Exercise of the Month: Engage Your Core Through Your Feet

Everyone knows that exercising your core is important, but finding the elusive core isn't easy. How do you know when you're strengthening your core or if you're working on something else? This simple exercise will show you if you are on target or missing the mark.

1. 1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet comfortably close to your buttocks.
2. Push down through your feet to push yourself “up,” as if you were getting “taller.”
3. Push with your heels only and notice how the line of force travels up the back of your legs and hips. This is the chain of muscles that most people use most often, and it's not the core.
4. Push with the balls of your feet and notice how the line of force travels through the inside of your legs and up the front of your hips and spine. This is getting closer to the core.
5. Push equally with the balls of your feet and your heels. Notice how much is on the inside and how much is on the outside arches.
6. Push evenly with your heels and balls with 60% weight on the inside arch, 40% outside.
   

Now that you've found your core, notice how you can engage it through your feet in many activities. You can use your core in something as simple as sitting in a chair (notice where the weight is in your feet) or in various exercises like Pilates and weight-lifting. This is also the foundation to the Relax & Flow Undulation.