WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR CORE?
The concept of ‘core’ means different things to different people – something to be sucked in on all occasions often at the expense of the breath; something to be sculpted like a washboard; or something that expands beyond our feet during pregnancy! Often it gets disproportionate attention and is the cause of much self judgement. Can you reframe your relationship to your core from how you feel it should look to what its function is in the body? The core is made up of a group of muscles. The main job of a muscle is to initiate movement, give support and protection, generation heat, and help circulation. The function of the core is to maintain posture, support the spine, and move the spine into flexion, extension and lateral flexion. The abdominal region houses a large proportion of our organs, it is the core's job to wrap around and create internal pressure like a balloon to contain these organs against the forces of gravity. They also assist with excretion, coughing and sneezing.
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF CORE?
The core muscles that get most attention in the fitness world are the rectus abdominis, running down the centre of the abdominals, and the internal and external obliques, running diagonally to the side of the abdominals. But, to perform its jobs the core, in its true form, is not just at the front of the body – it has a back (quadratus lumborum), bottom (pelvic floor) and top (diaphragm). It is a three dimensional ‘core capsule’ shape which sits below the ‘respiratory capsule’. For the core to work functionally, in our practice and in our everyday life, it needs to be both strong and supple. We want the muscles to be able to switch on and off and work with each other as a team rather than a dictatorship with a dominant muscle. For the purpose of this exploration we will concentrate on the six elements of the cylindrical core muscles – the rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques, transverse abdominis, quadratus lumborum and psoas. The pelvic floor and diaphragm are worthy of an article of their own.
WHAT ARE THEIR INDIVIDUAL ROLES?
With all this in mind let's look closer at our six core muscles, their location, and define what their roles are. It's important to note that even though these are separate muscles they often work together as a core unit with overlapping roles. Starting with the most superficial outside layer:
1. Rectus abdominis – run vertically at the front of the core. Origin: pubis. Insertion: bottom of the sternum. Role: flexion of the spine, stabilise the pelvis, pull rib cage down, contain the abdominal organs, shape the front of the body.
2. External obliques – a pair of muscles that run downwards diagonally at the side of the core. Origin: lower eight ribs. Insertion: iliac crest, linea alba. Role: lateral flexion, rotation, side curves of the waistline.
3. Internal obliques – a pair of muscles that run upwards diagonally at the side of the core. Origin: iliac crest, inguinal ligament, thoracic fascia. Insertion: lower four ribs, linea alba. Role: lateral flexion, rotation, side curves of the waistline.
4. Transverse abdominis – a pair of muscles that wrap horizontally around the core. Origin: iliac crest, inguinal ligament, lowest six ribs, thoracic fascia. Insertion: linea alba. Role: containment sheaths, support the organs, assist in posture, cinch the waist in.
5. Quadratus lumborum – a pair of muscles that run up the back of the core. Origin: iliac crest. Insertion: T12, L1-L3 of spine, lowest rib. Role: extend of the spine when working as a pair, assist in lateral flexion when working individually.
6. Psoas – run deep in the centre of the core ‘the core of the core’. Origin: T12-L5 of the spine. Insertion: femur. Role: hip flexion, stabilise the spine.
EXPLORING 6 ELEMENTS OF CORE IN YOUR PRACTICE
This sequence explores the core, its relationship to the spine and its relationship to the abdominal organs. The core is most active on an exhale, so you will enter the core activation poses on an exhale, as indicated by the breath cues on the sequence. The first row is the warm up phase to build awareness of the sensations of the core. For the first two mini flows make sure to plant your pelvis and lower back on the ground and firm in around your 360 core to stabilise the movement. Repeat rows two and three twice, start with the right leg forward for the full row and follow for the left leg forward. This leg will be the active leg for the flow i.e. in row two from high lunge, the right leg will be forward and will then be grounded balancing leg in the following four standing balance poses.
You can read more about the core in my previous article The core, Your deep core, Strong core & 360 Core.
ALIGNMENT CUES
Have a read of the tips below and either print out the sequence or save it onto your device:
Use the breath guide in the sequence to help you link breath with movement in the flow. Inhale is indicated with a ‘+’, exhale is a ‘-”.
If there are specific poses that you would like to stay longer in, give yourself three deep breaths in those poses, and pick up the next pose with the allocated inhale or exhale as indicated by the sequence.
For a longer practice add in a Sun Salutations at the start of each mini flow or repeat each mini flow.
To save the images for personal use click and hold down the image until the ‘save image’ option appears; on Mac hold down ‘control’ and click the image to get the option box; on PC right click on the image to get the option box. Scroll down in the ‘option box’ and click ‘save image’.
Ruth Delahunty Yogaru