Sure people talk about training the core, and dance teachers talk about moving from the center, but what does that really mean? And what do you really do to train for it? And why train for it in the first place?
I often use this analogy with my students. Imagine you’re in the middle of a pool of water, if you push directly out, you have nothing to push against. You end up just moving water around and not going anywhere. If you’re at the edge of the pool, the wall is there, it’s solid, it’s not going anywhere. If you push against the wall you can send your self drifting off in to the water pretty far. Your core is like your natural internal wall for your body, if it’s toned, the rest of your body can work off against it. Your arms can push stronger from a strong center. Your legs can push out as well, allowing you to move with more stability, speed, and strength.
Without a strong core our centers are like jell-o. If you push out with the arms or legs to move half of that force just goes into counter-acting inefficient wiggly noise absorbed by the rest of your body. It can also cause lots of sheering type forces in the other joints in the body which just lead to injury. A strong core not only gives us more efficient movement, it prevents injury. (In fact, I’d say good movement and unhealthy injury prone movement are really opposite ends of one continuum – what you need to learn to get better movement – whether it’s dance or sport or yoga or whatever, is the same as what you need to learn to prevent injury).
The search for understanding
At one point I just got annoyed with some of the teachers out there. Many would talk about using your core, or moving from your center, but none of them would give any description of what that really was! One instructor was just like, “Got belly?”. That just wasn’t good enough for me. I had to seek out more information, I needed to find somebody who knew more about what was really going on. Dance people had a lot of the training ideas and exercises but lacked actual understanding (and thus lack consistency in the success of the training), yoga people also had some knowledge, had better understanding but again lacked enough understanding. It was with fitness people that I finally found the answers to the questions about core and center that I was looking for. (Check out the work of Paul Chek among many others.)
Transverse Abdominis
The transverse abdominis (or TVA) is a large surface of muscle that wraps around the sides of the body through the belly region. If you’re standing it’s fibers line up parallel with the ground and pull the front of the body around the sides to the spine in the back like a built in corset. It has the action of pulling the belly button in toward the spine. Cough. (Go ahead take a moment and cough, I’ll wait for you. That action is also a contraction of the TVA).
Contracting the TVA as an explicit exercise is taught in many movement types, you’ve probably already experienced already and just didn’t know it was the TVA that you were activating or supposed to activate. Ballet teacher telling you to “zip up”? Pilates teacher tell you to pull your belly button to your spine? Sports teacher tell you to pull your belly in like you’re about to get punched? Martha Graham style contraction? Belly Dancing actions… yoga breathing… the list goes on and on…
The TVA pulls on connective tissue surrounding the lumbar region of the spine (the low back). Not only creating protection for the low spine but also creating a center – a place for the rest of the body to work off of. Not only does this connective tissue wrap the spine but also wraps the lats (latissimus dorsi) going upward in the body to effect the arms, but also the iliopsoas muscles going downward in the body to effect the legs, and also the erector spine to effect the rest of the spine going upward. This wrapping effect around the muscles can even act as a multiplier effect on the efficiency of those muscles by squeezing them tighter.
Simple Exercise
Lie on the floor face down. Lift your belly button up off the floor, and hold if for as long as you can. Don’t cheat the exercise: when first doing this, it’s easy to cheat by lifting your belly button up by pushing into the floor with your legs or arms or shoulders or something else. Try to relax your limbs. Only lift your belly button by using the TVA (cough again just to get the feel for it). Can’t hold it very long? That’s ok, relax, and try again. Do 10 repetitions. Try to get to being able to hold it for 2 minutes straight. (Paul Chek says that’s just for good healthy movement in everyday life, if you’re a professional dancer, go for more!)
You don’t have to do the exercise everyday, 3 times a week is pretty good. Do it at the end of a workout instead of the beginning – if the core is weak from being tired, you’re more likely to injure yourself during normal exercise.
Integration
Ok, got awareness of your TVA? Got it stronger? Start integrating it into other movements you do. Could be anything. In advanced athletes the TVA is measured to activate several milliseconds before any other muscle activates in any action they do. Going to take a step across the floor? Contract the TVA before you push off your leg. Going to lift your arm? Contract the TVA before you do it. Going to make a connection with a dance partner (as lead or as follow or as just general partnering)? Contract your TVA before you connect. Even just going to lift your Starbucks coffee up to your mouth? Contract your TVA! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment