Never hold your stomach tight during exercise

Why you should never pull your stomach in during exercise

2/11/2015

Have you ever been told to pull your belly button in and hold it there during exercise?

Do you try to keep your stomach tight while lifting weights, working out, or while sitting at work?

Why? Where did this idea come from? The photoshopped images of anorexic models we see in fashion magazines or the heavily touched up photos of six pack abs in fitness magazines?

Should these images really be our role models for health and fitness? Probably not. (Just look at how terrible their posture is because of holding their abs in and tight - rounded shoulders, forward head, thoracic flexion, lumbar flexion, posterior pelvic tilt...a recipe for pain, injury, depression, and acid reflux among other things)

Those fashion and fitness models are often very unhealthy, do not possess functional strength that matters in real life, and their habits of stomach tightening and pulling in can cause many negative health problems.

I think the perfect models for natural, healthy movement and breathing are children. If you have ever been in my clinic, I'm sure you've heard me use children as examples of perfect health. Children instinctively breathe and move efficiently and naturally. They have wonderful upright posture, beautiful S-curved spines, feet that point straight ahead, and soft belly's that move in and out as they breathe deeply. Children enjoy unrestricted graceful movement of every joint and the best strength to weight ratio of all humans. Children are injury free and do not suffer muscle and joint pain except for the occasional bump or bruise.

As an Egoscue certified Postural Alignment Specialist and Advanced Exercise Therapist for over 13 years, I have always stressed the importance of keeping the abdominal muscles relaxed while performing posture exercises (e-cises), while lifting weights, working out, and all day long to allow your diaphragm to work naturally and efficiently. I teach many clients the difference between North-South breathing (bad) and East-West Breathing (good) and how good posture is the key to allowing normal, natural diaphragmatic breathing to happen.

Keeping your stomach relaxed (not pulled in and tight) allows for normal healthy function of the lungs, heart, stomach, intestines, and all internal organs. Pulling your belly button towards your spine or tightening your stomach muscles shuts down normal joint range of motion, muscle synchronization, joint stability, and makes natural, graceful, balanced movement impossible.

Tightening your pelvic floor during exercise is also a bad idea. All muscle tightening should happen naturally and contracting your stomach and pelvic floor muscles together basically squeeze and smash your internal organs. Not good! When teaching East-West Breathing, I talk about how the movement of the diaphragm and lungs during natural breathing acts to aid digestion by massaging the stomach and intestines and helps with spinal disc lubrication by creating small flexion and extension movements helping blood, lymphatic, and spinal fluid movement increase throughout the torso. Since we breathe about 22,000 times a day, tightening your stomach and pelvic floor muscles takes away those vitally important 22,000 movements a day!

This videos by Eric Franklin offer great visuals of what natural breathing is and why holding your stomach or pelvic floor tight is a bad idea.

I would love to hear your thoughts, please leave your comments below.

48 Comments

Michael Quasney

2/26/2015 05:08:04 am

Mr. Whitehead,

I butt heads with many people over the current trend of breathing. Videos like this make gross assumptions that do not delineate between someone's opinion and clinical experience and what is presented as a universal truth.

The information provided in this video is good some of the time. At other times this advice would be catastrophic to a person. Let's look at any advanced bodyweight movement such as a planche, front lever, or muscle up. In any of these movement strong abdominal hollowing and pelvic floor contraction is a fundamental process in protecting the spine and allowing the appropriate muscular contraction and tension needed to complete these movements. Following the advice of this video is out right impossible during these moments of high tension. The same parallel can be made when exerting for a heavy squat or deadlift. Compressive tension is required to protect the spine.

With that said, there is a time for tension and a time for relaxation. What is demonstrated here is an option of movement and breathing. There are other options for movement and breathing as well. Ability to achieve this skill is as important as achieving alternative breathing skills, they all serve a purpose.

Matt Whitehead link

2/26/2015 05:54:03 am

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I'm not sure what your background is but I think you just might be misinterpreting what I am saying. Yes muscle contraction is needed, but it should be natural not forced.

For someone who is functional (balanced aligned posture, balanced muscular development, full range of motion of joints, etc) it is not only possible and healthy for them to do planche, front lever, and muscle ups without consciously hollowing their abdominals and pelvic floor, but is much safer.

Having a catastrophic injury from not doing abdominal hollowing or bracing while doing those moves you mention only speaks to how dysfunctional the individual is.

If you google images of those moves, you quickly see people who are either more or less functional and more or less prone for injury. Let's take the planche for example. Here is more or less good function and form: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Planche.jpg

And here is bad function and form: http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Top-Planche-on-Fingertips1.bmp

Who is doing more abdominal hollowing or bracing? Bad form. Why? Because they don't have the strength and function in the rest of their body to correctly hold the position. If they let go of their excessive abdominal contraction might they get injured? Yes.

The guy with the good form in comparison is not excessively contracting or hollowing his abdominals and looks to be letting them react naturally to the movement instead of bracing in preparation of the movement. That is the fundamental difference I am talking about and you can clearly see the difference in these images.

As you say, "there is a time for tension and a time for relaxation" and I agree completely. The problem is people are trying to control this consciously instead of instinctively which causes major problems in biomechanics, form, function, and chance of injury. Most people do everything with too much tension which restricts normal joint movement and mechanics, raises blood pressure, increases stress hormones, slows normal digestion, increases chances of injury, and reinforces bad movement patterns which creates vicious cycle/circle.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Michael Quasney

3/4/2015 10:25:07 am

Mr. Whitehead,
Thanks for your well thought out reply. I will attempt to put the same effort into my counterpoints.
My background, from a personal perspective, is advanced calisthenics and vintage strength training. Both of these systems require high levels of body tension to achieve their respective objectives. I often view many of these movements, and most athletic movements, as the acquisition of a new skill. This skill being the order and process by which you complete the movement. Inherently the process of any exercise or rehabilitative movement is to replace a faulty pattern of movement with a healthy one. The means by which you achieve this is widely varied, but in the end we all share the goal of moving better.
Under this thought pattern, hollowing of the abdominals becomes a fundamental movement to create a base for either of the above skills that I gravitate towards. The long term goal is that this automatically happens in a person as they perform various movements, bringing the conscious into the unconscious. Without this base, however, these movements become both unachievable and dangerous. Sam Tribble, an advanced gymnast and the only person I have ever seen perform or even conceive an inverse iron cross, begins with the hollow body as a base for more advanced movements as seen here:
http://youtu.be/ihQT6dkmUVY
The difference in the pictures you provided is the difference of performing a trick or a skill. The first picture shows a trick and ultimately a movement that cannot be maintained or transitioned. The thumb position in the first picture will ultimately lead to injury by over stressing the 1st metacarpal joint and does not allow for fluid transition to other positions. The second picture protects the hand and allows for continued flow, such as moving from a front planche to a front lever.
The second picture shows a strong hollow body to allow for continued movement and creates an oppositional system of tension. Ultimately the hollow body visually neutralizes with different movements and different demands, giving the appearance of a neutral spine, as in your first pic, but there is still a strong hollow bracing happening.
Please bear in mind that in no way, shape, or form does this apply to normal standing posture. I agree with you completely that resting posture should be a natural process and not a series of conscious contractions. What I am saying is that videos like the one you post make statements that are too broad and ultimately a reflection of the individuals limited personal experience with movement and exercise. Simply changing statements like “never” to “most of the time” seems like simple wordsmithing but completely changes the message and allows for other options and information. It becomes inclusive in nature instead of exclusive.

Bobbie

1/29/2020 09:53:08 pm

I am very Interested in the way you described the process of flexing the core and how it affects the aid in digestion. I have been Dx with Gastroparesis, spincter of oddi dysfunction, colonic inertia and have been having some new recent symptoms of Autonomic Dysfunction.

Nathan

4/3/2020 08:37:53 am

So how does one prevent from getting lazy abs like a six pack that sticks out as opposed to that flat strong transverse abdominis looking six pack? If I don't engage the core and abs they will tend to grow lazy especially TA, I assume, and then other muscles will compensate, yea?

Amy Russell

3/4/2015 07:18:41 am

Hi Matt!

This is fascinating! It contradicts most training I've had in yoga, dance, and PT. Can't count the number of times I've heard "pull navel into the spine"... instructions I repeat to my students. We all say "breathe" but I don't remember any teaching that emphasizes maintaining the natural contraction and release that occurs with breathing. In my body, what all that effort has produced is enormously tight low back (serratus posterior?) muscles, and ridiculously tight psoas.

Working with the roll under low back and neck is really helping me relax abdominal wall. It's a different way of living!

But I don't get how to do active core exercises -- like navasana (boat pose) in yoga, or basic "abdominal crunches" --using this approach. , How do you work with abdominals to not lapse into over contraction?

Thanks.
Amy

Matt Whitehead link

3/4/2015 07:33:04 am

Hi Amy,

You and most people have heard "pull navel into the spine" thousands of times by well meaning experts throughout their lives, but I don't think it's good advice at all.

Think about this: squeeze your bicep in your arm like a body builder...now hold it like that all day. You'd never do that! But that's what we do with your stomach muscles....just crazy!

When your body is balanced, abdominal contraction (and every other muscle contraction) will happen naturally, automatically, and unconsciously as needed to move your body through the range of motion you are asking it to do. As long as we "get out of our own way" and let the body do as it was designed, you will not have over contraction as you said.

They key is restoring proper joint alignment and range of motion and then getting out of our own way and letting the body do what it knows how to do.

Make sense? I hope.

Amy Russell

3/5/2015 11:48:18 am

Thanks Matt. Yes, your words make sense. Glad we're never too old to re-train!

A.

Matt Whitehead link

3/5/2015 03:35:25 pm

Micheal,

Thanks for your reply and thoughts. I agree with you about changing "never" to "most of the time", and do understand the videos I posted are not mine, and not 100% what I believe, but good for starting conversations like these.

I do see the difference in metatarsal-phalangeal joint angles between the two images I linked to that you described, but more shocking is the thoracic spine position differences. Comparing the two images, the thing that should jump out to anyone looking at them is the difference in thoracic position/curve.

The first image the man has a very functional close to natural thoracic curve and in the second image the man has an extremely kyphotic thoracic position. This will quickly lead to shoulder and spinal injuries including rotator cuff tears, shoulder impingement, disc herniations, and arthritis.

I watched the youtube video you left a link for, and while I now see the belief system you are coming from, I would recommend thinking about changing that training process. "Core strength" is not about having your abs tight and hollowed all the time, and actually that is making 3/4 of your core muscles unable to stabilize correctly. This is a huge misconception in athletics and training that has been building for a decade or more but luckily it is starting to change. Doing pushups or any movement out of the position Sam Tribble shows in that video is a recipe for injury and pain down the road. The shoulder joint is designed to work with a certain position and synchronization of the scapula and thoracic spine and the extreme thoracic flexion and scapular abduction Sam shows is not a functional position and will lead to injury. He is obviously strong, but that does not mean functional or a good role model for movement patterns (just as most athletes are not good role models for proper movement patterns because of our "sports specific" training programs that build muscular imbalance and dysfunctional movement patterns).

I know you (Michael) will probably not agree with me, which is fine, but this information is as much for all the other readers of this blog post as it is for you.

Have fun, play lots, stay pain free. - Matt

Michael Quasney

3/14/2015 11:51:52 am

Matt,

Thanks for the mental tennis match. Looking forward to more chats in the future.

Michael

Hiba

12/21/2015 09:31:49 pm

Hi Matt
I came across your sites after searching back pain with tight abdominals. I developed diastis recti with my pregnancy ( mild about two fingers and a half). The go to advice is doing the exercises that pull the abdomin to the spine. When I do them, I get pain under my shoulderblades or mid back, not the spine but under the shoulder blades. I still nurse my daughter and she cosleeps so a lot of times I am on my side kind of hunched up. I stretch my chest as much as I can and started to work out again. I have always had this issue with my shoulder blades even before I was pregnant but it always always coincided with my tucking in my abdomen while performing an exercise. Any tips on combating diastis recti without resorting to the navel pulling? Thank you in advance.

Matt Whitehead link

12/27/2015 11:11:59 pm

Hiba,
Thanks for the question...sorry about the slow response - holidays!
I have a couple ideas for you. First check out the book "Pain Free for Women" by Pete Egoscue and the chapters on post pregnancy exercises - they are great at restoring your overall posture, joint function, and muscle strength, which will help put your body and abdominal muscles in a position to restore themselves.

Second suggestion, check out Katy Bowman and her new book called "Diastasis Recti: The Whole Body Solution to Abdominal Weakness and Separation" which comes out in Feb 2016 and should be helpful also. Here's a link: http://www.amazon.com/Diastasis-Recti-Solution-Abdominal-Separation/dp/098965396X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451286506&sr=1-1&keywords=katy+bowman+diastasis+recti

They are both very much whole body approaches to the problem which is what is missing in other approaches. Your pain under your shoulder blades will go away when your thoracic spine returns to a good position. If you want a free posture evaluation to understand what your body is doing and why, I'd be happy to offer one: in-person, by Skype, or through email.

Hiba

1/6/2016 10:55:46 pm

Thanks dr Whitehead for your helpful responses. I am going to have to see a PT because there are other issues ( pelvic floor.. Etc) however I am going to get this book once it's out. I definitely would like to read up more on it. In the mean time I am going to mention what you stated to the PT and see if we can come up with something that works. Thank you again I will keep you updated as I progress.

Dr. Michael Quasney

1/4/2016 09:54:58 am

Hi Hiba,

In the hopes of helping, I have a few ideas. That tension under the shoulder blade has been two options in my experience: an adhered diaphragm or an inactive serratus. I would try some of these exercises in the order I have listed them. Retry pulling in after each exercise to see if there is improvement. Improvement will be immediate and obvious with the right exercise:
- Crocodile breathing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeqR_Dne9w0
- Lewit Exercise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmP5O5c5v5g
- Wall Bug - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSabz-M_cM make sure to keep entire back as flat as possible on the ground. Focus on a stable mid section, not how far you move your legs.

And this was just a good video for some self care for the shoulders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzozw2Aso3M

Hope these help!

Dr. Q

Jeff Doty

12/27/2015 08:37:50 am

Sucking in and tightening your stomach are two different things. Exercise, particularly resistance training, with a relaxed stomach puts unnecessary strain on back muscles and is a fast track to back pain.

Matt link

12/27/2015 11:15:26 pm

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the comments. Yes I know sucking in and tightening the stomach muscles are two different things which I discussed briefly in this post, but the main point was both of these things are counterproductive to strength workouts, power workouts, endurance workouts, stability workouts, basically all workouts. I would suggest tightening the abdominal muscles while resistance training can and will increase unnecessary strain on the back and can lead to not only back pain but disc herniations, nerve impingements, degeneration, and many other back problems.

Larry

4/10/2016 07:48:59 pm

Okay, I'll weigh in on this.

1. If you eat the food pyramid/modern western diet, then you may well suffer from one of or some combination of digestive and inflammatory disorders. Your stomach muscles may be constantly distended and in tension. If you have a particularly bad reaction to the food pyramid, you will get behaviors like anorexia nervosa and bulimia (as I did) and you will end up with a chronically tense stomach, resultant bad movement patterns, and of course a bad back (and maybe neck, shoulder, knee, SIJ, etc).

So I recommend paleo and home-made sauerkraut as first steps to getting back a relaxed mid-section.

2. I have lived these last five years in an Indonesian farming village. People here work all day every day. Planting and harvesting rise, chopping, digging, lifting, dragging pushing. Yet in five years I am yet to see an OHSA-approved style lift.

When people lift something here, they simply bend over and lift it. No problems. Of course, they never twist with a lift, but that's it.

50 kilo man clean and jerks 50 kilo sack of rice onto his head and walks 50 meters to teh roadside along the wall between the rice fields.

Men and women bend at the waist and cut rice all day. Hours in that position. They squat like frogs and bounce along planting rice seedlings.

No back problems.

People here rarely sit in a chair. Mostly, they sit on the ground with legs straight out in front of them. No hamstring stiffness. My 80-year old neighbor sits like this while cutting vegetables.

Like everything we are told on tv and in the media, the back advice we get, the whole story, is garbage.

As to weightligting, I am prepared to believe that special considerations are involved, but mostly I suspect that modern westernoffice and chair dwellers spend most of their lives without using teir back muscles, and as a result they are very weak and uncoordinated and that leads to the "special" lifting arrangement of weightlifting.

So, step 1, eat right and get your stomach and back relaxed again. Then get out there and move, like a human is supposed to. And to learn do we really need to do anything more than work?

Get a shovel and shovel sand for a couple of weeks.

Matt Whitehead link

4/14/2016 12:16:34 pm

Thanks for the comments Larry.

I very much agree with you. Humans are designed to lift, carry, and move and as long as we do those movements daily as those you are observing in Indonesia, the body will maintain the strength and mobility to be able to do them. When we stop moving and sit in a chair all day we lose the strength and mobility to do very normal things.

Thanks for you insight and advice! - Matt

Seb

9/27/2016 05:29:48 am

I had no idea dysfunctional breathing could have such a detrimental effect on ones health. I have suffered with an anxiety disorder for years which directly affected my breathing pattern and caused a hyperventilation syndrome. With this, I would suck in my abdomen and hold it tense whilst using my chest and ribs to breathe, rather than my diaphragm. This, over time, has created muscular tension in my pelvic floor which has now affected the functioning of my bladder and bowel.
Doctors have ruled out infection and prostate problems.
Dealing with this has been very depressing but now that I have some idea of what's going on, I can start to correct things with better breathing and help it with relaxation, correct posture, exercise, meditation, yoga etc.

Matt Whitehead link

9/27/2016 09:11:55 am

Hi Seb, Thanks for your comment as I'm sure what you have experienced many other people have experienced also. I can understand how frustrating trying to figure out what is/was going on and not getting answers from doctors can be. I very much look forward to hearing how you feel and what changes you experience after working on your breathing, posture, meditation, etc for a couple weeks. Try doing these e-cises for improved breathing: http://www.oregonexercisetherapy.com/blog/east-west-breathing
And spend a lot of time in Static Back just relaxing, breathing, and even meditating.
Let me know how it goes and if you'd like a free posture evaluation just give me a call and I'd be happy to do one for you.

Cheryl S

9/29/2016 11:45:49 am

I wish my gym trainers would have given me this advice 20 years ago. Now at age 40, I suffer fromhypertonic pelvic floor muscles and neuralgia, all from a lifetime of sucking in my belly, pulling my belly to my spine, pelvic floor tilts and way too many kegels. I see a pelvic floor therapist every other week to undo the damage plus stretches at home daily. She always tells me about east to west breathing. Thank you for this great advice!

Matt Whitehead link

9/29/2016 12:48:42 pm

Hi Cheryl, Yes we as a society have misunderstood and mistreated our stomach and pelvis for many years! I'm just glad more people are starting to understand that a tight flat stomach is not natural or good and can cause many problems. Children are the best examples of proper posture and breathing - natural, relaxed, deep breathing.

I'm glad you are getting help now and know that you can change those old patterns and see very positive results. Check out Katy Bowman and has books and website about the pelvic floor. Also try doing this routine and see what affect it has on your body after a couple weeks: http://www.oregonexercisetherapy.com/blog/east-west-breathing

Let me know how it goes...
-Matt

Simon

5/10/2017 07:41:40 am

Great video!

I wonder if you have any suggestions.

I used to hold my stomach in purely for vanity reasons, but over time it became 'normal' for me to do this to the point where the majority of the time my stomach was in a state of tension. I would say that I did this for about 8-10 years.

During sleep, and times of being on my own, I am sure that I returned to diaphragmatic breathing, but I really wonder how much of an effect this has had on my diaphragm and whether I can retrain my diaphragm to operate in a 'normal' fashion.

Currently, I am focusing on diaphragmatic breathing and for the most part, it is going well, but I do suffer from small amounts of pain in and around my diaphragm, ribs and sternum, and I am wondering if this is due to retraining my body to breathe correctly. When I experience pain, it is not in anyway severe, but feels more like a muscle that hasn't been used for a while, and it typically goes away after about 10 minutes.

Do you have any experience with this?
Is it possible to retrain my breathing after chest breathing for so long?

Thanks,
Simon.

Matt Whitehead link

9/23/2017 11:27:34 am

Hi Simon, Yes of course you can retrain your diaphragm and breathing patterns but it depends on several factors. The most important thing to think about is that every muscle in your body, diaphragm included, is designed to sit at a certain length and tension when at rest to function well. If your spine or rib cage is not aligned properly it can be very hard for your diaphragm to work correctly. Restoring your postural alignment especially of your pelvis, spine, and shoulders will give your diaphragm the ability to work correctly. Then doing breathing exercises that retrain normal breathing patters are important. But if you don't correct your postural alignment first no matter how much breathing practice you do it might never become natural and automatic.

Check out the article about East West Breathing on my blog for more information: http://www.oregonexercisetherapy.com/blog/east-west-breathing (to see the PDF you have to view the page in "web" version not "mobile")

Bonita laccohee link

1/29/2018 08:20:38 am

Wow i knew it was wrong to hold ur bellybutton in it didnt feel right an i always felt incomfortable so i stopped diong it and now seeing you have had to say matt makes more sense than ever and has put me right i will feel so much more happier working out knowing what you expained absolutely bril thank you so much it makes complete sense listen to ur savy and wot ur body is telling you you really have helped thank you once again

Matt Whitehead link

1/29/2018 11:35:05 am

Hi Bonita, Isn't it interesting how most of us feel intuitively that holding our stomach tight isn't right but society teaches us flat tight stomachs are good? I'm glad you are listening to your body and relaxing your stomach. Enjoy your workouts and let me know if you ever have any questions. :)

irene kucyk

4/16/2018 10:07:58 pm

i didn't like the idea of pulling in belly button, i just felt it was wrong, and it did affect my bladder after only 2 weeks of exercising - thank you so much for your video -

Matt Whitehead link

4/17/2018 09:51:58 am

Hi Irene, I'm glad the video helped you! Let me know if you ever have any questions.

Rox

5/11/2018 10:39:38 pm

Hi Matt, do you suppose 20 years of yoga on a flat back with constant Uddiyana Bhanda (off the mat as well) caused herniated disc with stenosis? If so, what can I do to heal? It's been a year and I can hardly walk due to the claudication. I've sadly had to give up yoga... any ideas about how to get out of this pain? I imagine relaxing my core is key. Thanks for any feedback and for the article!

Matt Whitehead link

5/15/2018 11:26:51 am

Hi Rox, Sorry to hear about your herniated disc and stenosis and the trouble it's causing you. It's hard to say what caused your back problems, and it's usually a combination of a lot of movements over time, but I wouldn't blame your yoga or Uddiyana Bandha alone because your body is designed to do those activities (just not all the time). If your core is constantly tight however, that could definitely be contributing to your ongoing issues. I would be happy to offer you a free posture evaluation where we can look at what your body is doing and figure out what you can do to start getting relief and hopefully get back to a pain free and active life soon. We can do the evaluation in my Portland, Oregon clinic or via email and Skype/FaceTime from anywhere in the world. Contact me and we can set that up: 971-279-2189 matt@oregonexercisetherapy.com

Dr. Michael Quasney link

5/16/2018 12:35:29 pm

Hi Rox,

I usually let replies here pass by out of respect for Mr. Whitehead and his business. I woud like to chime in here though as I regularly deal with these issues with patients.

A herniated disc is the result of long term breakdown of the annular fibers between two vertebrae. These fibers have weakened enough to allow disc tissue to herniate. Most herniations occur in the posterior lateral aspect of a disc. These means weakening has happened on the back side of the disc and towards one side more than another. I will assume that your herniation is in your lumbar region as is your stenosis.

Stenosis occurs as the bodies natural response to bony pressure. All bones respond to stress by creating more bone. In the spine the vertabrae is supposed to bear the load and stress of the body. Its growth would create no problems. The spinal canal growing bone, however, creates a huge problem. This is was stenosis is. Bony growth of the spinal canal that eventually takes up space where the nerves should be. This also means that you have a system of life that loads the wrong stuff. You load your spinal canal instead of your vertabrae.

Fundamentally there are two questions that need to be answered for you to have successful treatment.
1 - What have you been doing that would make the fibers of your disc wear out
2 - Why are you loading your spinal canal and not your vertabrae

Both of these scenarios require time to become a problem. Disc dont wear out quickly and bony growth take years of consistent stress. The fact that you are using the word claudication means you are reaching a point of significant clinical intervention. Relaxing your core is not going to be the key. And what is the core anyways? As you can see in these comments, Mr. Whitehead and myself define that word and its appropriate function very very differently. Fundamentally, you need to remove the aggravating factors that are allowing these long term changes to occur and no singular change will create that.

Matt Whitehead link

5/16/2018 04:47:54 pm

Thanks for your answer Michael...I agree with your explanation of why disc herniations and stenosis occur: uneven and non-optimal loading and dysfunctional movement patterns over time. Michael is 100% correct - to have successful outcomes the underlying reason why the damage is occurring must be addressed, and treatments focused on the symptoms only will not lead to longterm pain relief or restoration of function.

Rox

5/18/2018 07:30:26 am

Hi Mike and Matt. Thanks so much to both for the replies. I'll take all the help I can get. Matt I may be in Portland in August and if so I will definitely schedule something with you. I live in the Midwest and so far going on a year I haven't been able to find much help overall. My sense is that after practicing yoga for 20 years 3 or 4 times a week with multiple forward folds on a flat back, with no curves in my spine, but I don't know. I was born this with a flat back and therefore have somewhat of the anterior tilt and i have had problems most of my life. Mainly lots of leg pain and cramping in my calves. Thank you so much! Would love to hear any suggestions you have to help me alleviate the pain and get back to my body. I miss yoga so much and I need to find a way to resume that as well as everything else I like to do. Thank you so much. Oh and yeah, I should add that the herniation is s1 L4 L5 mild very mild they say that the herniation and the stenosis which is coming from the herniation should not be causing this degree of pain.

Cara

5/15/2018 05:23:32 am

How is east-west breathing different from lateral breathing used in pilates? Is east-west breathing a combination of lateral and belly (diaphragmatic) breathing? Thanks very much!

Matt Whitehead link

5/15/2018 12:09:57 pm

Hi Cara,

Lateral breathing used in Pilates is very different from East-West breathing used in Egoscue. Now I'm no expert on Pilates, but my understanding is lateral breathing is focusing on expanding the rib cage up and outward during inhalation while holding your naval pulled toward your spine. Egoscue calls breathing that involves the ribcage moving up and down North-South breathing. The body is designed to use North-South breathing only during very high intensity exercise when the body actually uses East-West and North-South breathing together to get maximum air volumes in and out of the lungs as fast as possible.

East-West breathing can be understood by thinking a 6 inch band centered at your naval that circles around your entire midsection that will expand outward in all directions during inhalation. Think about expanding your abdominal cavity and lower ribs outward in all directions. This means your stomach and lower ribs will expand forward, your oblique area and lower ribs will expand outward to the sides, and your kidney area and lower ribs will expand backwards. We are eliminating all upward motion of the ribcage and also most upper ribcage motion.

Why? Breathing, like all movements, is based on energy consumption (or actually preservation or what's the most efficient way to do something). Breathing that involves lots of outward or up and down movement of your rib cage is high energy cost breathing. Breathing that involves outward movement of the soft tissues of your midsection is low energy cost breathing. During everyday activities like sitting, standing, walking, gardening, cleaning house, and even conversational pace running, we should be using low energy cost breathing or east-west breathing patterns.

When exercise intensity increases beyond a certain point your body decides it must start using high energy cost breathing in addition to low energy cost breathing (north-south and east-west together).

I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have further questions.

Cara

5/15/2018 01:08:36 pm

Incredibly helpful hearing about the differences, thank you!

Matt Whitehead link

5/16/2018 04:39:04 pm

You're welcome!

Peg link

8/3/2018 01:29:17 pm

I have been given an exercise program for sciatica/lower back pain where I'm am suppose so tighten abs and pelvic muscle at the same time. This makes me nauseous (hurts my gut) after a few times. I recently had diverticulitis and a resulting 5 c-diff infections from cipro that lasted for six months. I believe my gut is still healing from the c-diff and I am hesitant to continue this exercise. Advise please

Matt Whitehead link

8/10/2018 04:41:59 pm

Hi Peg,

I would be happy to help you figure out what to do and advise you but I'd need more information before I can give a recommendation. Contact me at 971-279-2189 or matt@oregonexercisetherapy.com

Nicky

12/11/2018 03:07:35 am

Hii Matt,

I read this article before but didn’t realise it’s importance... just read it again today and found it extremely helpful....

I wanted to ask the breathing pattern needed while performing egoscue e-cises...

For example... in “static back reverse presses” ... should we contract shoulder blades on inhale and release on exhale?

Another example... “isolated hip flexor lifts” ... should we inhale on lifting the leg and exhale while putting the leg down??

So, should we “Inhale on exertion phase and exhale on release??” While performing egoscue e-cises...

Another thing I wanted to ask was... is it okay if we contract pelvic floor (not stomach contraction... just pelvic floor contraction) while inhaling ... so that the oxygen that we inhale does not leak and stays in the body to do it’s work.

Maybe my questions seems odd.. but I felt difference in my posture while breathing differently.

Thank you...

PS... right now ‘don’t have acces to my email...so posting comment here...:)
Your menus give excellent results when I coordinate them with breathing...

Matt Whitehead link

12/12/2018 11:32:30 am

Hi Nicky,

Thanks for the questions, they are really good and I'm sure a lot of readers have the same ones. During most Egoscue ecises it is most important to breathe deeply and comfortably and the pattern doesn't matter. The only time it matters whether you are inhaling or exhaling on eversion is when the exercise is very high demand (like a 1-rep maximum back squat) and then you'd want to exhale on the eversion part. This is because a high demand exercise like back squat is asking all the muscles of the torso to contract which squishes the abdominal and chest cavities naturally pushing air out. If you were trying to inhale during this you would not get much oxygen and it might decrease your lifting potential.

Oxygen will not "leak" no matter what you do, so contracting the pelvic floor will have no consequence on the oxygen getting absorbed into your body. But contracting your pelvic floor does increase intra-abdominal pressure which you probably don't want to create artificially during any ecises - it's better to let the body naturally respond to the movement demand placed on it.

Katy Bowman talks a lot about the reason's not to contract the pelvic floor on her blog posts. Just google "Katy Bowman pelvic floor" and check out her articles.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Nicky

12/13/2018 10:16:41 am

Ok Matt ...I understand your point... main thing is to keep abdominals relaxed in most of the e-cises.
you mentioned breathing deeply... does it mean into just belly or into belly + back + sides during e-cises. If I choose the later (360 degrees diaphragmatic breath) it is not that comfortable while performing e-cises.

So is it okay to breath deeply, comfortably, slightly slowly into - just belly - during e-cises.

I am asking too particular questions.. as I found egoscue a magic pill. Even a slight change in execution of e-cise makes a lot of difference. Years of imbalances gets changed, balanced within simple movement of egoscue e-cises.

Thanks

Brooke

2/12/2019 05:14:47 pm

I am a gymnast and we are always taught to tighten our core and keep tension throughout our body.

yoga ttc in india link

2/24/2019 11:39:55 pm

Thanks for your valuable post I appreciate it. Yoga is very powerful for health.

Ricardo

4/20/2020 01:47:27 pm

Hi Doctor!,
I did a lot forceful breathing exercise, abdomen in when inhale, abdomen out when exhale, now I feel my stomach tight and swollen; what can I do?. Thank You!. Ricardo - ricardo.hercules@gmail.com

christy Bellinger

4/27/2020 07:58:36 am

Thank you for your article! I exercise with a lady on YouTube, and I asked her a question one time about whether I would still be receiving the same benefit from exercise if I didn't engage my core, and she said I would not. I'm really glad I found your article explaining why you shouldn't be doing that, I will continue to exercise because I love the way it makes me feel 😊😊

Thank you, christy

Artur

12/15/2021 05:45:36 am

Hi Matt,

This is an incredibly comprehensive input. However, I have some point I would like to share with you:

First of all, don't you think the approach "fake it till you make it" might actually work here? Let's agree that whenever you do not possess a skill, but would like to develop it, you have to at least have a go at it, to try it, acknowledging that every time you do it you become better at that. How are you, for instance, supposed to develop sympathy for a certain person if you do not at least start thinking kindly about them.
And I strongly believe the same goes for our core muscles. While inactive, there is little view to having them getting stronger. But whenever we engage in a physical activity, and I believe even if our posture is wrong, we start using them by thinking about using them - because we have not been taught the body intuition properly, like you mentioned. But I also believe that with time, our conscious effort is going to stop being conscious, and the body intelligence is going to take over. Isn't it always like that in your opinion? - first the mind has to learn so the body may adapt the consciously learnt skill and perfect it.

I would be grateful to hear what you have to say here.

Matt Whitehead link

5/30/2022 11:59:48 am

Hi Artur, Thanks for your comment. The point of the article is to dispel the myth that we should always keep our "core" (stomach) tight during exercise. We should not. If we do an abdominal exercise (something that demands our abdominal contract like a full sit-up) then of course they will naturally contract, but we should let that happen naturally and not force a contraction when not necessary. Any muscle held in contraction cannot function as designed and will create muscle and posture imbalance throughout the body. I hope that makes sense?

Why you should never pull your stomach in during exercise

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