CORE ANATOMY VIDEO (VERY IMPORTANT TO WATCH!)

CORE ANATOMY

1. First watch the 20 minute anatomy video. You will learn about the TVA, the psoas and QL, diastasis recti, anterior pelvic tilts and more! This is the most important video to watch! It will help you understand why painful imbalances develop and it will put you in the driver's seat of your journey!
2. Then read my written notes about the TVA. This will solidify the concepts you learned in the video.

TVA Video:

TVA Written Notes:

The Transverse Abdominis (TVA) is your body’s primary stabilizer. It acts first!

• Primary stabilizer = TVA
• Secondary stabilizers = Psoas, Quadratus Lumborum (QL). The Psoas and QL muscles are notoriously "jacked up" in a lot of people! Here's why...

When the TVA muscle isn’t doing its job properly, the secondary stabilizers take over. In other words, when the TVA isn’t working, the hip flexors and QL are in perpetual “oh shit mode” because on top of their normal job, they also have to do all the work that the TVA isn't doing. These muscles become overworked which makes them tight and irritated. Hence tight hips and low back pain.

That’s why we are going to develop super human strength in the TVA! Pilates is a great start, but it’s not enough to reverse years of a TVA muscle that isn’t working.

The TVA muscle sits behind the 6-pack abs (the rectus abdominis). It runs from your pubic bone up the bottom of your ribcage.

The TVA acts like a weight belt. Think of the TVA as a power ring that wraps around the waist line, but it doesn’t make a complete loop around the back. What finishes the loop is the lower back muscles called the Quadratus Lumborum (QL). The QL connects the top of pelvis to bottom of the rib cage.

So think of the TVA as 90% of the weight belt, and the lower back (QL) is 10%. Since most of us have no TVA strength, we aren’t accessing the 90% … instead we are using the 10% (the lower back region). The QL is overworking: it is forced to do all the stabilizing. It contracts and shortens, and it pulls the rib cage and pelvis closer together. This makes you shorter. So by training the TVA, the QL muscles can relax and they will lengthen as a result. So measure your height and measure your waist RIGHT NOW and write it down. When you do TVA training correctly, you should grow half an inch to an inch, and your waist will cinch in a few inches.

The tight QL pulls down on the ribs, intercostals, lats, traps, rhomboids: this creates a downward pull that causes forward rounding of the shoulders. This downward pull puts a lot of pressure on the low back … hence low back pain and tightness.

Your hip flexors (the psoas) connect to the lower back. Other hip flexors run down the inner thighs and connect to the inside of the knee. The hip flexors are designed to stabilize, but they are secondary stabilizers. They function optimally as secondary stabilizers in tandem with the TVA (the TVA is the primary stabilizer). If the TVA isn’t working, then the hip flexors take over the brunt of stabilizing and that’s how they get tight. Got knee pain??? Now you know why.

Stretching won’t fix the hip flexor and QL. You have to go to the root cause: the TVA (which also means addressing your breathing mechanics). That way the secondary stabilizers can relax. That’s how you open up the back and hip flexors.

If your TVA is weak:

• Your abdominal muscles can split apart. This is called Diastasis Recti. It’s common with pregnancy.
• You can develop painful and tight hip flexors
• You can develop low back pain and stiffness
• You won’t be able to learn cool party tricks

What about the pelvic floor muscles?

• Your Pelvic Floor muscles and TVA are a part of the core.
• The pelvic floor muscles run from your pubic bone to your tailbone. Think of your Pelvis as a bowl. The pelvic floor muscles represent the bottom of the bowl.
• Did you know that the pelvic floor drives TVA engagement? When you turn on your pelvic floor muscles, your TVA muscles can engage properly. This is very different than just “sucking in your stomach”. Sucking in your stomach isn’t enough to activate the TVA. All that does is displace air up into your diaphragm and down into your pelvic floor
• If your pelvic floor is weak, this can cause jumping incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, painful intercourse (for women), a “numb vagina” that cannot orgasm, and an inability to activate your TVA. Please visit the pelvic floor clinic!

What about your back muscles?

The TVA & back stabilizers (lats) must work together. The TVA is only as strong as the back that supports it and the back is only as strong as the TVA that supports it.

Sara’s tip: When you are training, think of your lats as an extension of your arms.

What about the muscles on the side of your torso?

Obliques, serrates anteriors, intercostals: the side of the body connects the back muscles and the TVA. The muscles on the side of the body help compact the front & back of the body. Think of the side muscles as a zipper. They zip up, tighten everything up and make you more stable.

The intent of this program is for you to learn how to coordinate your pelvic floor and TVA engagement with your breath. Proper breathing mechanics will be emphasized. You will learn how to use your TVA and lats together to stabilize your spine and shoulders, and you will develop your hip flexor and backline strength. The end result will be decreased pain and increased performance thanks to better spinal, pelvic and shoulder stability.