Throughout your body there are deep localized muscles that help to provide structural stability to your spine and peripheral joints. There are also larger global muscle slings that provide stability and movement during higher demand tasks. These two systems ideally work together to provide a strong foundation of balance, stability and free movement.

Your “Deep Inner Unit” consists of four muscle groups: the pelvic floor, the transverse abdominus (TA), the multifidus and the diaphragm. These muscles should activate as stabilizers as soon as you start moving during day to day tasks. They provide a subconscious gentle compression to your pelvis and trunk so that your larger muscle groups can function from a stable base. These muscles can become dysfunctional as a result of injury or developed muscle imbalances due to repetitive postures or sports. It is possible to compensate for a poor Deep Inner Unit by developing a lot of strength through the larger global muscle slings, but this will limit strength potential and will leave a person vulnerable to injury under low demand tasks such as bending to tie up his/her shoes.

The first step to activating your core properly is ensure your pelvis is in a neutral position, which means your glutes are relaxed and there is a gentle curvature to your low back. The muscles you are going to contract are gentle isometric muscles, which means contracting them will not produce any movement (i.e. no pelvic tilt) and you should be able to breathe and talk freely with them engaged. See the above video for more detail.