Core Educated at White Cloud Studios

Core Educated at White Cloud Studios

Originally uploaded by troymccarty

Get Your PHD in Core

I’m a Core educator—– I work with people everyday to strengthen their Core or should I say, find their Core, then become educated about it and finally, with this knowledge, put that education into their everyday life.

For many years, dancers have been educated about this area of their body, but it’s just been in the past few years that the fitness industry has jumped on the Core wagon. I think first we need to define the Core – the dictionary explains that the Core is the “central, innermost, or most essential part of anything.” Applying this to your body, your Core consists of muscles that are located deep your back, spine, and pelvis. These muscles coordinate and keep your upper body upwards as you exercise.

Daily I see people walk in to my studios and I wonder – do they have any idea if they found their centre (Core) how much better they would walk into my studio or anywhere else for that matter? I see people with spines that look like they have decompressed them to where there is no length at all. Their heads are forward – pelvis’s tilted either forward or back – knees not tracking over toes – then they tell me their back hurts. It’s all I can do to keep from saying, “I would think so! Look at your posture. I’m amazed you got yourself out of the car and into my studio.”

It’s generally at this time that I picture the first children’s ballet class I ever taught. Picture this. There stood a room full of little girls, dressed in leotards and tights, hair pulled up, pink ballet slippers, smiles on their faces, their mothers in the waiting room, as excited as the children. Yes, there they were; future Prima Ballerinas, bellies and butts sticking out, shoulders up to ears, arms and legs flying all over the room. A ballet teacher’s nightmare. We would gather the children and line them up at the Barre and the first thing we started teaching was alignment. As boring as it was for the, it was a task they had to complete before we could even begin thinking about their future roles in Swan Lake.

Becoming Core alert is simply becoming aware of your spine and where your spine connects to your pelvis. All the muscles in this area help hold your spine up in a nice elongated position. Becoming Core educated is being able to hold your spine up throughout the day, helping you move in a way that initiates from a strong centre.

So here are some hints to help you stay Core educated:

When standing, imagine your body sitting above your hips and legs, not heavy on top of them.

When walking, feel like your spine is filled with air floating up-right from your pelvis, and roll through those feet.

When sitting, sit on top of those sitz (butt) and align your spine upward – your hips should be right on top of the sitz bones – pay attention and adjust yourself if you aren’t aligned.

When driving, sit tall with your shoulders wide, both hands on the steering wheel, and your stomach lightly engaged (read again how to do that in previous blogs).

When picking something up, engage your stomach, bend your knees, and use your legs to pick up, rather then your back.

When bending without lifting, engage your Core and imagine rolling down, one vertebrae at a time, and then back up.

But most importantly, think about how you are using your body. Ask your instructors for help in re-learning how to sit, stand, walk, even push a grocery cart if need be. A great Pilates instructor understands that Pilates should be functional training for your life. If you make the effort to become Core aware, you are steps from getting your PHD in your Core – just like my baby ballet class did, all those years ago.