Heads Up on Your Body

The Layers of Your Core

In order to really understand what it means to “connect your abdominals in”, you should know a bit about the abdominal muscles.

There are three layers of flat abdominal muscles, plus one pair of vertical muscle strips through the middle. In each of these segements, the muscles fibers run in a certain direction.

Rectus Abdominis
These muscles run in an up and down direction and resemble “strips” rather than flat layers. These are the muscles that we connect “in and up along the spine”, because that is the direction of the fibers.

This picture is a cross section of the Rectus, as if you were standing, looking down at your toes.

These muscles are responsible for spinal flexion (i.e. rolling up). Sometimes, during ab work in pilates, you can lift your head and see the Rectus Abdominis popping up, like two little hills on either side of your belly button. If you do see that happen, imagine the muscle fibers running up and down your midsection, and try to draw them “in and up” the spine.
It is very challenging to do this. In fact, the next layer of abdominals I’m going to talk about will help you to do this.

Transversus Abdominis
This layer is the deepest layer of abdominals. The muscle fibers run in a horizontal direction.

In the picture, the Transversus is in red. There is also a little cross section cut out of the Rectus for you to see.

Because of the direction of muscle fiber, this layer cannot connect “in and up”, but it can connect “in and OUT to the sides”. Use this direction to help flatten the Rectus Abdominals so they don’t pop up and are able to connect in and up.

This advanced technique in pilates is really what will give you a flat stomach. Just connecting one layer of abdominals in and up will not do it. You must also connect the Transversus in and OUT!

External Obliques
This layer of muscles is what we are working in exercises like Criss-Cross and Side Ups. These muscle fibers running diagonally downward toward the pubic bone.

Internal Obliques
This layer is just like the External Oblique layer, though the fibers run diagonally upward, towards the sternum.

You can see that each layer of abdominals runs in a different direction, so every angle of your torso has potential support.

When trying to connect into your center, imagine each layer drawing in and running in the direction of its muscle fibers. You’ll get much more out of the pilates workout, and you’ll see a new kind of result. This is what separates pilates from traditional crunches at the gym.

Like I said, this is an advanced technique. You must first practice just connecting “in and up”, then later, begin thinking about the other layers of deep abdominals working as well.

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