The Core, core strength and core training are buzz words made popular by Pilates and adopted by almost every fitness programme today. Even physical therapists are recommending core strengthening exercises for back pain and posture but… is this truly the right approach?
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Core strength or stability refers to the midsection, the area between the ribs and pelvis (known in Pilates as the ‘powerhouse’). In Pilates, strengthening the core involves co-contracting a deep abdominal muscle called the Transversus Abdominus (TA), the muscles of the pelvic floor, and the deep postural muscles of the spine that connect the upper body to the lower half. The focus is on using effort to hold yourself upright against gravity or give you stability when moving.
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Fifteen years ago that was how I taught Pilates until gradually things started shifting. I became familiar with Tom Myers ‘Anatomy Trains’, then I experienced movement practices like Feldenkrais, Trager and various Somatic movement that don’t focus on the core. I also delved into NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) and Neurophysiology. NLP and Neurophysiology made me curious about the way we are shaped by our experiences. It was the beginning of my fascination with how body and mind are connected. In the early days, I used language like ‘activate’, ‘engage’, ‘zip and hollow’, ‘draw the navel to the spine’ and ‘co-contract’ to describe strengthening techniques, only to find that I was overcueing the core and might be doing more harm than good. Today there are many different approaches to Pilates and some have moved away from that type of discipline. As my experience of movement rehabilitation emerged, so did my experience with chronic pain and relationship with the core.
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New thinking anatomy connects everything to everything as Tom Myers shows us in Anatomy Trains. The core, being part of a deep front line that goes from the arches of the feet to the tongue. Its integrity is influenced not only by the way we move or don’t move, but whether we are born bendy and stretchy or tight and compact. Most of all by how we think, feel and behave. From this knowledge a whole person approach to the core and the body started emerging for me. I began to notice how… •
I learned that the core functions well when you stop isolating the core from the rest of the body and when you soften rather than tighten, restore rather than strengthen.
The body and mind are connected, and the body is shaped not only by how long we sit at our desks, but how we respond to moods and language. Use words like activate or engage and the core overworks. For someone experiencing pain, stress, or anxiety, asking them to activate, engage or strengthen triggers a sympathetic or stress response. Even perceived effort can trigger a stress response. Like hearing the word strengthen. It affects the diaphragm, breathing, and the tone of the Psoas (the muscle that joins the spine to the thigh bone), resulting in tension and an unhealthy core. When you reduce stress and tension in the body you relieve pain. The thoracic breathing that certain Pilates training emphasises creates tension and disconnection in the body.
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Mechanical breathing, deliberately breathing in and out, interferes with core integrity. The Pilates way of breathing out on flexion disrupted the natural flow and rhythm of the body in movement. Motion releases emotion. The core is super sensitive and requires awareness.
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