This is the abdominal secret trick that everyone should know. I tell people in my classes, when you walk down the street recruiting your abdominals this way, feel bad for the people walking past that they don’t know this secret!
Just about all of us in this industry say it: “Navel to spine”. It’s a good generic cue for tapping into the deep abdominals that comprise an important portion of your core. But that cue is incomplete.
I got a call from the one and only, Elizabeth Todd the other day. “I have your next stylebook post…you said the best cue I’ve ever gotten from you, you know…the crop top, hot snap, and the horizontal zipper.”
When attempting to tap into the correct muscles for movement, sometimes imagery just works. In order to recruit the whole abdominal wall, from your ribs down to your pubic bone, try this: crop top, hot snap, horizontal zipper (go figure fashion cues worked for E.T.)
Here’s how it works:
Hold these ab tricks all at once and breathe with the side and back of your rib cage. Practice this daily, especially while you’re walking. Why does this matter? We want to recruit the deepest layer of the abdominals because they are important in regulating abdominal pressure, supporting the spine, and for those of you who care, making your abs look HAWT.
To experience your deep abdominals in functional movement, try out our HAWT Pilates, Pilates Mat and Pilates Boot Camp (cardio) programs here at Mind the Mat.
Mind the Mat Pilates & Yoga was founded in 2008 by Megan Brown, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Polestar Certified Practitioner of Pilates for Rehabilitation and Sara VanderGoot, Nationally Certified Massage Therapist and Registered Yoga Teacher (e-RYT 200, RYT 500). In their private practices as physical therapist and massage therapist respectively Megan and Sara observed that many of their clients were coming in with similar needs: relief for neck and shoulder tension and low back pain as well as a desire for more flexibility in hips and legs, stability in joints, and core strength.
Together Megan and Sara carefully crafted a curriculum of Pilates and yoga classes to address needs for clients who are pregnant, postpartum, have injuries or limitations, who are new to Pilates and yoga, and for those who are advanced students and are looking for an extra challenge.
2214 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301
703.683.2228