I'm a little confused as to whether I am engaging my core correctly. I get the pelvic muscles, but having a problem with understanding the abdomen muscles. There are several ways I can engage my abdomen muscles. 1. I can suck my belly button in as hard as I can. Which I believe pulls my diaphragm in and up. 2. I can tense my muscles up as if I was going to cough. 3. I can also tense my muscles up as though I was preparing to be hit in the stomach. (very similar to number 2) I am not sure if any of them are correct? Also, when doing the swan exercise I find on peeling my chest up off the ground I am pushing my stomach muscles out to be tense and not inwards. One other thing I find occasionally is breathing in or out while my core is tense difficult. Ha ha and that's most of the time during the Pilates exercises. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am now starting my third week with run/walk but noticed my lower back especially right side is tight and kind of bothering me. I feel stiff and I wasn't expecting that. Did my daily maintenance today and will do a longer session tomorrow. Would cat/cow help?

Hi @Russ Walker is there an alternative to doing abdominal curls/100's without including table top. Just as a trial, because I would like to do a test to see if the table top and 100's are straining my hip flexors or not. I know I can just do them without the table top and just keep my knees bent and feet on the floor. But don't feel that would be working my core as hard as if I included the table top. Is there a modification I could do as a trial?

Hi Russ, I tried the morning mobility routine this morning. During the hip circles, as I rotated my leg outward, when my leg started to get close to the floor, I had a pop/crack in my hip. It’s hard to say exactly where, but it seemed deep inside, around where the leg and hip join. It was not painful, but it was very noticeable and happened consistently. The same area seems to act up a bit during squats. Do you have any suggestions for what could be causing that or what to do about it?

Not sure what it’s called but when you pull your belly button in …. So is this correct A. pull belly button in about 30% B. engage the muscles you would use if you were out on a walk after drinking 6 litres of water and there is no bathroom when you desperately need one? C. engage the muscles you would you use if ….. err… don’t want get too graphic here but I’m sure you can guess where I could go with this scenario 🙂 shall we call them the number 2 muscles ? D. Once your doing all these 3 things at the same time your trying to sort of pull them all together and up? Into one tight unit ? E. You try to do all that while breathing , staying in good alignment and doing the exercise ? Thanks