Understanding your core

How many times have you heard in your dance class, “engage your center!”, “You’re not using your core.”?

As a teacher I’ve noticed that my students will likely not correct this feedback unless I explain what their core is. Let’s be honest though, many teachers, myself included, sometimes do not have time to explain this.

So what is your core?

Your core muscles are composed of extrinsic and intrinsic muscles. Extrinsic muscles are your hamstrings, adductors, obliques whereas your intrinsic muscles are your diaphragm, iliopsoas, abdominal and lower back muscles.

These are a lot of muscles and for many dancers, talking about the body anatomy can be tedious, specially if they have been in school all day. Although you need to strengthen all of them to become a stronger dancer, I would start with your diaphragm muscles if it becomes too overwhelming.

Why pick this muscle as a starting point?

Training the diaphragm strengthens the muscle but it also creates a calming effect. Judi Bar, in an NPR article, says, “Our breaths will either wake us up or energize us. It will relax us, or it will just balance us.” Have you heard your teacher say or yell in class to your class, BREATHE! If you are not breathing while you’re dancing, you probably have a weak core. Do not leave all of the work to your neck and chest muscles. Using your diaphragm correctly will make you a powerful dancer.

Do you do one or some of the following?:

__injure easily

__suck in your belly

__dance small

__grind your teeth at night

__hold or delay going to the bathroom

__tense shoulders and neck

__clench your jaw

__misalignment of the joints

If the answer is yes for any of these, you might need to start making some time to strengthen your core. This does not apply just for dancing but for life. Everyone needs a strong core but to achieve this, you should tackle it one at a time.

Breathe!

Every time you suck in your belly, you create tense muscles which reduce your breathing capacity. The reason this happens is due to the fact that you are not giving your organs enough space. DANCERS – do you know what other problems it creates?

• It reduces or minimizes your flexibility from your hip connectors. Maybe you CAN lift that leg a bit higher but to do so, you need to inhale some oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.
• Since you are sucking in your belly, you will automatically lift your chest. This creates a shift in your center from the abdomen area to your upper torso. This could be the culprit of your unstable balances and turns.

In my ballet and jazz classes when we get into pirouettes, I take some time to explain that I want them to inhale (through the nose) on the preparation and to exhale (through the nose, if you can) on the turn. It takes some practice but once you get it, you can start seeing a difference. Why? When you force yourself to exhale on the turn you engage or start making use of your deep stabilizers. Deep stabilizers, as the name implies, stabilizes your spine which gives more security on the turns.

Have you ever wondered why you’re tightening those abs and sucking in your belly? Sucking in your belly will tilt your pelvis and take you out of your neutral spine posture.

Many people tighten and suck in the belly for aesthetic purposes, others say the instructors tell them too. If you are on the aesthetic bandwagon, let me tell you that if you learn to breathe correctly, strengthening your core will flatten your belly a bit more as a consequence. The other people that state that the instructors tell you to do that, understand that the teacher might not be explaining correctly. I am not saying that she/he doesn’t know what they’re saying but maybe that they’re not discussing it with the correct words.

Why do I say this?

If you are using your core, the abs feel like they’re engaged and lengthened. It is almost the same feeling you get when you suck in your belly. There is a lengthening going on but maybe not the right type.

Youtube has a great 3D image video of the diaphragm and how it functions. Link is above.

How do I engage my core correctly?

There are plenty of exercises in the internet about how to strengthen your core so I will not go into details. Please avoid anything that mentions a lot of crunches. Though the burning sensation of crunches may feel good, it really isn’t doing much for your core muscles. It is warming you up though! You need exercises that will lengthen your muscle and then contract it. It is MUCH more effective to strengthen muscles by lengthening and contracting, not constant contracting (aka – crunches).

Start doing what you love – dancing! Experiment with different types of movement. Get out of your comfort zone. Train your body to lengthen the movements in off center or counter balanced moves and then return your body to center. Doing this will build your muscles and increase/improve your range of motion. While you are playing around with different movements, go ahead and find the limits of your range of motion. Let the elasticity of your muscles bring you back to center. While we are at it, dance bigger! I asked earlier if you dance with small movements. If your answer was yes, then you might have a weak core. There is a correlation between your core and how big or small you dance. The smaller you dance, the smaller your base of support in your body is and because it’s smaller, your body starts compensating in attempts to stabilizing you. Hence you’re prone to getting injured. Hence you stay in your comfort zone dancing small. Hence it’s a vicious toxic cycle.

Learn how to breathe without using your shoulders. Take deep breaths while laying down in different positions. Here is a video of some breathing exercises.

Focus on your body, which leads me to the last section.

What else should you focus on besides everything?  :)

You should practice on your mental/emotional state. Concentration is a key component to your core. Hand by hand with concentration, should be, practicing to be calm. A calm and collected person will be more focused and aware of their body. By becoming aware of your body, your movements can be made consciously and you’ll probably be able to feel and locate the muscles you are needing for the movement. You will learn more about your center just by concentrating.

FOCUS!