Muscles of Balance and Support – The Deep Six

When trainers, yoga teachers, magazine articles, and doctors talk about the Core what are they referring to?  Most of us consider it to be our abs, or maybe somewhere a little deeper, behind our belly button.

But the Core is not something we can directly point to.  Instead, it is a general area of the body.   It is highly sensory, richly supplied with blood and nerves.  And it literally sets the tone for our muscles by giving us precise information about where we are in space; whether we are balanced, safe, cold, upside-down, have to go to the bathroom, or even stressed.

This Core is composed of a variety of muscle groups, nerves, vessels, even our organs and guts.  The most immediate support for our Core is our pelvis.  In many ways, the pelvis is the feet of the core, the ground.  And the photo above shows us a very important part of our that support.

When this group of muscles, called the “deep six”, is out of balance, then we are out of balance.  We are unable to stand comfortably for any length of time.  We get numbness in our feet, tension in our backs, pain in our backs, restless legs, trouble going to the bathroom, the list goes on!  This happens because when the Core is unable to move freely it can not sense.  And then we are heading towards imbalance, or already dealing with an injury.  It goes both ways.  We can become imbalanced from the inside out, or outside in.

Addressing this region of the body is incredibly rewarding.  When I work with my clients’ Core, they experience a deeper sense of balance, a greater depth of body-awareness, and a true understanding of what the Core is all about.

 

Contact me at 215.518.2819 to set up a consultation or email me at Brian@ArtofGravity.com