Core Musculature | yogawithjames

The strength and flexibility of our core is very important for a few reasons. The first can be illustrated by the picture to the right side. When you look around the entire body, there is a fairly high ratio of bone to entire volume of whatever area you choose (i.e arm, leg, head..). This is true for anywhere except for the area of our core. Between the pelvis and our ribs, there is a good amount of our body that does not have much bony support. The only portion of our skeleton here is the highly mobile and injury prone, lumbar spine. If our core is weak, problems can arise in our spine and elsewhere.

Another reason why this area is important is because of the lack of bony support, the core musculature is what connects our lower half to our upper half of our body. Bridging these two points can be achieved by engaging our core. There is one core muscle in particular which is most effective at creating this connection. The picture to the right is the transverse abdominis. The biggest core muscle in your body, and also one of the deepest. It spans from the linea alba in the front of your body, and wraps nearly all the way around the back side, essentially acting as the housing for the abdominal cavity. It is the muscle you use to sneeze, cough, laugh, pretty much anything where you need to apply pressure to the abdominal cavity. This application of pressure is important as we can use this engagement to our advantage.

A little physics concept: Liquids do not like to be compressed. Because of the incompressibility of water, when we engage our transverse, we are solidifying our otherwise very mobile core. And when we solidify that area, the energy from our foundation is then transferred to the other half of our body. Now the body is acting as one seamless unit versus two disconnected pieces. And when you begin to integrate this engagement when needed into your practice, the efficiency of your practice will improve.

The 2nd of the two components I want mention are the Internal and External Obliques. Starting at the top, they are more superficial, and as they move across towards center they become more deep. Illustrated with the picture on the right. When contracting if one set (an individual line on the illustration) then it will rotate the spine. If both contract simultaneously, that will flex the lumbar.

It is really useful to learn how to contract this group of muscle, as it will allow for much more effective twists within our practice. When we twist while practicing yoga, most of the time it is easier for practitioners to use leverage or gravity. So when you learn how to contract the obliques, its a truly different experience, you can twist a lot further, in a much safer way. In the Asana Guide section, I will show for ways to both find and strengthen the muscles discussed in this section.

Shifting to the base of our pelvis are the pelvic floor muscles. Our pelvic floor muscles are extremely important. These muscles are the bottom of the container on which all contents of the abdominal and pelvic cavities rest. If you can imagine that the torso is a bag of groceries, this is the bottom of that bag. Additionally, the pelvic floor muscles integrate the actions of our front body and back body core muscles. These muscles connect the front and back of your core. Although there are a handful of muscles in this area, there are two in particular that we are most interested in developing awareness of. There is instruction given that indicates you are engaging these muscles correctly if you try to stop the flow of urine, or by doing keagle exercises. Although these are muscles in that general area, its not quite what we are looking for.

What we are really trying to achieve here, is by subtlety lifting the area behind the genitals, and in front of the anus, without doing anything else. Its simply a subtle contraction of these two layers of muscle that tone the pelvic floor. There is a fantastic and rather simple exercise that can help locate and engage this contraction, which is shared again elsewhere on this site.

Tying this together, there is a positive consequence of learning how to engage both the transverse abdominis and pelvic floor muscles simultaneously. There are small muscles that stabilize our lumbar spine known as the lumbar multifidis. These muscles are not voluntarily contractile, meaning you can't engage these muscles like you can with a flex of your bicep. Instead these muscles are activated when the transverse abdominis and pelvic floor muscles are engaged at the same time. And when you create this action, you may notice that you begin to sit a bit more upright. And part of the reason for why that is, is because the lumbar multifidi have now activated.

If you are unsure of how to find either of these muscles, come to class! I am happy to teach either or both of these actions to help stabilize your core.

We are typically most familiar with our muscles closest to the surface (superficial). Pictured here are the erector spinae. These muscles extend like ropes from the sacrum to the cervical vertebrae, and when contracted they bring the backside of the spine closer, which moves our body into spinal extension. A fantastic way to isolate these muscles is in backbending positions where the front side of our body is laying on the floor. Shalabasana, Dhanursasana, and even cobra with your hands slightly lifted, are all ways to locate and strengthen these important groups of muscle.

The rectus abdominis muscle is a paired muscle running vertically on the human abdomen. There are two parallel muscles, separated by a midline band of connective tissue called the linea alba. The rectus abdominis is an important postural muscle. It is responsible for flexing the lumbar spine. The rectus abdominis assists with breathing and plays an important role in respiration when forcefully exhaling.

At the depths of our interior is the popular quadratus lumborum muscle. The QL is lateral to the spine, but it has attachments from the top of the pelvis to the lowest rib and to the transverse processes of the spine. It assists in spinal extension and lateral flexion. But its primary action is a spinal stabilizer as it links the pelvis, spine, and rib cage all together.