The cue “navel to spine” is used ubiquitously in Pilates and yoga classes. I don’t like it. I don’t use it. It is impossible to sustain, and does not sleeve your spine with the muscular support needed to prevent injury.
Your core involves so much more than just the muscles around your belly button. Your core is comprised of ALL the muscles that circle your spine with support, like a spiral staircase from the tip of your tailbone to the base of your skull. Furthermore, these muscles must work together with ALL of the muscles of respiration! This inner tube has a “tutu” (so to speak) called your diaphragm (the primary muscle of respiration), that attaches to the ribcage in the transverse plane. Therefore, the tensegrity and suppleness of the diaphragm affects the tensegrity and suppleness of the tubular core muscles: they are essentially married to each other, and hopefully in love!
So, how do you activate the totally tubular core with breath? You don’t have to be a valley girl or gag yourself with a spoon to do it, just follow the steps below:
- Inhale and deliberately swell the belly, inflate your ribs, and fill your lungs.
- Hold the breath.
- Pack in all the tissues that you just “poofed” out, as though you have a blood pressure cuff of support around your spine.
- Touch yourself! Palpate the entire surface of your tubular core: belly, sides of the waist, low back, and intercostals (the muscles between your ribs). Underneath the superficial fascia/layer of adipose tissue, it should be FIRM to the touch.
- Exhale.
- Relax the tension and let it all go.
- Repeat steps 1-4, and exhale while still maintaining a sense of the layers of tautness in your tubular core, rather than letting it all go slack. You continue breathing into the full range of the ribs as you maintain the tension in the tissues that brace the spine with support.
By practicing the tubular core exercise, you will gain an embodied understanding of what it feels like to stabilize your spine in a cylindrical fashion: from front to back AND from side to side. And by the way, did you know that you can tubularize your core with the spine in ANY direction of movement? Yes, that includes flexion, extension, rotation, and lateral flexion/extension. The tubular core can be your new best “valley girl” friend in static positions like Warrior poses or during dynamic movement like putting your suitcase in the overhead compartment on the airplane. Try it, and let me know how it goes…
Sounds good! Try it lying down to…very satisfying.
Love your posts
I’ve been calling this the “funnel” but totally tubular core gets it done too! The funnel’s mouth is the shoulders and our core is the narrowing of the funnel. Getting more “condensed”/”supportive” towards the low belly/pubis bone direction. This compression I explain, is for stability of the spine & pelvis. I really enjoy reading these. Thank you!!!
The way this is stated really resonates with me and I will definitely be changing my language around this usage rather than “naval to spine.” The fact that this activates and integrates the front and back of the body is not only much more approachable, but anatomically realistic. The way I had previously envisioned it was just armor on the front of the body, whereas this speaks to the internal function. Getting down to the true function rather than what’s fashionable or will look good in Glamour Magazine.
Trina This is extremely helpful info and is quite interesting also coming from a pilates back ground myself. But like one of my teachers says in 2-5 years more than half of the info I teach you will be wrong. So practicing non attachment as yogis is probably the best bet. Thanks
Just practiced this for the first time today. What an eye opener! I have to admit that “out of the mouths of babes” this babe included has been the old ‘Navel to Spine” instruction. Brings to mind the Maya Angelou saying I did then what I knew how to do, now that I know better, I do better .Off to practice being “totally tubular!”
I am currently in YTU training in Boston and we’ve just spent a significant amount of time breaking down the Tubular Core. As a fitness instructor, pilates student and RYT I have been told to “activate my core” in a number of different ways using all kinds of analogies. It wasn’t until this training until I really started to understand and FEEL it in my own body.
Thank you for posting, I love this vision of the tubular core, I have always had trouble with the “Navel to Spine” slogan, and am feeling much more in harmony with the “staircase” method
It’s amazing how restrictive just thinking navel to spine is, so many muscles come together in holding any yoga pose, being dynamic or static. The psoas alone starting at T12 comes all the way around the abdomen and attaches to the anterior hip, this muscle is imperative for stability.
I too love the terminology used here, “tubular.” I do think yoga practitioners really need to start thinking of using all the “tubular” muscles/erector muscles of the torso rather than just pulling the navel to the spine. I am definitely a teacher who’s used the phrase, “pull the navel to the spine,” probably in almost every class I’ve ever taught. Why use or strengthen just one area when you can do more. Moreover, for the safety of the spine strengthening all the muscles of the core is essential.
As an Ashtanga practitioner one of the most important elements of the Ashtanga practice is the engagement of the uddiyana bandha throughout the entire practice. I think the phrase “pull the navel to the spine” stems from layman’s terms to engage uddiyana bandha. It’s a pathway for the beginner practitioner to further their practice, however I do think changes to this terminology should be implanted.
This post really got me thinking… What if, during the big inhale in the belly and up the ribs if you feel something along one side of the neck?
I like this exercise because on the exhale, it really allows the body to release the tension. Even if we don’t think we are holding (or sucking) it in, this exercise allows the body to let it go. After all the work pulling it in and compacting the body tight, the release feels great. And kind of scary to know how very few times in a day I actually allow my body to fully relax. Eek.
This was an “aha!” moment for me. As a yoga student i found it challenging to keep the navel to spine action while breathing. Tubular core makes so much more sense then navel to spine instruction and more accessible for all students. Thanks Trina!
I love your analogy for the core muscular structure: “like a spiral staircase from the tip of your tailbone to the base of your skull.” I can’t wait to borrow that to help verbally create a more embodied picture for students. Thank you!
I practice (as a Rolfer) within a Pilates studio and let me tell you there’s a lot of “navel to spine” floating around out there! Because I get to wander in and out through a variety of privates and mat classes that go on outside my office door (as well as work on some of the Pilates students) I’ve noticed that many people manage to turn the cue “navel to spine” into something that resembles tying twine around their diaphragms, which restricts their breath and pooches out their lower rectus and transverse abdominus, while leaving the obliques totally slack- has anyone else noticed this effect of that cue? In any case, that’s clearly not useful for people or good for bodies, so thanks for this great step by step to a tubularized core!
I hear navel to spine in most yoga classes that I take. Thanks so much for your clear description of what this actually means!
Your terminology will really resonate with people. Sometimes what seems clear and concise really is just vague. I appreciate your description and your exercise!