This is the abdominal secret trick that everyone should know. I tell people in my classes, when you walk down the street recruiting your abdominals this way, feel bad for the people walking past that they don’t know this secret!Just about all of us in this industry say it: “Navel to spine”. It’s a good generic cue for tapping into the deep abdominals that comprise an important portion of your core. But that cue is incomplete.I got a call from the one and only, Elizabeth Todd the other day. “I have your next stylebook post...you said the best cue I’ve ever gotten from you, you know...the crop top, hot snap, and the horizontal zipper.”When attempting to tap into the correct muscles for movement, sometimes imagery just works. In order to recruit the whole abdominal wall, from your ribs down to your pubic bone, try this: crop top, hot snap, horizontal zipper (go figure fashion cues worked for E.T.)Here’s how it works:

1. Pretend you are wearing a crop top and it is too tight and too inappropriate to wear to a party hosted at your in-laws. You try to take it off, but the only way you can release the band is by pulling in your ribs like mad. Try it! Make sure you exhale to pull in your ribs.
2. Pretend you are putting on your high waisted skinny jeans, you are fastening them first at the top, but they just came out of the dryer! That snap is hot. Fasten the snap and pull your belly button away from the snap...remember, it’s hot! Make sure you exhale.
3. On those same skinny jeans, pretend there is a horizontal zipper--it’s hot too! Zip over that hot zipper and hollow your lower belly away as you exhale. Meg Biram asked “why is the zipper horizontal?” Because that is the directional alignment of the muscle fibers for that deep layer, and thinking of hollowing and widening as you exhale gives you that extra recruitment.

Hold these ab tricks all at once and breathe with the side and back of your rib cage. Practice this daily, especially while you're walking. Why does this matter? We want to recruit the deepest layer of the abdominals because they are important in regulating abdominal pressure, supporting the spine, and for those of you who care, making your abs look HAWT.To experience your deep abdominals in functional movement, try out our HAWT Pilates, Pilates Mat and Pilates Boot Camp (cardio) programs here at Mind the Mat. 

A big thanks to artist, Marisha Goodman, yoga teacher and client at Mind the Mat, for these custom Ab Secret drawings!

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