A long time ago, when you were just a baby before you were able to walk, your inner core started developing.

You didn’t have an outer core yet.  Your inner core develops in stages and finally to the stage where it could stabilize enough to recruit your arms and legs to get up onto your feet.  (We will discuss HOW this happens in a future blog).

Then, you became a kid, your inner core is fully developed.  You ran, jumped off and climbed trees, did cartwheels and all sorts of fun things as your mobility muscles started to develop with skill.  You became in control of your mobility muscles and your movement.  Life Is Great!

Then, perhaps you were injured as a man, or had a baby as a woman, resulting in a neurological disconnect.  There is a part of your brain that will want to protect the body so that it shuts off the automaticity of movement.  The inner core fires automatically,  activated by the brain with Intention of movement.    This was your brains’ way of refusing to stabilize you and not wanting you to move in order to protect yourself until you recovered.

If you are a man and you are injured, your brain says, “Keep going, don’t stop”, this is hormonally driven.  The testosterone is talking, it is the hunter in you, so you keep training, but in a sports specific sort of way. Like doing crunches and abdominal exercises in hope to regain the ‘core’ strength you had.   Little did you know that your inner core was still there, anxiously waiting for recruitment to do its’ job and stabilize your spine so your mobility muscles can have complete freedom of movement.

You fail to retrain the inner core, so now you have become very good at using your buttocks and thighs to help stabilize you, or so you thought, which made your mobility muscles work overtime and function in a role that they are not meant to do, stabilize!   You became very good at clenching your butt, and moving without full capacity, not knowing you were borrowing from your moving muscles, and  taking away from their job.   You are also creating another pelvic floor with the clenching of your buttocks and that area becomes stiff and immobile. This leads to muscle tears, groin pulls and most of all, decreased power and less Athlete available for you or your trainers to train.

For a woman, after she has a baby, there is also the neurological disconnect to the body.   But what happens to a woman, is quite different.  The hormones of pregnancy will act on the pelvic floor fibrotic tissue allowing it to loosen up the joints in preparation for the birth of the baby.   After the baby, she also fails to retrain the inner core/pelvic floor and then she starts experiencing, protruding low abdominals that don’t go away.  Incontinence issues.  Sex drive decrease.  Eventually may lead to hip replacement or knee surgery.  She is trying to mend and hold up her organs with Kegel exercises and that just doesn’t cut it.  NO WAY the Kegel muscles can’t hold up the 40 1bs of internal organs, nor is it meant to.  The true floor of the core, the pelvic floors’ innermost layer is just hanging out..LITERALLY,  waiting to be awakended to support the 40 1bs, so the kegals, hips and knees don’t have to do yet aother job. 

The inner core is something that no one talks about.  I am privileged to share this with you.  It IS the missing link to true core development. This retraining of the core takes time and commitment.

Basically starting over on how to use your body correctly from the inside out.

In the long run…you will run long, and far, in anything you do.

It’s never too late to re-acquaint yourself to an Inner Truth.

When you are 90 years old and your mobility muscles aren’t quite as good as they used to be, you WILL be able to get off the toilet without using handrails. Because now you know about the inner core, it will prevail; it is what you used to get up in the first place!

Note:     You were 3 years old before your inner core was completely developed… this invisible but valuable and strongest muscle of your body takes time, commitment and patience to get re-acquainted.

I am your facilitator.

LOTS OF PINK BALLOONS hovering in the back seat of my car made it very hard to see the exit for Solana Beach. 

Our first Ladies Night included me and two other amazing Women Experts,  Chiropractor Dr. Kellee Rutley from Solana Beach and Acupuncturist Rebecca Underdown from La Jolla as we discussed women’s issues.  

The event was at BL Sports Bike and Sport in Solana Beach. Thank you to our gracious host Mark, owner of BL Sports. 

We mingled in the beginning sipping on wine and yummy snacks.  I walked around to meet some of the guests and asked what they thought ‘no core without the floor’ meant.   One gal pointed to the tile floor, another waved her hand over her middle and I also heard a ‘tucked pelvis’.  I knew then that these women needed this information more than ever.  An understanding of our amazing body.

I spoke to these Ladies for a half hour on pelvic floor anatomy and the differences between men and women.   I noticed an eagerness with the attendees, as they leaned forward listening carefully with wide eyes.  This led me to believe that they either think this information is amazing and long overdue OR they stared at me in shock as I demonstrated in an animated sort of way, what happens when women have an un toned pelvic floor that I call  ‘the Floppy Floor Syndrome’.

I have discovered that some of the women cyclists have a difficult time on the seat of the bike, putting a lot of pressure on the ‘pubic’ area making it uncomfortable for them to ride for a long periods of time.  The cushioned bike pants can help, but in the end, the inner core (pelvic floor awareness) can help them literally float above the seat with zero pressure ‘down there’, and creating an effortless ride!

One woman brought her baby to the event and to my surprise, became the perfect introduction to my talk as the baby wailed.  I loved it! I couldn’t have a better opener.  So I said “We began developing our true inner core at THAT age, when we were a baby..” 

We talked about core stuff and how the pelvic floor is like a club sandwich which has 3 layers. How to access the inner core, how doing Kegels (the outside layer) is virtually a waste of time and as effective as picking up a cantaloupe with a piece of cooked spaghetti.  The Kegel muscles aren’t strong enough nor meant to hold up your internal organs which is the job of the very top layer, the true inner core and the strongest muscle in your body, the one we are all now talking about. 

The women now know, there is a better and more efficient way to use their core as they became re-acquainted with an Inner Truth.  Their inner core, the existence and how to train the awareness.   The best way to address incontinence, falling organs, knee and hip issues as well as the low protruding abdomen, also indicative of an unresponsive and un toned pelvic floor. 

 I ended my talk with the finger demonstration, and how sexuality is enhanced as a result of a toned pelvic floor.  Of course that demonstration ALWAYS captures attention and wild waves of laughter, because it’s true!  Learn how to be snug down there and everyone benefits. WE got it; now let’s get the word out.

One attendee talked about her hysterectomy and accompanied low back pain which is common after this surgery and she wondered if this pelvic floor awareness training would still work for her as she has been feeling a little, empty and lost in the middle, like a big empty space.  ABSOLUTELY!

The main focus tonight was indeed a Journey to the Center of the Core.  Since there IS no core without the Floor.  

Thank you ladies for a wonderful night out! You are all so amazing! And I am here to help you be even more amazing from the inside out as we continue to explore your core!

Stay tuned for our next Ladies Night!     La Dolce Vita   

“No Core without the Floor” Pelvic Floor Workshop Information provided by and in Association with  www.themovementdoctor.com

I am so passionate about the core, especially the bottom, the pelvic floor.   That is the missing piece that most people don’t know about.  That is why I am here.  

 When your core fires appropriately, it frees up your voluntary (mobility) muscles, it keeps your body oriented in space, it means you’re an awesome surfer, or skate boarder doing flips in the air.  You have to be oriented in space for your legs to ‘ride the wave’. 

Like a jockey, their body appears to be floating above the horse.  Their legs only moving underneath along with the horse . Their pelvic floor has to be toned and able to move their legs underneath along with the horse.  Their eyes are fixated, and when you stay fixated your core fires.   The way your fire the core is visualization, fixation and intention.  The core is supposed to fire in one piece, you can’t fracture it off.  It’s about timing.  

Most people fire the outside to the inside, that’s what happens when we train the core.  We train the core like the whole torso,  I am not talking about that.  I am talking about the canister core, the one we have to learn before we can walk.  The one we use so we can be ‘continent’ before we can run.  You have to have control over your voluntary muscles.  They each do their own job and it takes a long time.  

We all learned it, we all did it, because we had to get upright at some point, and then delegate the core to the voluntary muscles, which means they are not available to do the voluntary stuff fully.  The first thing your body does when it gets an injury is that it ‘pops’ the balloon in the canister limiting your activity. 

So most people train to come back in a very sports specific way, they are not actually training in the right order.  They are training their compensation because you can’t train it, you have to facilitate it.   

Wow!  I first started bloggin a year and a half ago.. still living by the beach.. and Love Love Love each new day that I wake up near this beauty!! Such a Gift from God!
Looking back and re-reading those preious blog entries, I have realized that I have skipped a whole few ‘decades” of my life.  Just POOF!.. never mentioned.. not there.. ha!! Looks like between the age of 20 and 45 are completely left out !! What is that about?  is it Posting Passions?!

Posting two of the most influential and passionate times of my life!  Travel and Travel.  But I know I must back up a bit.  I tend to get ahead of myself!!

Will I address the huge gap at this time?  Nah.. I will get to that.. Its all boring stuff!!  you know.. Africa, Croatia, Ireland.. marriages, kids. Well now, I must add  that.

My son Matthew, now 27, is also one of the most inspirational and life changing experiences as well!!
Until  next time..Enjoy your wonderful God given Life and Love!

La Dolce Vita,