Your core

engage or not to engage?

Core, powerhouse, centre, cylinder of support - all these terms refer to our deep postural muscles. There are the pelvic floor, respiratory diaphragm, abdominal muscles and spinal muscles. These muscles work together and act both to manage pressure and create stiffness under load.

Hearing the cues ‘engage your core’, ‘brace your core’ or ‘pull your belly button to your spine’ can not only be confusing but can actually be detrimental to correct muscle firing patterns. Keep reading to find out why!

Dr Brent Anderson founder of Polestar Pilates says it best ‘the appropriate amount of stiffness for the anticipated load’. Our muscles should not be overly recruited more than they are required for the anticipated load. Our bodies are incredibly smart and our brains figure it out, if we train our muscles under volitional contraction (I.e. conscious activation) we are disrupting neural pathways.

Should I be consciously be lifting my pelvic floor and engaging my core when I’m at the gym or doing a Pilates class?

It depends! If you’ve just had a baby and the muscles of your core have stretched in order to allow for the growing and delivery of your baby then yes, especially if there has been trauma to these muscles. The same applies if you've undergone surgery. This trauma can interfere with the neural pathways and our bodies ability to connect to these muscles so for a while voluntary contraction of these muscles may be required in order to switch them back on and get them functioning again. Our goal would always be towards spontaneous muscle contraction eventually.

If you’ve been to one of my classes you’ll never hear me say engage this or pull in that, and that’s because you can’t perform a functional task and say ‘oh wait, I need to recruit my glutes for this’ it’s not how our bodies work. The way we move in a Pilates class or during exercise needs to be as functional as possible so we can carry those movement patterns into our everyday lives. In a Pilates class you will hear me talk a lot about alignment e.g. ribs over pelvis or breathing e.g. breath like you are opening an umbrella because both our alignment and our breathing are key for effective activation of our deep core system.

Our alignment and breathing are key to correct muscle activation.

Firstly our core is a pressure system managed by the synergy of the pelvic floor and diaphragm, we inhale and we increase intra-abdominal pressure, the diaphragm descends and the pelvic floor lengthens and as we exhale, intra-abdominal pressure decreases and the diaphragm relaxes upwards and the pelvic floor contracts. If we aren’t breathing effectively I.e. chest breathing or shallow breathing we aren’t going to be able to get an effective core contraction.

The alignment of our bodies when we go to load or to perform a task or an exercise is as important as the breath. The diaphragm is situated under the ribcage and the pelvic floor is in the base of the pelvic bowl, in order for this system to work well the ribs need to be aligned over the top of the pelvis , if they aren’t this may hinder the effectiveness of our core muscle contraction. If we have a tendency to tuck our pelvis under chances are we aren’t getting good pelvic floor nor diaphragm movement which again will affect our core’s ability to fire efficiently.

Next time you’re in class lying on your mat, be aware of where your pelvis, ribcage and head are, take a long slow inhale and feel your breath moving into your front back and sides and down into the bowl of your pelvis, exhale slowly, feel the exhale coming out into the room, as that happens float one leg to table top and then the other. Feel the stiffness created in your centre. No pulling in or bracing required!

Joseph Pilates never talked about the core or powerhouse, these terms appeared more recently. He did however talk about alignment and breathing.

"Before any real benefit can be derived from physical exercises, one must first learn how to breathe properly. Our very life depends on it."

If you’re breathing efficiently and your body is well aligned chances are your core is working just as it should, which is great news because it’s one less thing to worry about during class so you can just let go, listen to your body and feel amazing!