By: Rachel Miller PT, DPT

Pilates is known for its incredible benefits in core strengthening—but is it possible to engage your core too much? The answer might surprise you.
The Core Should Be Functional, Not Just Strong
Our deep core system is designed to be reflexive, meaning it should automatically engage and relax as we move through life. For example, if someone bumps into you while you’re standing, your core should naturally activate to keep you balanced.
But what happens if your core muscles are already contracted all the time? They lose the ability to respond effectively. Just like any other muscle, the core needs to be able to both contract and relax to function optimally.
A Tight Muscle Is a Weak Muscle
Over the years, I’ve worked with many patients who habitually clench their glutes, suck in their stomach, or hold tension in their pelvic floor. While these patterns are common, they can actually lead to muscle weakness and dysfunction over time.
The causes vary:

• Glutes: Often tight due to posture—especially standing in a posterior pelvic tilt.
  
• Abdominals: Sometimes from a desire for a flatter stomach, but also as a subconscious reaction to pain or digestive discomfort.
  
• Pelvic floor: This one can be tricky since we can’t see it. Tightness here may result from pelvic or hip issues, past trauma, chronic stress, or the body’s attempt to stabilize when surrounding core muscles are weak.
  

How to Restore Balance
The first step toward a healthy, functional core is awareness.
Take a few moments throughout your day to check in with your body:

• Are you gripping your glutes or sucking in your stomach?
  
• Do you notice tension in your pelvic floor?
  
• If so, can you consciously let it go?
  

Try adjusting your posture or focusing on slow, deep breathing to encourage your muscles to relax.
Once you can release unnecessary tension, you can start rebuilding balanced strength. If you struggle to feel your glutes or deep abdominals engage during exercise, it might be because they’re already “on” all the time. Gentle release work or mindful breathing can help reset your system so your muscles can start firing appropriately again.
Contract and Relax
Here’s a simple example: If you flex your bicep right now and then try to contract it even more, you can’t. The muscle is already shortened. You would need to straighten your elbow first to relax it before you can contract it again.
The same principle applies to your core. For your muscles to activate effectively, they must first be able to let go.  As you move through your Pilates practice (and your day), remember this simple truth: A functional core isn’t one that’s always tight... it’s one that knows when to engage and when to release.

By: Rachel Miller PT, DPT

The core is our center.  It stabilizes the trunk while arms and legs are moving. It not only includes our abdominals, but also our back and scapular musculature, pelvic floor, and gluteal/hip muscles.  The core is supposed to help you with daily activities.  The more strenuous an activity or exercise is, the more the core should help.  Unfortunately, when we have pain or surgery in this area, it affects the core muscles and can cause weakness and the core to not function optimally.  The good news is that the core can be retrained, and all of these signs of core weakness can be improved.

1. You have neck or back pain
While there are many causes of neck and back pain, core weakness can be one cause.  Pain with prolonged sitting or standing, or pain with change in positions such as sit to stand or rolling over may indicate core weakness as a contributing factor.  

 2. You tend to slouch
Sitting or standing for long periods of time can be challenging.  Our postural muscles are endurance muscles- meaning they need to work a little bit, but for a long period of time.  None of us have perfect posture all of the time.  That is fine, variety is good for us.  But if you are in a slouched position for hours every day, that leads to a forward head position, pec/chest tightness and excessive flexion of the upper back.  This can lead to back and neck pain as well as core weakness.

3. You have poor balance
Our core and especially the muscles in our hips/pelvis are important for balance.  If these muscles are weak, your balance will be affected.  Often one side of your body is weaker or has more difficulty with balance so see how you feel with a single leg balance test.  As we get older, balance becomes more challenging so incorporating balance training into your workout routine is important. 

4. Core exercise or heavy lifting are difficult
It seems obvious but if you struggle with core exercises, you likely have a weak core.   The only way to get better is to practice.  But keep in mind that the deeper core muscles that provide stability should be working with our outer muscles that our movers so working with someone that can teach proper form and muscle activation is highly recommended.  Do you tend to hold your breath with exercise?  If the answer is yes that is a common compensation for core weakness.
Remember that your core is meant to help you with real life, not just core exercise.  When you lift a heavy bag of groceries, do you feel your stomach muscles automatically tighten?  That is what we want- a reflexive core.  If you find heavy lifting or strenuous activities are difficult, or if you don’t feel your core engaging, that is something that you can change.

5. You leak urine with sneezing, laughing, coughing, jumping or exercising
This is a sign that your pelvic floor muscles are not doing their job.  Either there is a pelvic floor muscle issue, or your deep core system is not working together properly.  If you are leaking even just a little bit, even just sometimes, while it is common, it is not normal and pelvic floor Physical Therapy can help.
You may now be thinking what is the best way to strengthen my core?   I believe that it takes some body awareness and education, along with exercise with proper form.  Pilates does exactly this, and our Pilates intro package is the best starting place.  It gives you access to over 2 hours of educational exercise videos called Core Connections that focus on teaching you proper form and core activation as well as core exercises for the entire core system.  The intro package also includes two private Pilates sessions- either in our studio or virtually so you can get feedback and guidance from an expert.  
 

by Dr. Cathy Malloy & Dr. Rachel Miller

It's summer! Many of you are likely busy in your yards gardening or performing other lawn maintenance including weeding. Repetitive bending and lifting can lead to back pain or stiffness. Here are a few tips to keep you feeling good so you can enjoy your time outside.
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When it comes to gardening we want to remember good body mechanics.  The closer you are to what you are pulling, the less strain it will be on your back.  Instead of standing and leaning over something closer to the ground, try kneeling (either on both knees or one and then switch sides) on pads. Instead of repetitively bending forward (spinal flexion), perform a hip hinge.

To hip hinge, pretend you are holding a light stick against your back. Your head, mid-back, and bottom would all be touching the stick with a little space behind your low back and neck due to the natural curve of the spine. This is called a neutral spine position. When you bend forward, the three points of contact should remain touching the stick. If the bottom part lifts away it is because you are flexing your lumbar spine/low back. If the middle part lifts away, it is because you are overarching your mid-back. Both of these can contribute to tightness in your back muscles which may contribute to stiffness in the spine and possibly back pain when performing this motion repetitively, especially when performing strenuous tasks like pulling and lifting. Hip hinging will optimize your core and glute activation so those muscles can do the work instead of your back. If you are a visual learner, watch this video of a standing hip hinge or this video of a kneeling hip hinge.

Lastly, work smarter not harder. Invest in a hand weeder so it is easier to get the roots, which will also decrease the probability of the weed returning.  Also try to pull weeds on days that the soil is soft. If it hasn't rained in a while try watering the soil first to make pulling the weeds easier on your body. Happy gardening!