Everything is connected right? If that’s true, than do you ever think about how your upper body affects your legs when running? If not, then today’s video will shed new light on how everything is connected!
Our spine and rib cage are the anchor points for many of our core muscles. In order to utilize our core muscles properly, we need full motion of those anchor points. So…in order to fully engage our core muscles, we need enough mobility throughout our entire spine.
Also, think about it this way. As your legs swing back and forth in a reciprocal pattern, it creates rotation in your lower body. That rotation has to be counterbalanced, otherwise you’d lose your balance quick! So, your upper body has to counter-rotate. Because of this, if your upper body doesn’t rotate adequately, it’s going to restrict how freely your legs can swing back and forth.
On another note, if your core workouts don’t seem to be getting the results you want, consider whether mobility of your spine and rib cage is a factor. Again, all too often we try to isolate muscles when doing our ‘core’ workouts. But in order to get the full benefit, we need to make sure that we’re teaching the muscles how they’re supposed to fire and through all their ranges of motion.
At the risk of getting too geeky here…your core muscles will be inhibited by lack of proper motion in your spine and rib cage. No amount of crunches or planks will change this. As a supplement and primer for your workouts, think about doing these stretches first. Then you’ll get more bang for your buck!
We’ll cover this topic more in depth during the next facebook live session on wednesday. Please share this with a friend and give it a try every day for the next week and see how you feel!