The easiest way to practise activating your core muscles is by getting into this position (you may leave your feet flat on the floor), then pulling your belly button in and gently pressing your lower back to the floor without lifting your buttocks off the floor. Breathe normally without allowing the belly to rise. — Photos: Freepik
In a number of my columns that provide tips on how to perform a particular exercise, I have often mentioned the phrase “engage your core”.
“Pull in your belly button”, “tighten your abdominal muscles”, “zip your belly”, “soften your ribs” – these are an assortment of phrases personal trainers use to get clients to activate their abdominal (a.k.a core) muscles.
However, like me, trainers may assume that everyone knows how to do this properly, but in actual fact, many don’t know what it means.
It’s something I took for granted because engaging my core comes naturally to me from the decades of dance and Pilates training.
That is, until a friend-cum-reader pointed out that he had difficulty breathing every time he tightened his abdominal muscles.
“When you say engage, I just suck in my belly as if I want to fit into a tight pants, right?
“Is that why it’s so hard to breathe?” he asked.
That’s not quite right and apologies for not explaining this better.
What my friend was doing was inhaling while sucking in his belly and flaring his ribs out; this makes movements uncomfortable.
When the ribs are already filled with air, there is limited space to take in more air, which then creates shallow breathing.
It’s a common mistake people make, and is especially obvious in the ones with big tummies.
Watch how they suck in their bellies and automatically expand the ribs so the chest appears bigger when posing for photographs and taking selfies.
Holding the position for extended periods turns the face red, or even bluish – you might actually pass out!
How to do it?
This is no-no: notice how the lower back is arching? This means that the abdominal muscles are not engaged.
Let me attempt to simplify the method of engaging your core here.
Imagine someone punching you in the stomach.
Your immediate, protective reaction would be to hunch a little and shorten your height, tense or flex your abdominal muscles, round or flatten your lower back, and take the blow.
Engaging your core is somewhat similar to this, except you don’t round your lower back.
Basically, you have to brace and tighten all of the muscles in your core to keep your spine safe and stable.
Perhaps the most important part of engaging your core is breathing, because you must know how to continue breathing like normal while keeping your core tight.
Try this: lie on your back as shown in these pictures and take a breath in; as you exhale, your belly should flatten and tighten.
Every time you breathe after the initial breath, you have another chance to engage your core further and create that strong cylinder of muscles from your ribs to your hips.
Why it’s important
When you lift your shoulders off the floor to perform a crunch, your belly should not rise but remain flat as demonstrated here. The lower back must also be on the floor without a gap. That’s how you engage your core muscles.
It is essential to engage your core to protect your spine and improve your form during any exercise or activity that involves stability, lifting, pushing, pulling or holding objects away from your body,
The most crucial time for engaging your core muscles is probably when you lift weights.
You can usually lift heavier when you brace your core.
Additionally, studies show that runners have a better posture and less back and neck pain when they run with their core gently tensed.
For ballet dancers, due to the aesthetics involved, the abdominal muscles have to be tightened all the time.
It makes dancers lighter on the feet and gives them the additional power to perform jumps and turns.
When you’re upright, you engage your core just by pulling your belly in – you should not be rounding your back or hunching as your full height should still be maintained.
That means you wouldn’t be contracting the abdominal muscles as hard as you would when you’re lying on the floor.
You don’t have as high of a risk for spine injuries during cardio exercises as you do during weightlifting exercises, because generally, there isn’t as much opportunity to move the spine into dangerous positions during the former.
The spine is seldom overly flexed, extended or rotated, so it’s not necessary to keep your abdominal muscles tightly engaged.
All the time or sometimes?
But should you engage your core all day, every day?
When someone punches you in the stomach, the natural tendency is to flex your abdominal muscles. — Filepic
Definitely not.
Your abdominal cavity is packed with different internal organs, which can get squished with too much pressure.
For example, you may have experienced a wee bit of bladder leak when you laughed or coughed too hard.
This is because during these motions, your abdominal muscles automatically contract, increasing intra-abdominal pressure.
This means that your internal organs get squeezed a bit more and push up against your diaphragm and down against your pelvic floor, where the bladder is located.
A similar increase in intra-abdominal pressure happens every time you consciously contract your abdominal muscles.
Constantly doing this will continuously press your organs against the diaphragm and limit its range of movement, besides weakening the pelvic floor muscles.
Studies show that increases in intra-abdominal pressure can affect your breathing because it is harder to take deep breaths as the diaphragm will not move down as willingly.
So, you don’t need to grip them all the time.
The core muscles are skeletal muscles after all, and constantly activating them will trigger fatigue.
Once you’ve completed your activity or are in between doing strength-training sets, let them relax.
If you’re out shopping, strolling, eating or watching television, let your tummy catch a breather.
On some occasions, a bouncy little tummy can be cute!
Revathi Murugappan is a certified fitness trainer who tries to battle gravity and continues to dance to express herself artistically and nourish her soul. For more information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information contained in this column is for general educational purposes only. Neither The Star nor the author gives any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to such information. The Star and the author disclaim all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
