Your Core is Totally Tubular!

This week I have been completely and absolutely immersed in my core. No, seriously. I just finished a core immersion with Jill Miller of Yoga Tune Up®, she is absolutely one of my favorite teachers and I have been learning so much. Most people may think of their core as consisting of just their abs and the only way to work out their core are through sit-ups and crunches. Or, maybe you may be of the kind who do pilates and work your core through certain core-strengthening exercises. However, the core consists so much more than the rectus abdominus muscles, these are the muscles that many of us strive to work on when we are the gym trying to attain a six pack. The core makes up some of the muscles in the abdomen such as the transverse abdominus, the external and internal obliques, the and even some of the back muscles such as the erector spinae, even the spine makes up the core! So, your initial idea of the core is not totally wrong, but it compromises so much more. Jill Miller has a term that she uses called the "tubular core". It is almost like seeing your core as a big cylinder, it encompasses muscles, connective tissue, and bones that pretty much wrap around your whole midsection and protect and support your internal organs.

Just think of this...when you are suffering through a cold and you have a bout of coughs for several days and you notice that your abs hurt, those are your transverse abdominus muscles working. Not really sure where your oblique muscles are? Try this...a simple way to find them is to stand up and without flexing any of your stomach muscles, place your fingers on either side of your navel and pick up one leg at a time and kick it upwards in front of you and to the side, you should feel a slight contraction. The obliques pretty much crisscross the body and wrap around your midsection, almost creating a girdle. Anytime you make a movement where you are bending or twisting to a side, you are engaging those muscles. They also happen to be weak muscles on a lot of people, me included. So you may be thinking what can I do besides situps or crunches and how do I know if I have weak obliques or what can I do to strengthen those muscles? Well, I can invite you to visit Jill Miller's website, www.yogatuneup.com. She offers some really great exercises that you can do at home. I also teach Yoga Tune Up® in the Bay Area and what I teach features many movements for the core.

I think that the biggest take away for me during the training is that your core needs to be strengthened as well as stretched...they were just so many facets to this weeklong training as well as to your core and the health of your core, that I can go on, but I feel that here is a start.