will find that it
becomes progressively easier
over time. Our mind can make the
body do whatever we want it to.
Mantak
Chia says “the diaphragm is a
spiritual muscle, deep
breathing can move the toxins
out of the joints”. Breathing
through the nose is optimal as
it triggers your parasympathetic
nervous system, and relaxes your
whole body. Think of blowing
wind into the sail of a ship, if
you don’t blow hard enough that
ship isn’t going anywhere. The
breath connects you to the core
as it lifts your pelvic floor,
and works the abdominal muscles
from the inside out. Joseph
Pilates would say “exhale all
the air out of your lungs when
you breathe, if there is any air
left in your lungs when you
exhale it’s like cleaning
laundry with dirty water.” So
breathe deep!
About the
author
Diana
is a teacher of Pilates in
Malibu California malibuhealthpilates
interested in the healing
arts and the unimpeded,
uninhibited movement or flow of
the Integrated Spirit, Soul and
Body.
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