Last week I revisited the cue of tightening your armpits. I explained when you try to pull your armpits down, you’re actually tightening the muscles in your core around your sides and back. Not actually tightening your armpits.
You can feel this most easily when standing with a tall spine and shoulders gently back – gently pull your armpits down to your hips without leaning forward or shortening your spine.
Most of us find it easy to squeeze the muscles in the front of our stomach – even if we don’t do it often. But those muscles are only part of your core. Your core is a band of muscles that surrounds your entire abdomen. When you tighten only those at the front of your stomach, you just pull your chest forward and undermine your posture.
Learning to activate the muscles of your sides and back can give your better core stability, support better posture and make things like press-ups easier. Yes, really!
Next time you try a press-up try to tighten those muscles at your sides and back and keep that action as you lower AND push back. The stronger those muscles are the less your belly and back sag. Suddenly a press-up becomes easier and your back feels better.
We don’t often pay attention to those muscles, so if you find this hard in a press-up, keep the knees down until you can get control over all the muscles of your core. Press-ups done properly with your knees on the floor will give you far more benefit than press ups where your back collapses.
And for those of you coming to my weekly classes these past few weeks, squeezing a block between your thighs can contribute to activating your entire core – but you’ll have to wait until next week for the explanation!
