For a strong inner core (part one) - strength beyond the abs

This week’s focus and classes are all about developing awareness, flow and movement from the centre of your body. And I would like you to extend this into daily life, sport and gait.

We have dedicated the last two months to sensory awareness and how your choice of household product can affect your health. These write ups are all stored as blogs on my website, so you can re-cap at any time. 

For the next two months, the focus shifts to movement. Aside form individual sporting preferences, there are four maintain disciplines that I recommend you strike a balance of.

This week and next week will we concentrate on functional core strength and mid-line support which come form the world of Pilates. Then we’ll dedicate two weeks to the flexibility, flow and presence that arises form yoga. July will start with strength and conditioning that we enjoy from the gym, (and this includes body weight exercsie, callisthenics and the use of dumbbells and bands at home). Finally we’ll embrace the philosophy and movement from martial arts that build self confidence and fitness. 

For basic function in life and to be effective at exercise, you do need a strong centre

Too weak around the middle and you’ll be ineffective and unstable. Too toned/tight, however and you’ll feel restricted and run the risk of injury.

Enter the number one discipline that addresses core strength… Pilates

My own journey began 25 years ago. While working as a gym manager for one of the large chains, I was sent on a new course. That course was in Pilates and since then, I have trained with four schools and to this day, I still use many of the amazing principles from Pilates.

As well as mental wellbeing, it has many great benefits, such as enhanced flexibility, strength, a strong core, great posture and support for healing/rehab. 

It bought me some great insights and added subtlety to my otherwise dynamic gym and martial arts focus. So, I learned a lot but soon realised some limitations. 

Pilates should be about flow, not holding

If the Pilates world, there is a lot of talk about core strength, but is there really an epicentre of the body or a place from where movement begins? They short answer is yes but there may be more to it than you think.

In many other disciplines too (yoga, martial arts, gymnastics, riding, meditation), the focal point and engine of movement often comes from the body’s core (centre). And you may have heard terms such as:

• Be aware of your core
• Use your powerhouse
• Move from your centre
• Focus on your dantien
• Sense your hara
• Breathe into your belly

If left at the level of concept, and coupled with movement initiation from the ground, these are all great qualities. However, if you hear the wording change slightly with movement ‘cues’ such as:

• “Engage your core”
• “Pull in your abs”
• “Brace your centre”
• “Squeeze the pelvic floor”
• “Don’t move without pulling your navel to spine” 

 … then you might end up running into trouble and actually stifle true core strength.

So what really makes up the core?

First up, I would like to reaffirm my opposite to an old myth, that:

‘the abdominal muscles are your core’

This doesn’t make any anatomical sense and if you dive to the physical centre of the body, there are other far deeper and more significant structures. These include:

• Pelvic floor
• Glutes
• Transverses abs
• Deep hip flexors (psoas)
• Muscle to the front of your spine such as multifidy
• Torso muscles such as serratus anterior

All these are closer to the centre of the body than the visible abs and provide more internal (postural) support. In contrast, your abs (like quads) are nearer the surface and actually lie above the organs (and sometimes above layers of fat tissue too).

I would like you to question if ‘holding your abs’, ‘squeezing your pelvic floor’ or ‘pinning down your shoulder blades’ are ever necessary. Personally, I don’t see a place for any unnatural tension/holding. These qualities really are not needed for safety or function and could be detrimental to your movement health and actually lose you power.

Instead… trust flow

To move any joint, the surrounding muscles first have to be relaxed. Babies (but also animals and athletes) are great examples of movement without tension yet demonstrate amazing levels of strength and efficiency. It’s whole body rhythmic flow and not based on tension.

Furthermore, abs flex the torso (think of sit ups) so if they become too strong, the front of the body gets short, contributing to a slouched posture, a tight spine, compromised digestion and poor breath capacity. Anyone one of those should be a good reason to stop over-training and pulling in your abs!

Core stability’ verses ‘core balance’

Stability can be a good thing, especailly for those who are too flexible. However, if you become too stable, then you might end up with a rigid body that can’t relax info natural flow. It’s like a bridge that’ gets built too ridged, it will break with pressure from winds or floods. The bridge needs a good balance of movement with flexible and structural supports. What we want with the bridge and our body is flexible strength.

So, I believe our centre should be fluid and responsive, and:

‘Ideally, the core presents itself naturally when called upon’

A note to finish about function

When I started teaching Pilates, it was billed as functional exercise. However, functional movement should be standing on one or two legs, be directly related to real life/sport and use the whole body as one. Traditional Pilates tends to be mat-based with a focus on isolation. If you enjoy your regular class, do keep up, just be sure to add weekly functional resistance training too.

Ok, thank you for reading this up date about the Dojiva view on core strength. For natural and functional embodiment, be sure to join in with all of this week’s classes. 

Take care

Danny

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Onto this week’s recommend Dojiva classes:

Sunday 8th June 2025 - Mindfulness 34 - I believe that tension (which includes holding, pulling and squeezing) makes the body weaker and more stiff. But can we activate and have effective core muscles without tension? In short, yes we can and this video the proof!

Monday 9th - Workout 72 - This class has ten sets of strength training including tractioning exercises by the wrists which supports a more wholistic approach to Pilates mat work. Plus hip hinge balance options.

Tuesday 10th - Mobility 19 - Discover and gently tone your true functional core using movement, imagery and touch of hands to get there.

Wednesday 11th - Meditation 94

Thursday 12th - Workout 97 - Here we have a mat based Pilates style class with a focus on core muscles. This offers a change to our usual focus on standing function.

Friday 13th - Mobility 78 - For many reasons the abdominal region can get stuck. In this class, we use diaphragmatic breathing to mobilise the abdomen with and without spinal movement. When the abs are more relaxed, your true core strength can be revealed.

Saturday 14th - Mini fitness 112 - Here is a mini fitness class that is entirely from the mat (all nine intervals).