How many times in a yoga class have you heard “suck your belly button to your spine” ? I bet more than you can count. It’s time to stop sucking it in. This PSA is for all yogis not just pregnant and postpartum moms.
Why do yoga instructors use this cue? It is an attempt to have you connect to your deep core muscles, the Transverse Abdominis (TA), When you suck in your are actually isolating this muscle and only working it. Instead we want to work your whole core and ALL the muscles that make it up.
Let’s start with defining the core. Think of it as a cylinder. The top is the diaphragm and the bottom is the pelvic floor. The round edges are TA, obliques, rectus abdominis. We want to work the core, all these muscles, together as a system, not as isolated muscles.
Let’s explore what to do if we are no longer sucking it in or pulling our belly button to our spine.
Stand in mountain pose. Focus on your breath. Focus on shifting your breath to diaphragmatic breathing. With the inhale your belly and lower rib cage expands. On the exhale they both fall. Another way to think about it is with an inhale your diaphragm moves away from your lungs, contracting. This moves the pressure in your abdomen out 360 degrees causing the belly to rise and rips to expand. As you exhale and the diaphragm relaxes and the belly falls.
As the diaphragm moves, the pelvic floor moves in parallel. So with each diaphragmatic breath the pelvic floor is contracting and relaxing.
So with each breath your core is being worked as a whole unit.
After you have worked on your breathing (yes it can be hard to breath this way especially if you are a chest breather) I want you to brace after an inhale. You should feel pressure 360 degrees around your core. The brace creates task specific intra adominal pressure. We want to then flwo through our asana with this bracing or IAP.
During your next yoga practice instead of sucking in I want you to find breath then brace and intra abdominal pressure. This will provide core stability as you move through and hold poses. Bonus: You will be working the core in every pose!! There is no need to have dedicated core work in yoga if you are breathing properly.
If you want to dig in to some more information about the core check out this BIRTHFIT post.
