The pose begins when you want to leave it
Core muscles play a huge role in our everyday activities - from getting out of bed, to walking down the street and bending over to grab anything, but most importantly, they literally help us stay upright. That's because the core muscles are the base of support for our entire body. They completely surround and support our spine and pelvis and connect our upper body and lower body, effectively transferring forces from one to the other.
Our abs aren't just one muscle. The deepest layer of abdominal muscles is our transverse abdominis which stabilizes our spine and pelvis. Then we have two layers of oblique muscles, which control lateral flexion (think a side bend), rotation, and other spinal movements. Last but not least, is the topmost muscle - the rectus abdominis, which runs vertically in the front of our abdomen and is the muscle we see as a six-pack. It flexes our torso forward, like in a crunch.
Our whole core (versus just our abs), involves even more muscles - our pelvic floor muscles, the back muscles that stabilize our spine and our diaphragm. A strong core helps to keep a more upright and erect posture.
Shivanjali’s yoga focusses on –
- Increasing the individual's awareness of the muscle, then once we're able to activate it, it's much easier to activate that muscle in all exercises.
- Our core exercises train the muscles in the pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen to work together.
- We slowly work towards culturing the core, thus making it strong enough to be less susceptible to injuries, keeping the body aligned and minimizing strain on the muscles and joints.
