Anatomy & postures
The abdominal muscles insert on the pelvis (pubis or iliac crests), but they do not all have a contractile part in this lower zone, between the pubis and three fingers below the navel. Sometimes we lose some of the strength and capacity of contraction in that area.
Nevertheless, this contraction should biomechanically follow that of the perineum to allow abdominal contractions to go upward (the inverse being hyperpressive, it should be avoided in a vertical position and should be limited to the visceral massage laying down).
To feel this area, first place your hands one on top of the other under the navel, above the pubis. Feel the heat under your hands, you can even rub the entire area to wake her sensorially.
Then visualize the flame of a candle in front of you … .gently blow it … .. then let yourself inhale, “opening your nostrils”, as if you were breathing a flower …… And quietly repeat. Do you feel under your hands, at the very beginning of the action, the lower belly that is brought back to the spine? with the inhalation this area relaxing ?
If the image does not speak to you, try to “make bubbles underwater”
You feel ? a little ? An intention of movement may be? Sensations increase gradually with practice, persevere!
Anatomy & postures
It is a group of 4 muscles at the front of the body. They act both on the skeleton (relationship between the pelvis and the rib cage) and on the abdominal viscera (in particular in “forced” exhalation).
Arranged in layers, they are, from the deepest to the most superficial: the transverse abdominal, the internal oblique, the external oblique and the rectus abdominis (that of the chocolate tablet). We have a copy of each of these muscles on the right and on the left. The two sides are linked together by an entanglement of tissues (aponeurosis, sometimes called fascias), which also surround them over the entire width, allowing the layers to slide one over the other.
The transverse abdominal, by Blandine Calais-Germain
The system is complex and must be all the more balanced (in tonicity, ability to release and coordination) that the abdominal muscles are postural muscles that act in synergy with the muscles of the back to keep us erect in a vertical position. Too tonic or shortened, they will cause a compression of the abdomen, a flexion of the column and thus also an additional pressure on the perineum. Too weak or chronically stretched, the pelvis will go towards retroversion, taking the column in extension, especially in the lumbar region (L5 / S1, I bet it speaks to many of you, either by theoretical knowledge or by (painful) experience !).
In yoga, they are therefore often recruited in asanas, so it is important to work them intelligently to be able to use them wisely on and off the mat. This is what we teach in the No- Risk Abs® method.
