Aretia's Tribe

Core Exerciser
How can I retrain my muscles to relax?

I’ve had a very stressful job for a few years and as a result I think my muscles have just learned to be tense all of the time – it’s my default setting now. This is especially true in my midsection (or my “core” as the exercisers like to say), the abs and lower back. So now in normal situations when I’m not at work or in a tense situation, my muscles are tense. I have things to do that make it better temporarily – like yoga or lifting weights – but this doesn’t retrain my muscles to just relax as a default setting. This is not only uncomfortable, but I’ve noticed that I am having difficulty breathing now as well. What can I do? I want a natural solution, not a drug.

Try this…lie down, in a room with no distractions. Put a rubber band, not tight, around one of your wrists. Mentally relax all your muscles one at a time…start at your head and go down your body. Visualize each muscle as a piece of loose, cooked spaghetti. Breath deep to the count of 5; hold to the count of 5; exhale to the count of 5; do so 10 times. Visualize your whole body floating in a warm ocean with the warm sun on your face and body. Reach over and snap the rubber band. Do at least once a day.
This is a visualization exercise that helps retrain your body.
Wear rubber band constantly and and when you feel yourself tensing snap it. It should ease the tension.

The Most Important Core Exercise for the Transversus Abdominus

Forget about crunches, sit ups, hanging leg raises, russian twists, or stability ball exercises. The drawing-in maneuver to engage the transversus abdominus is the most important core exercise to master if you want to develop core stability.

If you’ve never heard of the transversus abdominus I wouldn’t be surprised. It the deepest of the four anterior abdominal muscles and so you can’t see it. It lies underneath the rectus abdominus (the muscle that forms the 6 pack) and the external and internal oblique muscles.

As its name implies, it runs across the abdomen. It is often referred to as your internal weight belt or your natural girdle because its only job is to brace your lower back and pull in your belly button, like a girdle.

Why is targeting the Transverse Abdominus so important?

A group of physiotherapists in Australia studied back pain by looking at muscle coordination patterns. They wanted to see if there were difference between people with no lower back pain and those with chronic lower back pain. What they found is that when healthy people with no lower back pain move their arms or legs the transverse abdominus is the first muscle to fire.

That’s right! If you move your arms or legs, this core muscle contracts before your arm or leg muscles contract. Your body is naturally wired to be stable around the center first before you can move.

In contrast, people with chronic lower back pain displayed an inability to contract the core muscles before the arm and leg muscles. When you start to move before your spine is stable, more pressure is placed on the joints of the lower back.

This is one reason core training has become so popular. Core training can help to stabilize the pelvis and lower back while taking pressure off the spine.

When a personal trainer says to pull your abs in, they are often referring to drawing in and engaging the transverse abdominus.

You can focus on this muscle during all of your exercises. Maintaining good posture is a key to keeping your joints healthy.

The drawing-in maneuver is very easy to do. You can perform it while sitting in a chair, lying on the floor, standing, or even while balaning on your hands and knees in the quadreped poisition.

Simply pull in your belly button so that it moves towards your back. Hold for 10 seconds, relax and repeat 5-10 times.

This simple core exercise can help to improve your core stability and it’s the most important core exercise to master!

About the Author

Dr. Charles A. Inniss, Jr. is a physical therapist and personal trainer.

Click the link to his website for free pictures and detailed descriptions of core exercises and free core workouts

I have to face facts. I’m getting older.

The Menopause is fast approaching along with the possibility of the long arms of her hormone-deficient outriders: loss of libido, vaginal atrophy and bladder weakness.

Having had my children by Caesarean section, I’m very lucky. I don’t automatically wee myself when I sneeze or laugh. However, I have noticed a lack of sensitivity in terms of my pelvic and core muscles due to having them cut and stitched back together more than once. I have also suffered a lot with frequency-related cystitis and, if my bladder is full, I am conscious that I have to really concentrate to hold on to everything when I make a sudden involuntary movement.

But, more than anything, I was worried about the effect the hormonal imbalance of the Menopause was having on my sex life.

I wanted to tighten my vagina. I wanted to retrieve the muscle tone I had just a few years ago. Investigating the subject thoroughly, I discovered that there were two ways of dealing with this problem: one, to focus on my kegel and pelvic floor exercises. Manually. Mentally zeroing in on the pubococcygeus muscle (the one that controls your wee) and squeezing, lifting and releasing it regularly every day; or alternatively, taking the easier option and finding myself a device that could do the job for me.

There are also sorts of balls, cones, springs and barbells around which you can clench your errant PC muscle until it’s back into tip top shape.

But, for us lazier exercisers, the current featured weapons in this on-going battle are the Kegel machines. They come with various fancy extras but the main idea is a bit like a TENS machine in that it exudes an electrical pulse onto the required muscle in order to stimulate it. All the models have a variety of programmes designed to help with specific problems – stress, urge, post-childbirth, general tone-up. Each programme consists of a set of pulses and rest periods and it is possible to increase the power of the stimulant to suit individual women.

Scientific studies have shown that this type of electrical stimulation of the pelvic floor muscles can improve the tone and performance of the area, thus reducing urge and frequency problems, as well as helping with sensitivity and other sexual issues that can be adversely affected by childbirth and/or the rise and fall of the different hormone levels of Menopause.

The aim of these kegel and pelvic floor exercisers is to ensure that you exercise safely and efficiently and, for me, the results were apparent in just a few weeks. The adage of “use it or lose it” is certainly true for women and the benefits are amazing in all areas of a woman’s life.

Last year, the Channel 4 programme ‘Embarrassing Bodies’ campaigned nationwide for us to ‘Use it or Lose it’ vis a vis our pelvic floors. Testing a large cross-section of women, it was discovered that many no longer had full control over their PC muscle and some of the ladies were given a sample of the various type of exerciser to try.

With all models, some improvement was seen but the most effective were the kegel stimulators.

For the best results, you should perform your normal kegel and pelvic floor exercises to coincide with the muscle stimulation part of the programme – that’s the tingly bit. Let’s just say that I’m now told it’s like making love to a teenager.

‘Nuf said.

For information on cones, barbells and kegel stimulators, visit:

http://www.tightenmyvagina.info

For information on exercising your kegel and pelvic floor muscles manually, visit:

http://www.kegelandpelvicfloorexercises.com

Joanna Cake is a life blogger who writes about health, parenting, eating disorders and divorce, as well as sex and intimacy.