WHERE TO START WITH THE “CORE” – A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE LAYERS AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

The core can be pretty complicated.   There’s a lot more to it than just this little post.

But I’m not going to go into everything here and now.  Not everyone geeks out over anatomy the way that I do – so here is a starting point –  that you can actually use to improve your exercise and post natal recovery.

Think of the abdomen as 2 sets – the inner set, and the outer set.

The outer set (labelled in pink below) is what most people are strong at using.  This applies to every joint actually, but more on that another day…

The inner set – the deepest layer of muscles (i.e – furtherest away from the skin – closest to the spine) is responsible for stabilisation – and most people don’t understand that there’s a distinction between the two.

A strong body starts with stability at every joint (inner set muscles). The key to a fully functional pelvic floor, zero back pain and a flat stomach (as the transverse abdominis acts as a corset and supports all of our internal structures, preventing them from drooping) – is knowing how to activate the inner abdominal muscles – and not rely on over use of the outer ones.