The term, core stability, is used by many exercise regimens these days. Does the concept have value? Well, to me, it does… a bit. To me, core stability is a quality that the core attains and maintains not by being directly strengthened by any particular exercises but rather as a result of moving already existing tension within the body to new places and releasing it from its current location. No direct strengthening is required to develop what I would call “core stability.” Direct strengthening exercises can cause freezing or fixing of breathing, of the shoulders, of anywhere in the core, which no self- respecting organism, which we should be, would want.

People who have been on this site, even for a short time, should know my simplest image, calm up and tense down. That image already states that you are not actually “getting rid” of any tension nor are you purchasing any calm from anywhere else. You are using your current unnecessary and inappropriate tension, moving it, and turning it into “intention.”

Simultaneously, you are taking that which is at ease in your body, maybe even flaccid, moving it, and turning it into “calm.” Try the simple image exercise for a moment and you should sense what I mean by tension becoming intention as it moves downward. This intention is not specific, like “I am going to buy an apple at the store” but it is a “readiness” of sorts. If you have “calmed up” as well as “tensed down,” you are experiencing increased “core stability,” calmness and readiness. (And, more than before, you are grounded and up at the same time.)

Here are some other simple-to-explain images that will also increase core stability without involving any direct strengthening. Act out as well as imagine the instructions within each sentence separately. Wait for a moment for any effect you might experience. Then go on to the next sentence/exercise:

Sit while imagining that you are standing.

Stand while imagining that you are sitting.

Tip your head down while imagining that your head is tipped up.

Tip your head up while imagining that your head is tipped down.

Clasp your arms around your chest while imagining that they are spread wide open.

Spread your arms wide open while imagining that they are clasped around you chest.

If you do not rush through this exercise but wait and allow some shifts that “want” to take place in your body to do so, you will see that a certain released “core stability” develops in your body… that is not fixed or frozen. Rather, the gracefulness in your movements emanate from the edges of your body (what I call the dorsal-ventral seam) and move inward and around your body only as far as is necessary. What is not needed in a movement remains stable… and at rest.