Ever wondered what your “core” actually is, why it’s important, and safe ways to train it without causing pain?

 Let's dive in to uncover the answers!

Your core is more than just visible muscles. It includes hidden ones, like a corset, beneath the six-pack muscle (rectus abdominis). These muscles support you during all movements. Think of them as a TRANSFER STATION, moving power from legs to shoulders through the core. If you can't control your core well, this power flow gets disrupted between upper and lower body.

Parts of the Inner Core Team

Inside your core are: the diaphragm, pelvic floor, transversus abdominis (TA), and multifidus. These four create a CORE CANISTER.

• Diaphragm: It's your main breathing muscle, and it's at the top of the core canister. The diaphragm controls pressure inside the core when you breathe.
  
  
• Pelvic Floor: At the canister's bottom, these muscles support your pelvic organs, help with control, control sexual function, and adjust core pressure with the diaphragm.
  
  
• Transversus Abdominis (TA): This deep muscle connects the canister's top and bottom, shaping its front and sides. It helps with your lower back and connecting upper and lower body forces. It acts as your body's internal weightlifting belt
  
  
• Multifidus: These are very small, but very important muscles at the canister's back, along the backside of your spine. They strongly supports the spine, pelvis, and hips by stabilizing each spinal segment on the one above and below it to prevent excess movement internally. 

What Your Core Canister Does

• Provides stability  the spine, hips, pelvis, and trunk during movement
  
  
• Acts as a hub for transferring power between upper and lower body
  
  
• Helps control bowel, bladder, and sexual function
  
  
• Boosts performance in physical activities

To strengthen your core well, learn how to "pressurize" the core canister. Before, core training often focused only on the TA muscle. But now, research shows breath plays a bigger role. The diaphragm leads the way in pressurizing the core.

When you inhale, the diaphragm goes down into your belly, pushing and increasing pressure inside. This relaxes the pelvic floor to make space for organs to move down. When you exhale, the diaphragm goes up, and pressure inside decreases. Then the pelvic floor contracts and lifts.

Training Your Core Canister

Most think of crunches and planks for core workouts, but breathing is essential. Matching your breath with movements builds a strong core, controlling pressure inside. This is a huge focus in our pelvic floor physical therapy.

Start by mastering diaphragmatic umbrella breathing to use your diaphragm (AKA belly breathing!) Put one hand on your belly, and one on your chest. Take a deep breath in where only the belly hand moves, don’t allow the chest to rise.

Then, breathe out every ounce of air you can from your belly, then keep breathing out. At the same time think about pulling your belly button up and in, like you’re trying to get an extra belt loop.. This turns on the TA and multifidus.

Then you can keep the TA on, and pressurize the canister by breathing into the system again with the diaphragm, and thinking about breathing into your low back and sides.

The goal is to adjust the canister's size by using all these muscles, not just one. Once you're good at controlling the pressure inside, you can do bigger movements while keeping the control and incorporate this into all exercises you perform!

What Happens with Poor Core Control

Poor core control can lead to low back pain, pelvic floor issues such as incontinence, and injuries during exercise.

We need to be able to maintain proper position of our midsections from the top AND the bottom for optimal performance, injury risk reduction, and pelvic floor health.

Follow along on our Pelvic Health and Ortho Instagram accounts for helpful tips along the way!

If you’ve been suffering from pelvic health issues, pain with exercise, or stiffness that just won't quit, you don’t have to live this way. I’d recommend hopping on a totally free, 15 minute consultation call with our expert team of West Springfield Physical Therapists who focus on performance and active lifestyles like yours.

We will spend some time learning about what’s going on with you, how it’s affecting you, what you may have tried in the past, and what your goals are. From there, we can get you started on a path to not dealing with this any longer.

Schedule your free call here.