What’s the core have to do with a block between your thighs?

Continuing on the theme from last week about the muscles of the core, we’ll focus on the inner thighs. Yes, the inner thigh muscles can affect the core muscles (including the abdominals and pelvic floor).

At a basic level the muscles of your inner thighs help support your pelvis and hips, which in turn supports your spine and back. If you aren’t using these muscles or they are weak, this can contribute to a weakness in your lower back. This becomes really noticeable in a plank position and when lowering in the plank position down. If the muscles of your inner thighs are not active, you might that your belly starts to sag and your butt sticks up.

For the last few weeks in my regular classes, we have been squeezing a block between our thighs in down dog, plank, lowering through a press-up and pushing back to down dog. It’s a very effective way to notice how the inner thighs affect your core, pelvis and spine stability. And it has the added benefit of strengthening the inner thighs.

However, like everything in life, take things in moderation. Much of the chronic pain we experience in our bodies is due to imbalances in muscle groups: overusing or under-using opposing muscle groups. So while it’s good to strengthen the inner thighs, don’t over-work them. The glutes (your butt muscles) and quadriceps (front and outer thighs) work with the muscles of the inner thighs and need to balance their effort together.

Here is one way to explore your strengths and weaknesses:

1. Start standing. Put a block or thick rolled towel between your inner thighs.
2. Squeeze the towel and notice what happens to your inner thighs, outer thighs and buttocks.
3. Now, while still squeezing the block, stick your buttocks out behind as if you were going to sit down on a chair (chair pose). Your buttocks will have to relax somewhat to release your hips to move. But you can still feel all 3 muscle groups working.
4. One last chance to explore…while squeezing the block in chair pose, change the places where you are putting pressure in your feet and notice how it changes the muscle action in your thighs.

And if you missed it on my facebook page, check out this article on using your glutes in backbends for more tips on balancing the muscles of your buttocks and thighs.