Fight the wobbles to Stay Centered

The core is the powerhouse of the body! Without a strong core it becomes difficult to stabilize the arms and legs. Your movement may begin to look more like a tube dude flailing around, rather than the fluid and controlled motions of dance. 

Often, when dancers work on their core, they focus on the muscles you can see: your 6-pack rectus abdominis and obliques. But the secret to a strong core lies deeper- your transverse abdominis. 

The Transverse Abdominis (TA) wraps around your trunk like a hug. It is the primary stabilizer for your entire body. Staying centered it is not about gripping and straining to force the balance, it is about engaging your TA to make tiny corrections to recover from instability to keep you upright. 

The easiest way to engage the transverse abdominis is to take a big belly breath and forcefully and quickly exhale. The TA is engaged to push the extra air out of your belly. You will notice, this style of core contraction you can continue to breathe through. 

Now taking a big huffy and puffy breathes may not be practical with every movement in dance. Try these techniques while you are dancing: 

1.     Nike Swoop your core- pull your belly button in towards your spine and up towards your head. 

2.     Be a marionette doll with a string pulling you up to the ceiling from the top of your head. 

Strengthen your Transverse abdominis with these exercises. The key to keeping your transverse abdominis engaged while the arms and legs move is to keep prevent the back from arching and keep the ribs and hips square.