Those of us who have been hanging around in fitness circles for a long time are used to saying or hearing stuff about muscles. We talk about pulling in our abs or engaging our glutes. Those cues are fine, as far as they go, but sometimes we do better to focus on what it is we are trying to do. Then we let our bodies figure it out.
Take, for example, our friend the crunch (or, for you Pilates folks out there, the chest lift). Of course it works our abdominal muscles. It also helps us to move our spines one vertebra at a time. When we think only about the abs, we tend to yank our heads and upper bodies up with a ton of tension in the neck. If, instead, we make our goal to move our sternum toward our heels, our abdominals end up working both more intensely and more efficiently. Our necks stay relaxed. Our spines have the space they need to move segmentally. We do better.
Similarly, when we’re presented with balance challenges, we want to focus on staying over our center of gravity. With that as a goal, our bodies know to use our core muscles (all of them, not just the abs!) and all our glute and leg muscles to stabilize us. We don’t micromanage the how; we give the task and get out of the way.
Go play.
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