The navel has a prominent place in many ancient forms of wisdom. Apply a bit of modern knowledge to the matter, and it would seem the ancients weren’t all that far off the mark.
As our modern lifestyle has started taking an ever greater toll on our bodies, there has been a growing realisation that much of the problems caused by days spent sitting at a desk and stressing about life can be addressed by paying proper attention to core strength.
However, core strength is not all that simple an issue to address. According to Colleen Brummer of Energy Pilates in Cricket Square, too many people over-simplify the idea of a strong core.
“When we’re talking about the core, it’s not just the abs – we’re talking about everything pretty much from the neck to the hips, front and back, shoulder blades, all the muscles around there, all the muscles around the hip area, pelvic area, tons of muscles up and down the spine,” she says.
The importance of a strong core cannot be over stated, as it plays a role in all other movements and helps to stabilise the body, thereby preventing injury during other activities.
One of the biggest issues for many people is back pain cause by sitting at a desk all day. However, addressing the problem is not quite as simple as strengthening your abs through a load of crunches.
“When you’re sitting at your desk all day, hunched over, you’re kind of in a crunch position, so if you’re finding that you have back associated pain from that work we’re creating a muscle imbalance so why would I have you come into a class and keep crunching over and over again – it doesn’t make sense, as it would be encouraging you to have poor posture,” says Colleen.
Pilates and yoga work on strength and flexibility, which helps to balance the muscle groups and in so doing help alleviate and prevent injury.
“We talk about global mobilise (the big guns) and local stabilisers – they tend to be smaller but not always. They’re tiny, but if they get left out of the equation too much you’ll have these big guys taking over and you lose the core stabilisation that prevents you from injury and muscle strain and overuse. They can be really difficult ones to find,” says Colleen.
This explains why Pilates can be quite a cerebral form of training, as it is necessary to concentrate on engaging the small muscles groups. It is also why many athletes include Pilates in their training regime in order to allow them to compete injury free.
With one on one and two on one training sessions, Colleen finds it much easier to initiate new clients into Pilates, but once they understand the basics it is easy to move on to slightly bigger classes should they want.
Getting started
on your core:
ELBOW PLANK
- Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
- Push off the floor, making sure to engage your abdominals, and rise onto the toes, resting on the elbows and keep the body in a straight line from the head to the heels.
- Contract the abdominals to prevent the back from “sagging” in the middle or lifting up too high through the hips.
- Hold for 20-60 seconds with a strong steady breath - work up to 3-5 repetitions.
HALF ROLL-DOWN
Begin seated on a mat with bent knees and arms reaching forward. Inhale, and then as you exhale roll halfway down till the lower back comes in contact with the floor - pause in this position as you inhale and then exhale as you roll back up to the start position. Maintain a constant “C” curve throughout the exercise by drawing abdominal muscles in toward the spine and engage the pelvic floor muscles, feeling a lifting sensation like your were zipping up a pair of pants.
Repeat 10 times and on the last time try to roll all the way down to the floor without the feet lifting off the mat.
For more information on Energy Pilates, contact 946-6006 or visit energycayman.com