As I mentioned in one of my last posts, we have assossiated modern day Pilates with a 'navel to spine' technique. It does infuriate me! Although 'navel to spine' gives the impression that we're 'drawing in' or 'scooping'(I prefer the latter), it also is very often confused with sucking in the stomach and if you do this, you automatically hold your breath, which gives the opposite to the desired effect.
It's pretty difficult from an instructors standpoint as sometimes, and especially when teaching beginners, we have to find cues to describe the technique of recruiting the deep abdominals without adding too much confusion. Hence 'navel to spine'!
So often my clients tell me that during their daily activities, they remember what they have learnt during their Pilates session and start to draw in their navel to their spine. This is great! It helps to create a more general awareness of how we carry ourselves and also helps to improve posture- but have you ever considered that maybe you are using your transversus abdominus(deep abdominals) too much?
Have you ever considered that our transversus abdominus(TVA), which along with other muscles, help to protect our spine and if recruited too much will lose its desired effect? If we spend all our time in Pilates sessions pulling navel to spine and then practise again whenever we remember during the day, for sustained periods of time, our poor TVA loses its power of contraction when it is really needed.
If we were to have an accident or fall over for example, normally at times such as these our TVA will automatically contract to protect our spine (the flight or fight syndrome). If it has been previously recruited over long periods of time, come to the time when it's really needed, it will inevitably lose its power, making us more prone to injury.
So what do we do?
We chose our teachers carefully.
By finding an instructor that knows enough about the functioning of the human body and its responses to different, subtle anatomical changes - the TVA can fire naturally and great results can happen in the body without one mention of pulling 'navel to spine'!
